Sin Huat Seafood Restaurant: Inside the Mind of a Food Nazi
With Amagada
Crab Bee Hoon $63 One big crab
I finally plucked up the courage to visit Sin Huat Seafood Restaurant! It was an appointment with inevitability. How can any self-professed foodie not visit this infamous restaurant at least once in his lifetime? For those of you who don't know of its infamy, let me just give you a quick backgrounder.
I first heard of this restaurant a few years ago when Anthony Bourdain featured it in his tour of Singapore. Then, a doctor friend of mine told me how he brought a group of his junior doctors there and the meal cost $800! Being an "Old School" Doc, he paid the bill since it is the privilege for the Senior Docs to pay for the Juniors.... a great tradition which I hope will continue to be practised. After a while I also heard over the forum that the owner was a bit of a Food Nazi who insists on taking orders for the food himself and refusing to serve food to people who have ordered food from a nearby store! So it was a combination of exorbitant prices and the chance to be abused that prevented me from eating there for such a long time.
However, curiosity continue to haunt me until finally an anonymous commenter wrote in to say that he paid $58 for the crab and it was seriously shiok. That was the last straw! I had to experience this infamous crab bee hoon for myself!
Scallops 8 pieces $25
When we got to the restaurant, a young lady instructed us to have a seat and wait for the owner to come out to take orders. Of course, we obeyed her orders without questioning. After 15 mins, the owner, Danny finally came out and took our orders. I had already been cautioned beforehand to order only the crab bee hoon as they have fish here that cost $200 per kg. So I told Danny I wanted the crab bee hoon only since this was our supper. But he told us that we should also order the scallops to "eat for fun". Not wanting invoke his anger, I Kuai Kuai (obediently) agreed.
Another 15 mins later, the scallops were served. Ohhhh, they were good. The sauce was very shiok and they use live scallops which you don't readily see in seafood restaurants. Amagada loved it! 4.5/5
After still another 15 mins, the Crabs finally arrived! The verdict: Shiok. Best crab bee hoon so far! Aside from the smaller claw being slightly atrophied, the rest of the crab was solid. The Bee Hoon was not too dry nor too wet and had wonderfully soaked in the flavours of the crab, ginger and that mysterious stock. It was excellent BUT, I had expected it to be even more mind blowing after all the hype. Can't give it a 4.75, but certainly a very strong 4.6/5
After we finished up the crab, the Lao Ban Niang actually came up to chat with us. For the wife of a Food Nazi, she actually turned out to be very nice! She started showing us a video of Anthony Bourdain when he came back to the stall to eat when he was not filming. So that's how I managed to get a pic of the Bourdain in the shop! Sitting at the table where he sat might be as close as I ever get to the Bourdain!
When I started to ask the Lao Ban Niang a bit more about the history of the store, she asked if I wanted to talk to the Danny instead?
A conversation with the Food Nazi himself? Was it possible? Heck, I have already eaten the crab bee hoon, so the most he could do to me was ban me from the restaurant for life and charge me a huge bill for my meal. Oh well, I guess I will have to offer myself as a sacrificial lamb for the sake of a good story.
I think Danny must have been in a good mood that day.
It turned out that our Food Nazi started life as a humble pig farmer and was forced to open a restaurant when the Goverment shut down the last of the local pig farms in Punggol in the early nineties. Out of desparation, he opened a restaurant and proceeded to learn how to cook. He started by doing the usual Cze Char stuff and was soon attracting a good following. One day, a patron told him that he did not want to order both a crab dish as well as a Hor Fun and asked if he could just combine the two together. I think you can guess the rest.
Our pig farmer perfected his recipe and submitted it for the AsiaFood competition in 1997. Thus was born the legendary Crab Bee Hoon.
