Every chilli crab roundup writes "market price" and stops there. We read the menus instead. JUMBO and Long Beach both publish per-100g rates, Keng Eng Kee sells a whole crab at one flat price on its own ordering site, and Roland is running two crabs for $88++. The cheapest place to eat JUMBO's award-winning chilli crab turns out not to be a JUMBO Seafood restaurant at all. Our 6 picks: JUMBO (its East Coast flagship closed on 30 September 2026), Roland, Long Beach, No Signboard, Keng Eng Kee, and the budget play at JUMBOREE. Plus what a crab really costs once service charge and GST land, and where black pepper crab is cheapest.
Sweet, savoury, faintly fiery and made for mantou-dipping, chilli crab is Singapore's unofficial national dish. Here are 6 of the best, priced off the restaurants' own menus rather than guessed at.
> Quick view: cheapest famous-name crab is JUMBO 1987 at JUMBOREE, $10.80/100g nett (about 16% under the restaurants). Sit-down cheapest is Roland, 2 crabs for $88++. The catch: "++" adds about 19%, and at JUMBO and Long Beach the per-kg rate *rises* on bigger crabs.
The name most synonymous with chilli crab, born by the sea at East Coast in 1987. The gravy here is the mild, balanced, faintly sweet benchmark, the one to start with if you have never had chilli crab.THE PRICE: JUMBO's own a la carte menu lists mud crab at $10.80++ per 100g below 1kg and $11.80++ above, Dungeness at $10.80++ and Alaskan at $29.80++. A 900g crab is $97.20++, which is roughly $117 once the 10% service charge and 9% GST land.WHERE NOW: the original East Coast Seafood Centre flagship closed for good on 30 September 2026, when its lease expired and NParks took the site back for redevelopment. It was a permanent closure, not a relocation, and the outlet accounted for roughly 14% of Jumbo Group's revenue in FY2025. The same menu runs at Riverside Point, Dempsey Hill, ION Orchard, Jewel, The Riverwalk and JUMBO Premium at RWS. The East Coast farewell offers (the $39 half Australian lobster, $39 e-vouchers and the weekly Dungeness crab giveaway) all ended on 29 September.THE DEAL: 50% off Alaskan crab at every JUMBO Seafood restaurant, dine-in and takeaway, until 30 November 2026 while stocks last (extended from 31 October; poster re-read on 10 November). That halves the $29.80++ per 100g list rate, but at JUMBO Alaskan crab is cooked in black pepper, salted egg, Chinese wine and egg white or kum hiong, not in the chilli gravy, and the offer does not stack with vouchers or JUMBO Rewards privileges.WEEKDAY LUNCH: the Weekday Lunch Special gives JUMBO Rewards members 20% off the food bill and non-members 15%, now at Dempsey Hill only, on dine-in and takeaway, excluding beverages, nuts and retail packs, and not on public holidays or their eves.OCBC CARD PERK: pay with an OCBC credit or debit card and spend at least $88 on a la carte food, Monday to Friday, and the table gets a complimentary Seafood Donut Tossed in Salad Cream (worth $14), dine-in only, until 30 December 2026, one per bill, not on public holidays or their eves and not with other offers. A single 900g crab clears that minimum on its own.BEST FOR: a first chilli crab, and family tables with kids who will want to watch the crabs being cracked.
