Yeah..., when it comes to black pepper crab, the first that come to my mind is "the one at Still Road there".
Then, life separated us and all I had left were beautiful memories of the tastiest black pepper crab.
Obviously, during the past decades, I tasted many other black pepper crabs in Singapore and Malaysia but none gave me the same feeling as "Still Road pepper crab".
Maybe as they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Then, I read that the famous pepper crab shop sold its premises for a princely SG$8.5 million and closed its operations in Aug 2025.
I felt a tinge of heartache on hearing the news. Thought I will never taste my favourite black pepper crab again 😥
Then, I heard they resurfaced at 9007 Tampines, an industrial estate canteen.
So, I jio-ed kaki kaki to check out my favourite black pepper crab.
And here, I finally realised that what I called "Still Road pepper crab" is actually Eng Seng Restaurant 永成餐室.
Eng Seng have been here at this industrial canteen only a week.
The whole crew from Still Road including head chef Uncle Tan is here at 9007 Tampines. Uncle Tan is the man behind Eng Seng's legendary black pepper crab.
Besides their signature crab dishes, and zhi char fare, Eng Seng now offers convenient one dish rice / noodle meals for workers at the industrial park (especially for lunch).
Crabs are only for dinner.
Eng Seng uses live Sri Lankan mud crabs.
I called ahead WhatsApp 8611 2247 and reserved a crab, so we didn't have to wait long.
Let's get straight into the reason why we were here.
The crab came smothered with a cloak of fragrant black peppery sauce.
The pepperiness was quite sharp and pronounced yet balanced with a mild sweetness and buttery smoothness. We can taste and smell traces of blended spices which is a house secret ㊙ The peppery heat seemed layered perhaps with other heat sources such as ginger, or galangal but don't know lah.... already said it is their secret ㊙ There was also a subtle bit of toasty smokey wok hey type of flavour and aroma in the black pepper sauce.
The crab itself was meaty, tenderly moist and tasted sweet.
Super umami crab roe.
We had har cheong gai 虾酱鸡 or fried chicken marinated with fermented prawn sauce.
Nicely done, crisp golden brown outside and moist tender inside. The umami savoury flavours outside were relatively mild, so it is nice if you like it that way. One of my pet peeves about har cheong gai is they are often very salty. No such problem at Eng Seng, to the extent that folks used to the salty type might find it a little bland (though not me).
四季豆 French bean stir fried with fermented olive leaves 橄榄菜.
Crunchy juicy sweet with slight savoury flavours from the fermented olive leaves.
海鲜炒面 Seafood mee goreng.
Consistent with the other dishes (except the black pepper crab), this was delicious but flavours were not as robust and overall not as greasy as the old benchmarks in my mind.
So glad that my favourite black pepper crab is still around.
Stall name: Eng Seng Seafood 永成餐室
Address: 9007 Tampines Street 93, Singapore 528841
Nearest MRT: 15 minute walk from Tampines West station
Tel: WhatsApp 8611 2247
Hours: 11am - 10pm (off on Monday | crabs for dinner only)
Written by Tony Boey on 13 Mar 2026
Who is Tony Johor Kaki?
good to know they're in the 'hood now 😜
ReplyDelete@engsengrestaurant
sigh - used to be a 5 min walk for me. the crab is excellent, sauce a tad sweet - always wondered whether they added a touch of condensed milk.
ReplyDeleteUsed to cycle 5 minutes to tapao for the family. Granddad used to know the old man and he would call him and I go to collect. This Uncle Tan only in recent few years did I see him taking orders. Maybe the son or in law am not sure. Last meal with my Mum before she passed was 2 crabs from here at the Telok Kurau house. Her request. I had not been back since that day 5.5 years ago. But I remember thus Uncle Tan took the order.
ReplyDeleteI remember i spend $400 on a meal with 8 crabs and other dishes once. It was delicious, unforgettable and hurt my wallet. 😂
ReplyDelete