Well, the Food Nazi turned out to be quite a nice guy after all! Feeling the positive vibes, I asked why he had such a bad reputation. It turned out that he has had his share of Customer Nazis as well. He told me that sometimes they had customers who offer to pay $300 for a $400 bill because they did not have enough money and they needed to take a taxi home. The reason he refused to sell his food to customers who have ordered from other stalls was that there had been occasions when customers would cancel their orders after eating the other food since they had to wait for his.
Conclusion
The hype and infamy really added extra value to an already very tasty dish! It just goes to show that even bad service can sometimes become a positive marketing strategy! At least it did for this blogger!
Sin Huat Seafood Restaurant659/661 Geylang Road
Junction of Geylang Lor 35
67449755
Open for dinner 6pm to 12 midnight
73 comments:
may i know ultimately how much have you paid for that meal?
i can't believe SIngaporeans actually pay 300-400 for a crab meal esp when MOST singaporeans are very anal about pricing and goes for "value for money" cheap thrills.
Wow. I want to come to Singapore now!
$63 for crab bee hoon is reasonable. I paid $80+ for a large crab bee hoon at No. 3 Crab Delicacy, and the crab was slightly larger than Sin Huat's.
Just don't order the "soo mei" fish and you'll be alright.
U went into the lion's den and found a cup. I hav to save some dollars before I venture there.
sori spelling mistake shud be 'cub'
I've had meals at Sin Huat before. Acutally if u look at the size of the crab they serve u and taste the dish, u know its worth the price. I had this giant fleshy crab beehoon dish for like 80 sgd. The beehoon was fab, soaked in all the juices of the crab and stock with plenty of mushrooms in it. Their prawns are costly, I think that dish alone I had previously that had like maybe 20 garlic steamed prawns for 90sgd. The stir-fry baby kailan was good and reasonably priced. I've tried their black pepper crayfish [quite good, falvourful but not overpowering], steamed large sotong with roe inside [very fresh, tender maintained all the natural taste].
Crab and Scallops cost $90 feeds 2
$90 to feed 2 persons... Pretty exp for a meal.... Hmmm..... but since it's legendary... I guess must try once in a lifetime!
So its a draw with Heng Kee then. But Heng Kee is cheaper, so its the winner?
I think you are right Mr Anonymous. I have adjusted the ratings to 4.6
actually for me.. i wouldn't mind e price at all.. as long as e food is great!
but of course, not everyday meals!! i love to eat, so visiting these "high-ends" places at least once a month should be reasonable for me!
i dun think price is a problem as long as e food is great n worth e price u pay (n of course e company u have plays a part too!!) =)
i do spend around tat amt ($90) sometimes in restaurants by myself!! (cos i eat a lot!!) wahahaha =p
does he do takeaway?
If my gf kisses me or fondles me at the table when he comes out to take my order, will Danny the Crab Bee Hoon Nazi kick me out of the Restoran just like how Soup Nazi kicked Jerry Seinfeld out?
maybe you should go to mellben at Ang mo kio. Much cheaper! And not too bad too.
Sin Huat 4.6 Heng Kee 4.5, but you have to pay 80% more at Sin Huat and you only get 0.1pt more. Worth the trouble and money?
mellben sells this style of crab bee hoon?
Sin Huat does takeaways, but its not any cheaper. Plus they dun really like to take phone orders, they prefer u go down make the order and cme back later.
And you have to pay first when you order take-away. He claims that some people play him out and never come back to collect the crabs.
Did you try the crayfish? It's fantastic.
Oh yeah the last time I went, I had to wait for an hour before the food started to be served! I think that was a weekend evening. It wasn't packed, but about 3 tables were occupied (and more started to come later). I reached the place about 7plus. So if you don't wanna wait too long, better go earlier or pick a weeknight or go in the day. =P
My husband and I love that place, even though the wait can be excruciatingly painful. Once I went on the day of his wedding... was wondering why all tables were covered with pink cloth.. haha.. thought change image. But the groom still cooked for me.. and I was living in HK then, flew down esp to eat his crab beehoon...
Well 2 dishes for $90 beats eating durians at a certain store at Geylang that cost $100+ for 4 pieces.