Photo: JUMBO Seafood official
Roland's family story is Singapore food history. They trace their recipe to the 1950s creator of the dish, and "The Year 1956, Founder of Chilli Crab" is printed right on the menu. Roland Lim's own site names his mother, Cher Yam Tian, as the cook who first married fresh crab to local flavours, and says his parents' roadside stall on Upper East Coast Road was called Palm Beach Seafood, which is why two restaurants both claim the invention. Their rendition stays deliberately old-school: an eggless gravy with no added sambal, letting tomato, chilli and crab do the talking. It is thinner and tangier than JUMBO's, and noticeably less sweet. THE DEAL, and it is the best sit-down crab price on this page: Roland's own site carries a "Crabs Promotion" showing 2 crabs for $88++ in one cooking style while stocks last, choosing from Roland Chili, black pepper, spicy fragrant, white pepper, salted egg with yam, spring onion and ginger, braised with bee hoon, or crab in superior stock with coarse bee hoon. That works out to roughly $53 a crab once service charge and GST land. On the regular menu, Yellow Roe Crab is $68++ per crab on advance order and "Big Crab" is a seasonal price per 100g. Chili Crab Sauce with 6 fried buns is $16.80 if you want the gravy without the crab, and mini buns are $0.60 each with a minimum of six. Roland also states on its own site that it accepts CDC vouchers, which almost no other name here does. WHERE: Blk 89 Marine Parade Central, #06-750, a 1,000-seat banquet hall on the sixth floor of a multi-storey car park. HOURS: lunch 11.30am to 2.30pm (Mon to Sat), 11am to 2.30pm (Sun and public holidays); dinner 6pm to 10.30pm daily. Michelin-recommended, still family-run, and worth booking because the hall fills with weekend banquets.
Photo: Roland Restaurant official
If you like your chilli crab with a proper kick, Long Beach's stronger, spicier rendition is the pick: bolder and saltier than JUMBO's, with a real chilli bite rather than a sweet lean. The house is equally famous as the home of black pepper crab, wok-tossed, buttery and intensely peppery, so a two-crab order here (one chilli, one black pepper) is the classic power move for groups.THE PRICE: identical at all three outlets on Long Beach's own menu, XL Mud Crab $11.80++ per 100g for an 800g to 1,199g crab, then $14.80++ per 100g from 1,200g. Dungeness is $11.80++, Princess Crab $16.80++, Alaskan King a seasonal price. Two styles carry a surcharge on top of the per-100g rate: White Jade adds $5 a crab and Fragrant Golden adds $8. Chilli and black pepper cost the same, so the choice is purely taste. Watch that weight band: a 1.2kg crab is $177.60++, or about $213, while a 1.1kg one is $129.80++, or about $156. Adding 100g of crab there costs you nearly $57. WHERE: three outlets, Long Beach @ Dempsey, Long Beach @ Robertson Quay, and Long Beach UDMC, which has now moved. The IMM outlet is marked permanently closed on Long Beach's own site.EAST COAST, NEW ADDRESS: UDMC had to leave East Coast Seafood Centre when its lease expired on 30 September 2026, and unlike JUMBO it relocated rather than closed. Long Beach's own outlet page now reads "We have MOVED to East Coast @ Coastal Playgrove!" and gives 902 East Coast Parkway, Coastal PlayGrove #01-01/02, S449874, parking at Carpark B2, tel 6448 3636. Hours are 11am to 11pm on weekdays, Sundays and public holidays, and 11am to 11.30pm on Saturdays and eves of public holidays. Its UDMC menu carries the same crab prices as Dempsey and Robertson Quay.ON PROMOTIONS: the only offer on Long Beach's promotions page is an Executive Set Lunch, $68++ per pax for Set A and $128++ for Set B, minimum two people, with Premier members paying $61.20++ and $115.20++. Neither set contains crab.NEW AT COASTAL PLAYGROVE: the relocated outlet now runs two opening-special lunch sets, daily from 11am to 4.30pm including weekends, public holidays and their eves, and only at Coastal PlayGrove. Menu A is $86++ for 2 to 3 people (Hokkien prawn roll, braised Irish duck in Teochew style, and a live flower crab congee) and Menu B is $186++ for 2 to 3 (radish appetiser, shredded chicken with scallion oil, and crispy rice broth with a live Western Australian lobster). Menu A is the cheapest way into a Long Beach crab, but it is a flower crab in congee, not chilli or black pepper crab.
