Ah Hoi’s Kitchen is located deep inside level 4 of Trader’s hotel, so although they are so close to Orchard Road, they aren’t the easiest restaurant to find. If you’re not familiar with hotel restaurants, this may be the first time you’re hearing of them. But they’ve been around for a while now, and have also picked up Wine & Dine Singapore’s “Top Restaurant” Award.
They are known for serving up local Singaporean dishes in their casual poolside setting. Although their dress code states “smart-casual”, the ambience here is very laid-back so its best to just wear something comfortable otherwise you’ll feel overdressed.
Ah Hoi’s Kitchen recently came up with a new menu of Sri Lankan crabs prepared in 12 different ways. These crab dishes include Crab Congee, Udang Geragau Crab, Crab in Coconut Juice and their Prickly Piquant “Ma La” crab!
I love crabs so I was super pumped to check them out. I was also running out of recommended places for crabs and I was sick of telling my friends “just go jumbo lor“. There had to be somewhere else in Singapore which serves good crab right?
We started off with Singapore Pork Satay and a platter of man-food. No complaints here, it tasted like good food you’ll expect from a 5 star hotel. But the only thing on my mind were the crabs to come.
The first crab was lightly flavoured, steamed with ginger and Hua Diao Jiu. It was refreshing not to eat a crab saturated in seasoning for once so food purists would be all over this. It brought out the natural flavours of the crab so our first impressions were great. The Sri-Lankan crabs “sourced from a secret supplier” were also super meaty.
Up next was the dry version of the Crab Beehon. I was never a big fan of this combination and I felt the noodles lacked the crab flavour. It was still easily a 7~8 / 10 though, just that the other crabs were even better than this one so in light of that this has to get less love.
The salted egg crab was my favourite of the night. It was so good that one of the other diners started licking the shell clean! (You know who you are!) What makes it so special is how its cooked in salted egg yolk sauce as well as chilli padi, kaffir lime and curry leaves. The taste of the salted egg yolk doesn’t feel so overwhelming because its neutralised by a moderate level of spiciness.
This combination produced a fantastic burst of flavours I had not experienced before in my mouth. If you’re bored of eating just chilli or black pepper crabs, and have not tried Salted Egg Crab before – this is where you want to start.
The last crab was flavoured with sichuan pepper and I would have very much preferred if they just called it the “Ma La” crab because that’s what it tasted like. This was the dish I was most excited for because I couldn’t possibly imagine how crab and “Ma La” could go well together.
It was wok fried with pickled garlic and citrus salt and the numbness wasn’t overwhelming. I loved spicy stuff and the novelty of it all so I really took to this dish. Just be warned though that it is very spicy. It was my second favourite crab dish of the night, but that’s just me!
The Chendol here was just okay, the Mango Crepe was better. But be sure to get their local drinks here like the Calamansi and Sour Plum which we found great.
The dessert was okay and the drinks and other local food here were good. But the crabs were EXCELLENT. And we only tried 4 of the 12! I really enjoyed this meal and I’m happy to have discovered a new place to recommend people to go for crabs.
We hear Chilli Crab is still the most popular dish because I guess that’s all that ang mohs who stay at Trader’s Hotel know how to order. So forget that. If you’re here, you want to be trying these special crab dishes you can’t have anywhere else in Singapore. My top pick would be the exceptional Salted Egg Crab.
Ah Hoi’s Kitchen offers three promotional crab menus, each featuring four new crab dishes. The menus will change every three weeks.
Crabs weighing up to one kilogram are priced at S$7.20 per 100 grams while those above are priced at S$9.20 per 100 grams. Prices are subject to a 10 per cent service charge and the prevailing government tax.
Phone: 6831-4373
Opening hours: 12 – 2.30 pm | 6.30 – 10.30 pm
Address: 4/F Traders Hotel, 1A Cuscaden Rd, 249716 Singapore
This post was brought to you by Trader’s Hotel.
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