Sorry, side track abit hor....Go to 717 Trading along Yio Chun Kang road (near Serangoon Singapore Post) for durians! Look for Ming Heong. Or let me know, i give you his mobile. Tell him it's from me....
can i know, for the $63 crab bee hoon, is it too much for a couple ?
I plan to visit with my wife.
The two of us finished the plate plus scallops. Bee hoon all gone!
Looks absolutely delicious but I am sure its also quite painful.... Hmmm, I seriously should tag along on your next food hunting escapade!
I think if you are really someone who does enjoy food. This crab is really worth trying it. The amount of effort spent from frying the garlic, the fried onion bits, and the small chili slice enhance the flavour of the crab. I had try melben but their freshness for crab could not compared to these where the flesh is easily pull out and they are quite heavy on using MSG. Anyway to save cost, you can go down as one person to eat the fabulous crab :P And do go on weekdays or earlier to escape from the crowd. The last time i went, it took me 1 hr plus for my dishes to arrive.
Nobody mentioned that the coffee shop also has a famous Braised Duck rice store! Also very expensive like the sea food. Once I tak bao one duck, split into 2 packets with three packets of rice and it costs me $42! But what to do, that store, imho, is the best in S'pore and JB.
hey how about trying mellben restaurant at AMK? i love the butter crabs!!!
ok so I'm seriously confused now. I went to either one of these one late night and 3 of us were 'ker-tok' close to $200! Scared oredi!
Hi coolinsider, so we meet again!
Wah lao!! The next time I hear about Anthony Bourdain I will scream!
You people are pathetic!! You need a white man who knew NOTHING about Singaporean food to tell you what is good in your own country! This is preposterous! Have you no pride at all???
He may be a famous food critic but he only relied on tips from locals to try out stuff here, not as if he lived here for years and tried and picked those which are really good.
Come on, have a bit of common sense and sense of shame!!
This ang moh is well known so he was mentioned by the media many times.It is common sense or knowledge that when he was in Spore he was guided by our very home grown Food Guru Mr. Seetoh. Everyone get tips from friends, food blogs or makan gurus like Seetoh and the veteran @ makansutra forum.Share your view if you have found good food.
Still my favorite place (but not been there since my last visit-story below),
If you ever revist the place, try the GongGong or whelk with its honey garlic sauce, was addicted to it once, i 'tarbao' some back to figure out what was in it. The food standard can vary depending on danny's mood. Sometimes unluckily I went when he was in a bad mood, you can taste it in his dishes.
One traumatic experience: had wanted to try the famous duck rice stall next door for the longest time, un-usually it was still open at 6pmish they usually close early, lunch is usually packed. Tried to order from the duck seller, the guy quietly whispered in mandarin, 'I don't dare to sell to you,'
I asked why,
'you better go wait for your food otherwise it won't be served to you' Quite shock with his response, i thought he was kidding!
The lau ban niang from next door was eyeing me from the corner. She actually stood up and stared!
So i waited for my other dishes to be served, before going over to the duck rice stall again. Figuring out i should get some duck while waiting for the crab which usually takes 1 hour to be served after your other dishes. since only one dish left, what harm trying!
The duck seller was still reluctant to sell the duck! not even for a 'tar bao'
'I really can't sell it to you!'
The lau ban niang from Sin Huat even came up to me with this huge warning. You can't buy from the stall! Won't serve you the other dish!
Up to now, i still can't figure out the logic. I'm almost thru my dishes, what's wrong with trying out some other dishes from other stalls.
Havnt been back since, the rest of the makan kakis were pretty traumatised by the experience.
I did explain why Danny did not want to sell his food if you ordered from the duck rice seller in the post!
they sell curry fish head in the afternoon. its quite good too. The other dishes are equally good, unfortuately, its not very warm.
Order half boiled egg there! its fantastic! the best half boiled egg i ate so far
Finally.
I visited the 'concentration camp' with two pals.