Photo: Long Beach Seafood official
A long-standing local favourite whose chilli crab gravy runs rich, eggy and packed with umami. The mantou-to-gravy ratio here demands a second basket. No Signboard is also the name that popularised white pepper crab, the aromatic middle path between sweet chilli and fierce black pepper, and the reason to come if you have already done chilli and black pepper elsewhere. The story is genuine hawker-to-restaurant: it began as an unnamed stall in Geylang, which is how it ended up with the name. ON PRICE, be prepared: alone among the big names here, No Signboard still lists Alaskan King, Sri Lanka and Dungeness crab at "seasonal price" on its own menu, with no figure attached, so ask before they cook. The menu also carries the honest line "no guarantee of 100% solid crab". Eleven preparations are offered, including signature white pepper, signature chilli, black pepper, butter, steamed, ginger and spring onion, cheese, salted egg, baked and curry powder, with stewed mee hoon or vermicelli adding $8, $12 or $16. Fried buns are $3 for 4 pieces, and Crab Meat with Chilli Sauce is $18.80 a portion if you want the flavour without a whole crab. Chargeable extras are itemised: wet tissue $0.30 each, bib $0.60 each, appetiser $3 a plate, all before 10% service charge and GST. WHERE: the Geylang flagship at 414 Geylang Road, running 11am to 12.15am daily per No Signboard's own restaurant locator, which makes it one of the few places on this list you can order crab near midnight. One caution: that locator is visibly out of date, still carrying Chinese New Year notices from 2021 and 2022 and showing Esplanade as temporarily closed and Clarke Quay as closed until further notice. Call 6842 3415 before you travel to anything other than Geylang.
Photo: No Signboard Seafood official
The heartland answer, and the one that removes the guesswork from the bill. KEK does not price crab by weight at all: its own ordering site lists a whole crab of about 900g at a flat $93, and the same $93 buys it as Signature Chilli, Black Pepper, White Pepper, Salted Egg, Stir Fried Ginger Onion, Tomato, Steamed, Claypot Bee Hoon in soup, or Stir Fried Thin Bee Hoon in gravy. That is the clearest crab price in Singapore, and it comes with third-generation zi char soul, wok hei and a fraction of the tourist traffic. THE DISCOUNTS, both on its own ordering site: 10% off self-pickup orders with no minimum spend, online orders only and not stackable, which brings the same crab to $83.70; and code FIRSTORDER6 for $6 off a first order above $60, which is the weaker of the two. Delivery is a flat $5 islandwide. Come for the crab, stay for the Moonlight Horfun and Coffee Pork Ribs. This is the most local-feeling crab feast on this list, and the one where the rest of the order is as good as the crab. WHERE: three outlets, the original at Alexandra Village (124 Bukit Merah Lane 1, #01-136, tel 6272 1038), SAFRA Tampines (1A Tampines St 92, #01-K2, tel 6979 3668) and SAFRA Punggol (9 Sentul Crescent, #02-01, tel 9691 0616). The SAFRA outlets are open to the public, not just members, and are the easier ones to get a table at; Alexandra Village is the one with the coffeeshop atmosphere people mean when they recommend KEK. KEK has held Michelin Select from 2016 to 2025. Popular, so book ahead, and note the crab is cooked to order.
