Eng Seng Restaurant

I don’t eat a lot of crab but the few times we’ve been the black pepper crab has been addictive. A visiting friend from the UK left a very happy man. Don’t expect brilliant service — the aunties and uncles are brusque at best and don’t have time for you with the amount of customers they have — but that black pepper sauce makes up for it.

this may or may not be the best pepper crab in singapore, but it’s definitely the best i’ve had! and i love me some good black pepper crab.
got there at 5pm on a weekday to avoid the queue. were seated immediately and maybe 4 other tables were filled. got two black pepper crabs (~$ 65) for the 2 of us, as well as some sambal kangkong. while i’ve probably had better crab at some point (don’t get me wrong, tho, it was still great), the sauce was crazy good. flavors, spice, sweetness were all spot on and we nearly licked the plate clean. portions were perfect as we were stuffed by the end.
SO EFFING GOOD.

Woot! I never knew this place existed, but apparently, the black pepper crab is famous.
Thankfully, the food did not disappoint.
Sambal Kang Kong — Sambal is flavorful. Good dish
Mee Goreng — Yummy! This is the Chinese style mee goreng. Generous serving of shrimp and sotong. Great staple.
Fried youtiao fishcake with mayonnaise — good
Black pepper crab — This was super good. The flavor was strong, and the crab was meaty. We ordered 4 crabs and they were all meaty with lots of roe. Yum yum yum. Finger licking good!
The «restaurant» is in a coffee shop, so definitely lower your standards for hygiene and ambience!
Also, there is apparently a long line usually but we went on a rainy Friday evening before 6pm so there was no wait!

Holy cow. Probably the best meal I’ve ever had in my life.
Service was typical for an Asian place (excuse my American commentary), but the servers were keen enough to figure out that we were tourists. The server told us that she would take care of the ordering since we were tourists and knew nothing. But boy did she ever take care of us.
The black pepper crab was probably the most delicious thing I’ve ever tasted, I still have dreams about it. The noodles and fried rice were better than any place here in the United States. I’m pretty sure the vegetables were plucked out of the ground earlier that morning.
In summary, what Americans should dream about when they go to Singapore.

Best pepper crab!!! If you don’t want to queue order for take out!

Every time when Mr. Q and I visit Singapore and we have this bad craving for Sri Lanka chili crab, we will go to «No signboard seafood» at Raffles.
Friends come up with I know this best crab place in Singapore, you should try it. We thought, you guys know Singapore better than us. We were like «sure, of course». And we regret it since.
We arrived at 7pm, the host lady kept shouting to my friends that this place will be closed at 8:30pm. WTH? What kind of hawker/​restaurant closes at 8:30?
The host lady kept shouting at my friends” what do you want to order? We closed at 8:30pm. Are you going to order? If you want to order now, you have to look that clock on the wall while eating, because we don’t even box it for you at 8:10pm. Can you order now?“
After my friends kept telling us to stay because of their amazing crab, Mr. Q and I hold our temper and ordered black pepper crab, seafood on the spinach, steamed fish, sweet spicy shrimp, garlic vegetable.
The food comes at 7:50.
—Black pepper crab was thin and lean. There is no meat in the leg. ²⁄₆ of the chest is empty. The black pepper is overpowering everything. I couldn’t taste much of the crab.
—Steamed fish is tasty, but overcooked and cold.
–+ garlic vegetable was tasty, but the vegetable were overgrown. The texture is chewy.
+++ Seafood over the spinach is tasty and juicy.
—Sweet spicy shrimp is overcooked and overly sweetened.
And we finished our entire meal at 8:20pm. Because they were «trowing» us out.
Our table were halve in the hawker and halve on the street. they started close the shutter right beside us. And the guy bangs the metal wrench loudly on each empty table. It felt like eating in a Hongkong mafia movie.
There are plenty tasty local food here with good service.
I will not recommend this place to any of my friends.

These are, without a doubt, the best pepper crabs I have ever had. Absolutely delicious sauce, and the crabs are fresh as well.
However, the crabs are pretty expensive: we paid S$ 63 for two, and they were both quite small. In addition, as we had taken our food away, we opened the box to discover that we were missing two claws! Looks like they were either careless or perhaps not very honest, but the pepper crabs were delicious enough for us to overcome the initial disgruntlement.
We ordered a couple of other dishes, namely noodles and you tiao, but were not very impressed with either. Nevertheless, I am giving Eng Seng 4 stars because the pepper crabs are totally worth it, although note that this will probably be the only stellar dish you are getting.
If you are intending to eat in their coffeeshop, be warned that Joo Chiat Place makes parking a real challenge.

The black pepper crab here is by far the best I’ve had in my life. Unlike most crabs outside, it is not dry but has a delicious dark black pepper sauce left at the bottom but no buns unfortunately. You can order bread if you’d like to dip it in the sauce. Fragrant, spicy, sweet and savoury, the black pepper crab was fresh and all too memorable. The mee goreng is quite unlike what you’d get outside too and although not as spicy, it is just as good. We had stir fried kailan and youtiao as accompaniment. The kailan was still crisp and crunchy and I enjoyed the vegetables so much that I could’ve finished the whole plate. Indeed, the food here is excellent.
Unfortunately, the service here is also famously rude. The auntie is infamous for being somewhat aggressive in taking your order, leaving not much choice or room to think and it is clear you’ve overstayed your welcome when they turn off the lights. They close at 8.45 pm usually, so be sure to be there early or prepare to take away.

Good Black Pepper Crab and Mee Goreng (ma lai mian) but terrible everything else.
Hence the so so rating.
I like food but after going to this place twice and getting the same shitty service… I’m really not keen on lining up anytime soon. Yes, if you don’t get there early, chances are you’ll have to queue.
I find the best way to handle the rude people who serve you food and take your orders is to be just as rude. That way you get mutual respect. If the guy yells at you, «WHat do you want!!!» you gotta yell back (no vulgarities though, just a sorta angry attitude is enough) «HEY I WANT _​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​. And I“M HUNGRY!»
It worked for me.

Come here for the best black pepper crab in Singapore. Seriously. This no frills Zhi char restaurant is known for the spicy and sweet black pepper sauce that whets the appetite and leave you wanting more.
I’ve been eating here for year the standard has always remained consistent! Crabs are fresh and perfectly cooked. The flesh remains sweet and tender, with the pepper sauce complementing it as giving it a punch!
They charge by the kilo (including shell), and prices here are very fair, and when I went recently, we ordered 7 crabs and other side dishes and the bill amounted to just over $ 200 excluding drinks.
You wouldn’t be able to miss out on the grumpy lady in charge of seating arrangements. She used to hassle customers to sit down and make their orders quickly, shouting orders loudly across the room. I got so offended the first time I came years ago, but I guess I’ve gotten used to it, and the food really is that good. She’s also less grumpy these days, but she still yells a lot! And she will chase you away if you aren’t done eating by the time she wants to close.
Service is TERRIBLE, but fast and efficient, even when the whole place is packed out. Be sure to head there early to avoid disappointment. Their crabs are pretty much sold out by about 7plus, 8 in the evening, and people start queuing from 5pm in the late afternoon. Do take note that they WILL start closing shop whenever they sell out of crabs.
The overall cleanliness of the place is pretty low, and toilets are wet and filthy. It’s noisy and the other stalls are almost always closed in the evenings because it’s just impossible to compete with them. But I promise you, it’s worth the trouble!