First up, the simple dish of baby kailan. But it's not easy to fry vegetables till it's as tasty as this! Friend commented that the chef's skill "nei4 you3 qian2 kun1" (loosely translated, it probably means - 'got more hidden skill; to be unleashed')
We waited. And waited. And waited. Somehow Heng Kee few doors down seemed more appealing because shorter waiting time and cheaper, no?
After being tortured by hunger for a good 45 minutes, we heard the buzzer (like those in prison) and knew that our torture was coming to an end.
Lo, and behold - the legendary Crab Bee Hoon waiting to be devoured by 3 vultures.
Damn, it was well worth the wait.
It was almost everything I had imagined crab bee hoon to be. Huge crabs packed with meat(though the pincers were a bit disappointing), full of rich orange roe guaranteed to burst your arteries, with the tastiest bee hoon soaked in gravy and fried condiments like mushroom, garlic; and we'd like to think the key ingredient to both dishes are the fried onions. Fwah!
We had the bee hoon with 2 crabs totalling 2.5kg - $100 with a plate of baby kai lan - $8. Had wanted to order the scallops as well but we din wanna wash plates. Or the algae-filled tanks (we were wondering if that's the secret to the seafood's great taste LOL) =x
The only complaint? We lapped up the whole dish too clean and too proper. MORE BEE HOON PLS!!!
Somehow, we din feel so 'kek sim' with our wallets emptied. And we'd not hesitate to be willingly 'tortured' again at Sin Huat.
We can already die peacefully.
Finally. =)
I tried the bee hoon crab a few weeks ago. Overall, I personally dun find it really that fantastic!
I visited Sin Huat a few years ago and had the most horrible experience. Before the trip down to the restaurant, I had never heard of his 'Nazi' behaviour nor the restaurant itself (so I doubt his claim to have the best crab beehoon in sg), only that he had been featured in Anthony Bourdain's program. It was more like trying a place out because we were not convinced that some semi-famous angmoh chef can rate it as one of the best restaurants in the world.
Of course we were given the same standard 'Nazi' treatment the owner gives everybody. But because we were not forewarned, we were shocked.
And to add insult to injury, nobody warned us not to order the duck rice (we were not as lucky as anonymous who was warned by the duck rice seller himself and the lao ban niang), so we ordered a plate of duck when our order of crab beehoon still hadn't appeared after an hour (mind you, there were only 2 other tables with customers that day). We ended up being lectured and shouted at by both the Nazi and his various 'waitresses'. They made a really big scene. Groups of passers-by outside the restaurant even gathered to look at us.
Despite our explanations that we were not aware of the rule, since there were no signs warning us nor did any of his 'waitresses' tell us beforehand, he insisted that we were trying to be funny with him because we deliberately flouted his 'rule'.
I asked him if it is such a big and important 'rule' why he didn't he put up a sign. And he actually had the cheek to say that its illegal to do that. What a joke from such a loser!
If it's illegal then why was he shouting at us?
I was so angry that I wanted to stand up and leave but because it was one of my friend's birthday that day as well, I didn't want to spoil it for her (on hindsight, the occasion was already ruined and I should have insisted on leaving before the food came and paying for the insults he served with it). When the crab eventually arrived, the 'waitresses' continued to abuse us and claiming that they had already warned us but we didn't listen to them. What the f*ck?
We ate and left. And swore never to go back again. And to tell all our friends and family about this abusive guy and his staff. In fact, we nearly went to the STPB to report him since he was featured in an international tv program and if tourists were given this treatment, our image as a premier tourist location in asia would be ruined. But because my friends told me to have pity on him (maybe they know his evicted pig farmer sob story....), I didn't pursue the matter.
As for his crab beehoon. It's a whole load of hype. The Melben one's are just as good.