Photo: Keng Eng Kee Seafood official
Crab night does not have to cost $150, and the best trick is not a hawker substitute. It is the same JUMBO crab, sold cheaper by JUMBO itself. JUMBO 1987 is the group's stall inside the JUMBOREE food hall at 26 Tai Seng Street, #01-02, a three to five minute walk from Tai Seng MRT. Its menu lists the identical Signature Award-winning Chilli Crab and Signature Black Pepper Crab at $10.80 per 100g for a mud crab below 1kg and $11.80 above, exactly the same numbers as the JUMBO Seafood restaurants, with one difference printed at the foot of every page: "No service charge; No GST". On a 900g crab that is $97.20 nett against roughly $117 at a restaurant, about 16% off the same dish. Dungeness is also $10.80 per 100g and Alaskan $29.80, and the cooking styles (chilli, black pepper, kum hiong, golden salted egg, Chinese wine and egg white, golden creamy butter) all cost the same. The weekday 20% off the JUMBO 1987 a la carte menu that we listed through October is no longer advertised: it is gone from JUMBOREE's What's On page and from the group promotions page. In its place JUMBO 1987 now runs Daily Lunch Set Menus from $78 nett for 4 to 5 people, 11am to 2.30pm, built around curry fish head, cereal prawns and sanbei chicken rather than crab. So for crab, the nett a la carte rate is the deal. The $38.80 promotional mud crab we listed in August is gone, absent from the menu JUMBOREE reissued on 7 September 2026, from its What's On page and from the group promotions page. Still running is 50% off Alaskan crab at JUMBO 1987, daily, dine-in only, now extended to 30 November 2026 while stocks last, not valid with other discounts or vouchers. What the food hall also carries is a ready-to-cook counter: raw live mud crab below 1kg and Dungeness both at $8.80 per 100g, cleaned, gutted and vacuum-packed to cook at home, the cheapest crab on this page if you are willing to work the wok yourself. Hours are 11am to 2.30pm and 5pm to 11.15pm Monday to Saturday, closing 10.30pm on Sunday. TWO MORE WAYS TO KEEP IT DOWN. Order a smaller crab: because the per-kg rate rises with size at both JUMBO and Long Beach, a 900g crab costs less per kilo as well as less in total, and with fried mantou and a vegetable it still feeds two. And book weekday lunch: JUMBO's Weekday Lunch Special takes 20% off the food bill for JUMBO Rewards members and 15% for everyone else, now at Dempsey Hill only, on dine-in and takeaway, and the poster excludes only nuts, beverages and retail packs. On a 900g crab that works out to about $93 for a member and $99 for everyone else once service charge and GST land, so a JUMBO Rewards member at Dempsey lunch now edges out JUMBO 1987's $97.20 nett.
Photo: JUMBOREE official
| Where | Published crab price | Basis | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| JUMBO Seafood (all outlets) | Mud crab $10.80++/100g below 1kg, $11.80++/100g above; Dungeness $10.80++/100g; Alaskan $29.80++/100g, 50% off to 30 Nov 2026 | Per 100g, plus service charge and GST | The benchmark chilli crab, now at Dempsey Hill, Riverside Point and four more |
| JUMBO 1987 at JUMBOREE | Same $10.80/100g below 1kg and $11.80 above, but nett; raw ready-to-cook mud crab $8.80/100g to take home; 50% off Alaskan crab to 30 Nov | Per 100g, no service charge, no GST | The same JUMBO recipe for roughly 16% less |
| Roland Restaurant | 2 crabs for $88++ in one cooking style, while stocks last; Yellow Roe Crab $68++ per crab on advance order | Per crab, plus service charge and GST | Two crabs for a table of four, and it takes CDC vouchers |
| Long Beach Seafood | XL mud crab $11.80++/100g (800g to 1,199g), $14.80++/100g (1,200g and above); Dungeness $11.80++/100g | Per 100g, plus service charge and GST | Spicier chilli crab, and the original black pepper crab |
| Keng Eng Kee | $93 for a whole crab of about 900g, in any of nine styles | Flat per crab on its own ordering site | Zi char prices, and 10% off self-pickup online |
| No Signboard (Geylang) | Seasonal price, not published; fried buns $3 for 4 | Weighed on the day, plus service charge and GST | Rich eggy gravy, white pepper crab, open till 12.15am |
| Palm Beach (One Fullerton) | Market price, not published | Weighed on the day, plus service charge and GST | Marina Bay views, if the bill is not the point |
Almost every chilli crab guide stops at "market price". Four of the seven names here do publish a rate, so on 8 September 2026 we reread each brand's own live menu and promotions page and put the numbers in the table above. Four things are worth understanding before you book.
