Keng Eng Kee Seafood restaurant at Alexandra Village used to be my family’s favourite Cze Char place. It has been a while since our last visit here so we decided to drop by for dinner last week.

Besides the good food, some of the regulars probably go to Keng Eng Kee Seafood because the Zi Char Stall has an air-conditioned dining area just opposite the coffee shop.

It was a tough call between the Chilli Crab and Salted Egg Yolk Crab, but eventually we went for the latter as it was apparently a signature dish of Keng Eng Kee restaurant.

The sauce of the Salted Egg Yolk Crab ($39/kg) was very thick, and had a subtle spicy taste. I probably had better salted egg yolk crabs elsewhere before, but this was pretty decent.

We wanted to have Hot Plate Beancurd but it was not available on Keng Eng Kee’s menu. But it was not so bad since the Claypot Beancurd was a good replacement.

The Sambal Kangkong was well done. It was spicy but not to the extent of being tongue-numbing. The small portion comes at $6.

I was quite disappointed that Sweet and Sour Pork is also not available under the Pork section. But there are interesting options like Golden Pork Ribs, Coffee Pork Ribs and Claypot Pork Liver to choose from. We were intriguied by the Claypot Pork Liver as not many cze char restaurants serve it.

Just look at all the oil used to cook the liver! The Claypot Pork Liver ($8) is definitely not for the faint-hearted. But it sure was tasty.

Prawn Paste Chicken is a very popular zi char dish and there are different variations for it. I’ve had very good Har Cheong Kai before, so I was actually looking forward to the ones at Keng Eng Kee. Unfortunately, the Har Cheong Kai ($8) here was quite disappointing: the chicken was very small, and I felt that the shrimp paste marination was rather weak. I’d probably go for the Crispy Roasted Chicken or the Marmite Chicken next time.

I was quite impressed with the waiting time at Keng Eng Kee Seafood. The Cze Char restaurant was almost packed when we were there for dinner, yet they managed to serve most of the dishes within 10 minutes.

The food at Keng Eng Kee Seafood was pretty good and it was a bonus that everything came quickly. Prices are what you’d expect from a typical zhi char place, but the portions served were slightly smaller.

Singapore Food Blog Review
Keng Eng Kee Seafood
Blk 124 Bukit Merah Lane 1
#01-136 Alexandra Village Singapore
Tel: +65 6272 1038

Operating Hours:
Daily: 11.30am – 2pm, 5pm – 11pm

The most amazing thing about having a food blog, is knowing the other food bloggers. Besides the food blogs in Singapore, I got to meet up with the KL food bloggers during my trip up north last year, and when I went for a holiday in Australia during December, the good Sydney food bloggers hosted and brought me around for the best food in Sydney.

When Howard & Linda (eatshow&tell) told me that they were stopping-over in Singapore for a few hours before flying to Hong Kong, I knew that I had to bring them to have our famous Chili Crab.

It’s a tough decision trying to choose a place, since there’s so many restaurants claiming to serve the best chili crab in Singapore. I finally decided on No SignBoard restaurant because it has always been one of my family’s favorite place for crabs. As there were 6 of us, the staff advised that we probably need two crabs, so our second choice was the Salted Egg Yolk crab ($40 per kg). It was an irony since No SignBoard is famous for their white pepper crabs in Singapore, but I’m not a fan of pepper. Besides, I know I want the salted egg yolk, and I wanted it immediately. You know, like now!

Drop-dead gorgeous.

Look at that, the golden cluster of the salted egg yolk! I licked off the salted egg yolk coat on the crab pincers, and it simply disintegrated. The sauce reminded me of the salted egg yolk in custard buns, both equally as good but this one was slightly saltier, and very fragrant.

Hand over your passports, nobody leaves Singapore without trying Chili crab.

Photogenic it is not, but in the mouth, one struggles for words, and everything is forgiven. There’s different renditions of Chili crabs, with each claiming to be better than the other; so how do you actually define what’s a good Chili Crab? I like it slightly sweet, and spicy. I like to dip my beloved deep-fried mantou into the thick and awesome gravy, pour a whole bowl of it onto the white rice and finish everything.

Six deep-fried Mantou please, no wait, make it twelve. Okay, give us another six more. Oh those incredibly delicious, tiny devils.

Coming from a poor chili eater, I find the Sambal Kangkong extremely spicy. Herein lies the question: do we like sambal kangkong because it is hot, or do we like it hot so we like sambal kangkong?

Anyway, I like my sambal kangkong to be hot even though I can’t take chili very well. And the one here, is damn hot.

I’m not sure about you, but it seems to me that people always order Cereal prawns not so much because of the prawns, but rather they like the crispy cereals. I’m not going to talk about the niffy gritty part on how to peel a prawn, forget every single thing that I’ve said – just swallow the whole prawn.

Without a doubt, Chili Crab is the face and ambassador of the Singapore food scene, and No Signboard has the best chili crab in Singapore – because I like them. And no, we are not going to start the controversial debate on ‘where is the best chili crab in Singapore’. Whichever crab you like, is the best crab.

If you have hang around for long enough, you’d know that I’m not a big fan of steamboat, so it’s always an once-a-year thing for Chinese New Year reunion dinner. Most reputable fine-dining Chinese restaurants are probably fully booked by now; so instead of having steamboat, how about Seafood for Chinese New Year? Sounds like a plan to me.

Restaurant Review
No Signboard Seafood
414 Geylang Road
Tel: +65 6842 3415
Daily 12pm – 1am