And if you are a real crab fan, try this place at the corner of Still Road that serves the best black pepper crab ever!! IMHO, the crab is fresher and better than Sin Huat's. And almost always, the restaurant full to the brim and there will be a snaking queue outside the restaurant; so be prepared to wait at least 30 minutes *even before* you have a chance to enter and order your crabs. But having said that, your order will arrive quickly and you will be richly rewarded!
The lady owner who is the restaurant captain and crowd control is also an interesting character who is just as firm but not as unreasonable as the Sin Huat a*sehole.
Cru
It' this kind of stories that make them infamous! Thanks for sharing it with us!
Paid $105 for 15 prawns.
Robbery.
Priscilla, It depend on the size of the prawn.Anyway I dont intend to pay high price n bad service, when I can get Great Crab Tang Hoon at the next lane Lor 35 Ya Kwang Dai Pai Dong. Chief Jason is frendly n his prices are reasonable.I want to be Happy when I am having my meals.
Sorry Ya Kwang is at Lor 37.
bg
was just there two days back. ordered two crabs for a group of 7. but when the bill came, we were charged for 3 crabs instead. the boss claimed that he gave us 3 crabs instead of 2 because he thinks 2 aint enough for 7peeps. how can he possibly make such a decision on his own. and when we did a count on the number of crab parts we ate, it amounted to two crabs only, not 3! good food no doubt, but such tyrannical behaviour overwhelms the good food. such a pity...
ordered 2 crabs and when the crab bee hoon arrived, there were 3 crab shells. took special notice to count the number of pincers in the dish, and found that there were only 4 (4 pincers = 2 crabs, simple math).
when the bill came, we noticed that we were being charged for 3 crabs, totalling $160 (prepostrous?!). informed the chef that we had specified only 2 crabs, and that we only had 4 pincers in the dish, so that should logically make up 2 crabs. chef replied defiantly "are you saying that i stole your 2 pincers? why would i want to do that? i feel bored looking at crabs everyday." ... "so what do you want me to do now, you all just want a discount, isn't it? so, should i just give you the whole dish for free instead?"(in mandarin, of course).
and so the debate when on, with the chef stubbornly refusing to relent or give in. he huffily storms off after a while with no resolution made. the waitress goes in to the kitchen to speak with him and then comes back to the table in an attempt to resolve the matter. "but we clearly ordered 2 crabs, and we are sure that there were only 2 in the dish," we insist. she lets slip the chef's mistake and says "boss thought that there were so many of you, so maybe 2 crabs were not enough, so he put in 3"....
to cut the story short, the chef did not come back to the table to resolve the matter, and neither did he apologise for making the decision to add in an additional crab without first seeking our approval. all he did was to relay the message through his waitress that there would be a measly discount of $20 off the total bill.
we did not feel that money was an issue here (although paying close to $400 for dinner at a kopitian as such is unheard of), but we felt that he could have handled this matter in a more reasonable, rational matter.
NEVER will we return to this place. this is th difference you get in eating in a proper restaurant and a old coffee shop tze char stall.
OVERALL BAD EXPERIENCE.
Bb
i totally agree with Dd. Id rather go to ya kwang where the service is good, they are prompt and serve with a smile. though the crab tang hoon may not be as great as the crab bee hoon, but its the overall experience that amounts to a good gourmet meal!
for all the aggravation, he should simply charge by weight instead, that way there can be no dispute. And he should buy out the coffee shop, so that you can order from the duck rice stall.
Finally went there after reading all the food critics' raves last night. It will be our first and last time. I have never read any blogs on this restaurant and after our experience, we felt compelled to warn anyone interested by sharing our experience.
There were 5 adults and one 8 yr old child in our group. The chef owner took our order personally. We took his recommendations for the scallop, frog legs, veg, crab beehoon, and had told him that 4 in our group do not particularly like to eat prawns but he seemed pretty persistent that we must try. As we had rejected his repeated suggestion to order the fish (as fish is pretty much eaten almost everyday at home), we relented on the prawns after he said that it will only be 10 pcs. In our minds' eye, we trusted that he will know how much to serve us by looking at our group number. On hindsight, we should have known better than to trust a restaurant that does not have a menu and orders are taken by its owner chef who does not tell you know how much your dish will cost nor how much he will serve you (probably only if you ask and I am guessing not too happily too).