"++" is about 19%, not a rounding error. A price written as $10.80++ per 100g becomes roughly $12.86 once the 10% service charge and 9% GST are applied. A crab that looks like $97 on the menu leaves the table at about $117. Only JUMBO 1987 at JUMBOREE and Keng Eng Kee quote prices you actually pay.
The per-kg rate goes up, not down, with size. JUMBO charges $10.80++ per 100g below 1kg and $11.80++ above it. Long Beach charges $11.80++ per 100g from 800g to 1,199g and $14.80++ from 1,200g. So the bigger crab the server suggests costs more per kilo as well as more in total. At Long Beach, moving from a 1.1kg crab to a 1.2kg one adds about $57 to the bill for 100g of extra crab.
Two brands still publish nothing. No Signboard lists Alaskan King, Sri Lanka and Dungeness crab at "seasonal price" with no figure, and Palm Beach lists every crab at "market price". Both are fine restaurants; just ask for the per-kg rate and have the crab weighed in front of you before it goes in the wok.
At JUMBO, chilli is a mud crab style only. Read the Choice of Live Crab page and the Award-Winning Chilli preparation is listed under Mud Crab and nowhere else. Alaskan Crab at $29.80++ per 100g and Dungeness at $10.80++ are offered in Signature Black Pepper, Golden Salted Egg, Chinese Wine and Egg White, or Kum Hiong. So if someone at the table wants the famous chilli version, the crab has to be a mud crab, and the cheaper Dungeness is not a way around it.
These two account for most of the "where should I go" arguments, and they are aiming at different palates and, it turns out, different bills.
| JUMBO Seafood | Long Beach Seafood | |
|---|---|---|
| The gravy | Milder, rounder, faintly sweet; egg-thickened | Bolder, saltier, a real chilli kick |
| Also known for | Watching chefs crack crabs live | Black pepper crab, which they made famous |
| Best for | Your first chilli crab; groups with kids | Anyone who found JUMBO too sweet |
| Mud crab price | $10.80++/100g below 1kg, $11.80++ above | $11.80++/100g (800g to 1,199g), $14.80++ from 1,200g |
| A 900g crab | $97.20++, about $117 | $106.20++, about $127 |
| A 1.2kg crab | $141.60++, about $170 | $177.60++, about $213 |
| East Coast status | Flagship closed for good 30 Sep 2026 | UDMC moved to Coastal PlayGrove |
Can't decide? Order one chilli crab and one black pepper crab and share, which is what most local tables do. At Long Beach the two styles cost exactly the same per 100g.
If chilli crab's sweetness isn't your thing, black pepper crab is the other half of Singapore's crab canon: drier, buttery, aggressively peppery, and eaten with your hands. Four honest answers, cheapest first:
And then there is Eng Seng, the Joo Chiat institution locals name first, which does not publish a price at all. The original shophouse at 247/249 Joo Chiat Place closed on 31 August 2025 after the corner unit sold for $8.55 million, and review sites still show that dead address. Same owners, same head chef, new home: 9007 Tampines Street 93 (S528841), an industrial-estate canteen about a 15-minute walk from Tampines West MRT, roughly 11am to 10pm, closed Mondays, and crabs are dinner service only. They run out; WhatsApp 8611 2247 to pre-order rather than turning up and hoping.
Two restaurants claim the invention, and both are right, because it is one family. Roland Restaurant prints "The Year 1956, Founder of Chilli Crab" on its menu, and Roland Lim's site says his mother Cher Yam Tian first cooked fresh crab with local flavours in the 1950s, after which his parents opened a roadside stall on Upper East Coast Road called Palm Beach Seafood. Palm Beach's own menu says that in 1950 "Chef Cher" created Singapore's original chilli crab at its Upper East Coast Road restaurant, prompted by Peranakan guests. Same cook, two descendants. The stall became today's Palm Beach at One Fullerton; Roland took the family recipe to Marine Parade.
