Crab Noodle 蟹麵膳

I don't even know if they have an English name, I always just refer to it as "Crab Noodle". This is a restaurant that has been around for a long time... possibly for around 5 years? I just never went in because none of my friends ever talked about it and they don't really do any "marketing".

One day I decided that I would step away from my desk and do some solo eating at a restaurant, so I thought, let's finally go try that restaurant that you've always been oh so curious about.... and well so I did.

Though I don't like wonton, I ordered their signature crab meat wonton noodles simply because they said it was their signature. I got a side of veggies and fried fish skin as well because altogether the bill would still be under a $100 and I felt like I deserved a nice meal that day. Honestly it didn't change my mind about wontons, but I could tell that if it was someone who like wontons they would have really liked that bowl of noodles. Also I saw that at the bottom of my bowl there were real pieces of crab meat (not the imitation crab meat), so I felt like they really put a lot of effort into making the soup base (which tasted very "crabby"). The veggies were pea sprouts and was only $20 so I thought that was really a steal. The fish skin I would not recommend because I found it not that crunchy and had a strong oily taste... or maybe it just didn't go with the crab wonton soup. Another thing that really impressed me was that the owner turned down my offer to move to another seat to make space for another group. Being in Hong Kong for 6 years, I know the cha tsan tang game... if you are taking up a table for 3 and you are alone, you should move to share a table with the other solo eaters! Anyway, I was impressed that the owner let me finish the last bites of my food instead of pushing me to sit shoulder to shoulder with someone else.

Anyway, after seeing the real crab meat and the refusing my offer to move to another seat incident, I went on to rave about this restaurant to my friends and colleagues. I brought my friend N there like... 2 days later or something and she really liked it as well. In 2 weeks I went there for about 5 times and tried most of their dishes.

• Hua diao chicken wings vermicelli 花雕醉雞中翼米: absolutely delicious and my favorite there. It really tastes and smells like hua diao without getting my drunk
• Hainan chicken rice 海南雞飯: also very good, the rice tastes really really good and they are really generous with the portion so I was really happy
• Crab brain sauce over pea sprouts and udon 蟹黃豆苗烏冬: this was on their daily rotating menu and recommended by the owner. I can see that they used real crab brain but the flavour was a little more on the light side (probably because they didn't want to overdose on the msg)
• Hua diao shrimp balls noodles 花雕醉蝦丸米: no I wouldn't get it again because it tastes nothing like hua diao and I don't like to pay $60 for noodles and the main ingredients are freaking balls
• Fried 3 treasures 炸三寶: I totally just made that English name up right now. Basically it's your choice of 4 items (I don't know why they always call it 3), so like bell pepper, tofu, wonton skin and eggplant "devil'ed" with fish meat and deep fried. I think they do a really good job of it here and it tastes very fresh and non-greasy.

By day they are a regular cha tsan tang kinda restaurant, but by night they are... Batman. No just kidding, by night they are a private kitchen with a set menu, so you have to call at least a day in advance to see if they have any spots left. You will also need to have at least 2 people in your party to make a reservation. It looks pretty legit so the plan is to visit it "someday". Visit their facebook page for more info: https://www.facebook.com/crabcrab2013

This is the shrimp balls noodle I wasn't really happy with... oh well, I still love them.

Location: ground floor of Haleson Building on Jubilee Street by "The Game Center"
Website: https://zh-tw.facebook.com/crabcrab2013