By the time they have served the scallops, the frog legs and the veg, we were feeling pretty much done with dinner. And to our horror, we next saw that the prawns they were serving were big enough for 10 adults with each having one big piece. By the time the crab beehoon came out as the last dish, we practically had to force feed ourselves to try the very dish we came for. We had to ta bao 70% of the unfinished beehoon home. We noticed that the next table were also doing the same.
It seemed like the owner has in mind how much each of his guests should eat (or indirectly, he should earn from each group), never mind that they tell him how much they want. He decides on the quantity and the price they should pay. Our bill came up to $388.00 for 5 dishes which included the veg ($12). Our dishes were definitely large in size. An example of this is we were charged 3kg of scallops at $75. Why would a group of 5+1 (mind you, we are not particularly large in size) want to order 3kg of scallops when we have other dishes to savour? This might explain why he gets irate when someone wants to order food from another stall because it will also mean that the customer will order less food from him. I did not order any food from any stall but I do not appreciate being "ambushed" with such quantities of food that I would normally enjoy but did not because we just could not stomach them.
I really could not understand why he needs to resort to such tactics on his customers when he could just accede to his customers' orders and have them coming back for more. The fact that there were only 2 filled tables when we walked in speaks volumes of how many repeat customers he must have. I will not be one of them!
jackie - LOL... chill...
this is the same experience i get everytime i go there to eat, and i hv patronised his stall since 10 yrs ago...
the trick is to be really insistent in ordering only what you want. and control Danny. otherwise, he always does this. its stupid of him to do so, but if u insist, he won;t force u.
but havent been there in years. crab bee hoon is excellent, but not worth the wait and the aggro..
KK seetoh is paid to endorse restaurants. how objective are his reviews? I have my doubts.
Hey Jackie.... was the food good though?
I am just amazed at how he still manages to have customers at his restaurant when he obviously has a poor retention rate! But the fact is that people still go! Here is the perfect example of a Food Nazi.
Scallops - Fresh and meaty. But I wish he will tone down the salt. The fresh sweetness of the scallops were pretty drowned out by the overly generous gravy which can be pretty salty if you take one too many.
Frog Legs - Ok. The special thing is he used Brand's Essence of Chicken as part of the gravy for the dish. But, my excitement for the dish was killed when I saw the waitress dipped her fingers right into the bottles to lift up 3 bottles at one go in one hand from the dish (they were arranged on the dish when served) before pouring the essence over the frog legs. My little girl would not drink the gravy soup as she found it too salty. Well, it is ok for the first few spoons for an adult but not after one small bowl. Then again, it really is to each person's taste where salt is concerned.
Vegetable - The kailan was well tossed fried. Full compliments here.
Prawns - Nothing exceptional.
Crab Beehoon - I couldn't say anything great about it that night because I was too full to enjoy it. But as I ate it the next day at home, I think it is good as the crab is fresh and meaty, the beehoon is well soaked in its tasty sauce.
Having said the above, I still think it is not worth its price and aggravation. But if you still want to try it, just go for the veg and crab beehoon. It would have sufficed and you will enjoy the meal way better. Then go somewhere nearby for great durians to top off the meal!
Yes it is nice but still too expensive for the ambience, service and "comfort".
Will never go back again.
waited for one and a half hours before the boss started to take order table by table.
first dish arrived about an hour after the order was taken. we had the scallops, SUPER SALTY, i bet alot of MSG also.
2nd dish was "gong gong". this i didnt try. no comment.
3rd dish is the baby kailan, i find it very salty also, the veg is not so fresh also.
4th is crayfish, SUPER SALTY.