Not in our top six, but you will hear them, and all three are open:
*Updated 10 November 2026. Rechecked on 10 November 2026: JUMBO's 50% off Alaskan crab posters for JUMBO Seafood (re-uploaded 3 November) and JUMBO 1987 are now extended to 30 November 2026; JUMBO 1987's weekday 20% off a la carte has been dropped from JUMBOREE's What's On page and the group promotions page and replaced by Daily Lunch Set Menus from $78 nett (4 to 5 pax, no crab), while its a la carte menu PDF (last changed 7 September) still prices mud crab at $10.80/$11.80 per 100g nett and raw ready-to-cook crab at $8.80; the Weekday Lunch Special still names Dempsey Hill only and the OCBC Seafood Donut perk is still listed; Roland's 2 crabs for $88++ poster is unchanged; Keng Eng Kee still prices all nine crab styles at $93 with 10% off self-pickup and FIRSTORDER6; Long Beach's Dempsey and Robertson Quay menus still list XL mud crab at $11.80++/$14.80++ per 100g and its promotions page is unchanged. Earlier, on 26 October 2026: JUMBO's 50% off Alaskan crab posters for JUMBO Seafood and JUMBO 1987 still run to 31 October 2026, the Weekday Lunch Special still names Dempsey Hill only, JUMBO 1987's weekday 20% off is unchanged, and the group promotions page now also carries an OCBC complimentary Seafood Donut (min. $88, weekdays, to 30 December 2026); Roland's 2 crabs for $88++ poster was re-uploaded on 6 October and is still on its site; Keng Eng Kee's ordering site still prices all nine crab styles at $93 with 10% off self-pickup and FIRSTORDER6; Long Beach's promotions page still lists the $68++/$128++ Executive Set Lunch and now adds Coastal PlayGrove opening sets at $86++ and $186++. Earlier, on 13 October 2026: JUMBO's 50% off Alaskan crab posters for JUMBO Seafood and JUMBO 1987 still ran to 31 October 2026, its Weekday Lunch Special poster now names Dempsey Hill only, and JUMBO 1987's weekday 20% off is still listed; Roland's 2 crabs for $88++ poster is still on its site; Keng Eng Kee's ordering site still prices every crab style at $93 with 10% off self-pickup and FIRSTORDER6; Long Beach's crab prices and $68++ Executive Set Lunch are unchanged, and its UDMC page now gives the Coastal PlayGrove address. Earlier, on 21 September 2026, the East Coast farewell posters were read before that outlet closed. All crab prices reread on 8 September 2026 off each brand's own live menu: JUMBO Seafood's East Coast and Dempsey a la carte PDFs, Long Beach's UDMC, Dempsey and Robertson Quay menu pages, the JUMBO 1987 a la carte PDF on jumboree.com.sg, Roland Restaurant's 2026 a la carte PDF and online shop, No Signboard's Geylang menu PDF, Palm Beach's menu PDF, and Keng Eng Kee's own ordering site. JUMBO's farewell offers and the Weekday Lunch Special are from the promotion PDFs on jumbogroup.sg/promotions, where the East Coast poster now carries a $39 half Australian lobster for 1 to 29 September and no longer carries the 39% off Dungeness crab that ran through August; the $38.80 JUMBOREE promotional mud crab was dropped and is absent from the JUMBO 1987 menu PDF reissued 7 September 2026, from jumboree.com.sg/en/whats-on and from the group promotions page; Roland's 2-for-$88++ and CDC voucher notices are the "Crabs Promotion" and "Accept CDC Voucher" items in its own site navigation. Closure and relocation details verified against Jumbo Group's company announcement and reporting by Time Out, AsiaOne, Yahoo/CNA and VnExpress. Long Beach's IMM outlet is marked permanently closed on Long Beach's own outlet page. Eng Seng's Joo Chiat closure (31 Aug 2025), the $8.55m shophouse sale and the move to 9007 Tampines Street 93 are per EdgeProp and a March 2026 on-site review; Eng Seng does not publish prices. Prices are approximate, market-dependent and change, so always confirm at the restaurant. Cover image: JUMBO Seafood's signature chilli crab (official photo).*