Waited another half an hour or so for the crab bee hoon. by then im tired of waiting and very sian already. tried and i personally find that it's ok, but definitely NOT WORTH THE LONG WAITING AND THE MONEY.
$300 for 4 adults !!!almost fainted... and 3-4 coconut drinks ( very salty )
control freak boss, very pushy with what he wants you to order ( guess so that he can make more $$$ ? )
rude waitresses, fingers dipped in the food... yuckss !!!
ambience and the set up of the place abit dirty and ... wat can i say... will never go back and full stop.
guess the blogger might wanna take extra note on the rating so that no more victims will fall into the trap again..
Please read the whole post and not just look at the number at the end. The number only pertains to the dish concerned. The warning about him being a food nazi has been made very clear in the blog.
Anyway anonymous, I am known as ieat.
And might I add, the numerous comments following the blog warning about the bad service is more than enough to prepare you for the experience.
I almost fell off my chair after reading this blog and the chain of comments that came with it. Kudos to Sin Huat's patrons who put up with the exhorbitant charges and the bad attitude. If I was Cruciferae, I would have walked off there and then maybe even after giving him a piece of my mind haha! Good thing I have never been there! Thanks to the blog and comments I will be sure never to visit this place. I can understand if food is real good but good value and a lil bad attitude, but exhorbitant rates, long waiting time and abusive service? I'll pass on even if they serve dragon meat.
jems - Danny's reputation has been like that since i first went to his joint 10 years ago...
maybe his notoriety has become so legendary, that people go back just to experience the abuse and the the wait and see what the fuss of the food is all about.
for me, i knew his crab bee hoon was damm good years back. but didnt go back much after the long waits.
now, i may just go back to experience it myself to see if the beehoon is as good. bad service and attitude aside.
Now I know there's a whole bunch out there who gets a kick out of being exploited and abused~~ Puahahaha
Yes it is called masochism
i think there are restaurants in the US where they are deliberately mean to u....
they will scold the kids, ask u to get ur own napkins etc etc...
and people get a kick out of it...all part of the fun..
Just visited Sin Huat today. Its crab beehoon is definitely over-rated, the taste is nothing that any other average cook (not chef, mind you) cannot reproduce given the generous amount of MSG in it. The crab, however, was fresh and fleshy. Most of the dishes are over-loaded with MSG and garlic, you'll need to order double portions of drink to quench that MSG induced thirst. The long wait, rude service and profiteering stance are for masochists only. Having to wait 2 hours in a dirty, hot (no fan) corridor outside is not an experience I'll repeat ever again. Do yourself a favor and go somewhere else where you can get better food and services in a nice air-con environment at cheaper price.
We paid $125 for 2 adults.
Dennis,
with another feedback like urs. I truly affirm what I have stated above - Thanks! for all the warnings from you all to tell me NEVER to try to bother to go Sin Huat at all.
with all this bad publicity... i wonder why he hasn't gone out of business yet....
the only thing saving him is the food... but when pple get p*ssed off by the attitude, profiteering and bad service, i think the food will just taste bad..
hasn't anyone told him he is an assh*le in his face yet?
actually i think their food is nice. definitely better than some geylang innovative hawker.
i love the kong kong and scallop!
Hi Anonymous (the one who called 'ieat' 'blogger'), u "lucky" loh.. U paid $300 for 4 ppl, I paid $320 which works out to $80 per head!!! I nearly fell off the chair when the bill came & remembered grumbling to my friends that with that kinda money we could hv eaten at a nice restaurant!!!
I took some notes on the food but duno where I put it so I'll just write wat I remember- I recall that the frog legs in chicken essence quite nice (can't remember how many stars I gave it); din fancy the scallop that much; crab beehoon not my cup of tea cos I prefer salty stuff to sweet stuff. Hvin said that, I must say the crab beehoon's quite unusual cos it's the only place I noe that does a sweetish crab beehoon.
You know what's funny? The things that bring people to eat at Sin Huat are the very same things that everyone is complaining about!
Let me explain.
Everytime someone in my office gets promoted or a friend wants to celebrate something, they always want to treat everyone for dinner somewhere that is impressive. To most people, "impressive" translates into two things: the place must be sufficiently expensive, and the food must be good.
OK, everyone knows (or can easily find out) that Sin Huat is expensive. But is the food good? Well, everyone has heard about (or can easily find out about) this Nazi and the abuse you have to be prepared to take in order to try his food. Put two and two together, the conclusion is: with all that abuse, the only way that the prices can remain so exhorbitant MUST BE THAT THE FOOD IS GOOD! So with this happy conclusion, the dinner party would choose to go to Sin Huat.
Even if the food is only average, the high prices, together with the abuse that you've had to put up with, creates an illusion that the food is better than it really is. Think of it this way: the water at the end of a long trek tastes sweeter.
Well I've been to Sin Huat quite a few times over the past 8 years or so. All at the invitation of friends and colleagues so I have never actually paid for a meal there myself. :) I have to say that I find his food to be generally average. The only two dishes that are above average are the kailan and the crab beehoon. But it's really not that much better than, say, Ya Kwang or Melben. IMHO, the difference in quality definitely does not justify the price you pay at Sin Huat.
Personally, I would never eat at Sin Huat if it was up to me. Especially not if I am paying. I don't have a problem with a $500 bill for 4 persons, but I just don't think that Danny deserves my money.
Can someone tell me what is IMHO?
IMHO means In My Humble Opinion.
BTW, 4 of us went in April to be slaughtered too. I still keep de receipt for remembrance. No one will believe de receipt comes fr this infamous stall. There weren't any names on it and sadly, I think I can't use dat to claim as entertainment as well.
Anyway, here it goes to the $328 bill for 4.
5 dishes, mainly
Scallops 2kg $50
Steamed Stingray $55
Prawns 12 pc $70
Crab BeeHoon $124
Vegetables $8
Drinks (we nearly die of thirst dat night) $16
TOTAL $328
Way overpriced!!! Other restaurants in Geylang give the same menu with better quality. Over ordered, meaning person taking the order did not help to estimate how much food should be ordered (they should know the restaurant's serving size and help patrons to estimate how much to order). Not worth it. No wonder only our table was there on a saturday night!!
The scallops were great, he tends to use a lot of garlic in his dishes. The dip for the Gong Gong was great also. He even said his Gong Gong was reared by himself and even told us that he would refund us the money for the dish if it wasn't good.
The Kai lan was fried well and the sauce was the best i ever tasted.
The steamed squid was a bit too simple.
Then came the crab beehoon. The sauce was thick and savoury and it well down smoothly into the throat.
However what pisses me off was that he gave us a dead crab and a fresh crab. The dead crab's meat was mushy and watery. He had the audacity to mix a dead crab and a fresh one to his customer. He eventually shaved off $20 off the bill.
I am never going back there again.
Ordered 3 dishes for 2; Crab Bee Hoon, Scallops, baby Kai Lan & 2 coconut juice; order came up to $97.
Kai Lan was the best dish of the 3. cooked just long enough to musk the bitter-veg taste without the veg becoming soggy. sauce tasted just right.
Scallops had a whole lot of oyster sauce & garlic plastered over the meat & the shell; so much so that you couldn't really taste the natural sweetness of the scallops.
Crab wasn't fresh. Many parts of the crab were overcooked & tasted dry. Bits of the meat were literally stuck to the shell. (a real turnoff for seafood). Sauce tasted a little like the watered-down version of the sauce used for the scallop with crab flavour, spring onions & ginger.
For the price I paid; i would probably get better hygiene, service and food at Jumbo.
While I stay close by (off Old Airport Rd), I doubt I will return to Sin Huat. Personally, I prefer the crab at Mattar road (Old Airport Rd Hawker centre-on a good day) to Sin Huat's. The crab dishes at Mattar are all not that consistent, but at least I always get my crabs fresh.
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