More restaurants publish a rate than the phrase "market price" suggests. JUMBO Seafood's own a la carte menu prices a mud crab at $10.80++ per 100g below 1kg and $11.80++ per 100g above 1kg, with Dungeness at $10.80++ and Alaskan at $29.80++; the same list runs at East Coast and Dempsey. Long Beach prices its XL mud crab at $11.80++ per 100g for an 800g to 1,199g crab and $14.80++ from 1,200g, identical at Dempsey, Robertson Quay and UDMC. Keng Eng Kee skips per-weight pricing altogether and sells a whole crab of about 900g at a flat $93 on its own ordering site. What that means in real money: a 900g crab at JUMBO is $97.20++, which is roughly $117 once the 10% service charge and 9% GST are added, and a 1kg crab is $108++, or about $129. Two things catch people out. First, "++" adds about 19%, so a $100 crab is a $119 crab. Second, the per-kg rate goes UP at both JUMBO and Long Beach once the crab crosses a weight line, so the bigger crab costs more per kilo as well as more in total. Only No Signboard and Palm Beach still keep crab at an unpublished seasonal price.
The cheapest way to eat a famous-name crab right now is not at a seafood restaurant. JUMBO 1987, the JUMBO Group stall inside the JUMBOREE food hall at 26 Tai Seng Street, serves the same Signature Award-winning Chilli Crab and the same Signature Black Pepper Crab off the same $10.80 per 100g rate as the restaurants, except that its menu states "No service charge; No GST". On a 900g crab that is $97.20 nett against roughly $117 at a JUMBO Seafood restaurant, a saving of about 16% on an identical crab. That is the lowest walk-in price for a famous-name crab; only a JUMBO Rewards member at Dempsey Hill's weekday lunch (about $93 all in) or a Keng Eng Kee self-pickup order ($83.70) comes in lower. The weekday 20% off it ran on its a la carte menu until October is no longer advertised; JUMBOREE now promotes daily lunch set menus from $78 nett for 4 to 5 people instead, and those sets carry no crab. For a sit-down restaurant, Roland is the answer: 2 crabs for $88++ in one cooking style, which is roughly $53 a crab once tax lands, and black pepper is one of the styles included. Keng Eng Kee's flat $93 buys the same crab in black pepper, chilli, white pepper, salted egg, ginger and onion, tomato, steamed or with bee hoon, and its own ordering site takes 10% off self-pickup orders with no minimum. JUMBO's East Coast farewell deals, including the $39 half Australian lobster, ended with that outlet in late September. And if Alaskan crab is the splurge, JUMBO has halved it at every JUMBO Seafood restaurant and at JUMBO 1987 until 30 November 2026 (extended from 31 October), while stocks last.
It comes down to how sweet you like the gravy, and now also to price, because both publish their rates. JUMBO's sauce is the milder, rounder, faintly sweet benchmark, thickened with egg and built for mantou-dipping. It is the safer first chilli crab, and you can watch the chefs crack crabs live. Long Beach goes bolder: saltier, spicier, with a real chilli bite instead of a sweet lean, and it is the house that made black pepper crab famous, so it is the better call if you found JUMBO's version too sweet or you want the pepper crab as your second dish. On price, JUMBO is cheaper on paper for a mid-sized crab: $10.80++ per 100g below 1kg against Long Beach's $11.80++ per 100g from 800g. Long Beach's rate then jumps to $14.80++ per 100g at 1,200g, so a 1.2kg crab there is $177.60++, or about $213, while the same weight at JUMBO is $141.60++, or about $170. One practical difference: JUMBO's original East Coast flagship closed permanently on 30 September 2026, while Long Beach's East Coast (UDMC) outlet moved to Coastal PlayGrove, 902 East Coast Parkway, when it left the seafood centre. If you cannot choose, the standard local move is to order one chilli crab and one black pepper crab and share.
Yes. JUMBO Seafood's flagship at East Coast Seafood Centre, the outlet where the brand started in 1987, closed permanently on 30 September 2026, when its lease expired and landlord NParks took the site back for redevelopment. Jumbo Group disclosed the closure in a company announcement, and the outlet made up roughly 14% of group revenue in the financial year ended September 2025. It was a closure of that outlet, not the brand: JUMBO's own outlet list now shows six Singapore restaurants, Riverside Point, Dempsey Hill, ION Orchard, Jewel Changi Airport, The Riverwalk and JUMBO Premium at Resorts World Sentosa. The East Coast farewell offers (the $39 half Australian lobster, $39 e-vouchers on a $200 spend, the weekly Dungeness crab giveaway, the Senior Ang coconut and the 1987 birthday dessert) all ended on 29 September. What still runs is 50% off Alaskan crab at every JUMBO Seafood restaurant until 30 November 2026 (extended from 31 October), while stocks last. Long Beach's UDMC outlet at the same seafood centre also left on 30 September 2026, but it relocated rather than closed and now trades at Coastal PlayGrove, 902 East Coast Parkway #01-01/02.
The Seafood Centre stretch emptied out at the end of September 2026, but East Coast has not lost crab altogether. JUMBO Seafood closed its East Coast flagship for good, so the nearest JUMBO chilli crab is now at Dempsey Hill, which runs the identical a la carte list at $10.80++ per 100g for a mud crab below 1kg. Long Beach did not close: its UDMC outlet moved along the coast to Coastal PlayGrove in East Coast Park, 902 East Coast Parkway #01-01/02 (parking at Carpark B2, tel 6448 3636), open 11am to 11pm, and to 11.30pm on Saturdays and eves of public holidays, per Long Beach's own outlet page. And Hua Yu Wee at 462 Upper East Coast Road stays where it is, a 1950s seafood house in a bungalow, dinner only from 5pm, and the closest thing left to an old East Coast crab night.
Both, and they are the same family story rather than two rival claims. Roland Restaurant's menu prints "The Year 1956, Founder of Chilli Crab", and Roland Lim's own site says his mother Cher Yam Tian worked out how to cook fresh crab with local flavours in the 1950s, and that his parents then started a roadside stall along Upper East Coast Road called Palm Beach Seafood. Palm Beach's own menu, in turn, says that in 1950 "Chef Cher" at its Upper East Coast Road restaurant created Singapore's original chilli crab, inspired by suggestions from Peranakan guests. That is the same cook. The stall grew into today's Palm Beach at One Fullerton, while Roland carried the family recipe to Marine Parade. So if you want the dish's roots, both addresses are legitimate, and they taste different: Roland's version is deliberately old-school with an eggless gravy and no added sambal, thinner, tangier and noticeably less sweet than JUMBO's.
Eng Seng, the Joo Chiat institution most people name first for black pepper crab, did not close. It moved, and a lot of listings have not caught up. The original shophouse at 247/249 Joo Chiat Place ceased operations on 31 August 2025 after the freehold corner unit sold for $8.55 million, and review sites still show that address. The same owners and the same head chef reopened at 9007 Tampines Street 93 (S528841), inside an industrial-estate canteen about a 15-minute walk from Tampines West MRT: roughly 11am to 10pm, closed on Mondays, and crabs are served at dinner only. They sell out most nights, so WhatsApp 8611 2247 to pre-order before you make the trip, and note they do not publish a price. If you want black pepper crab without the pilgrimage, Long Beach is the house that made the dish famous and charges the same $11.80++ per 100g for pepper as for chilli, at Dempsey, Robertson Quay and its relocated UDMC outlet at Coastal PlayGrove. Keng Eng Kee does it at a flat $93 for a 900g crab. And the cheapest of the lot is JUMBO 1987 at JUMBOREE, whose Signature Black Pepper Crab runs off the same $10.80 per 100g as its chilli crab, with no service charge and no GST on top.
