Momma Kong's - Singapore

I served with the RAF Far East Air Force in the 1960's. Singapore Chilli Crab was one of the most memorable meals I had when on the Island. The last time I had Singapore Chilli Crab was at the Goodwood Park Hotel in 1968! On my visit to Singapore in 2020 I enquired about restaurants that served Chili Crab and was advised to head for Momma Kong's. What a brilliant experience. The meal brought back memories of over 50 years ago. Excellent food, excellent service and the most welcoming and friendliest of people. They proprietor even took a photograph as a reminder of my visit to the restaurant. So, if you visit Singapore and fancy trying Singapore Chilli Crab, head for Momma Kong's on Mosque Street. You will not be disappointed.

Found this restaurant by surfing on the web. Ordered the Singapore infamous Red Chili Crab, man tao and dou miao (green veggies). Unlike the cooked food stall, there's a fixed price for the crab instead of charging by weight. Also, this restaurant has a good reputation that no MSG will be added to any of the food. Long waited the infamous Red Chili Crab was finally arrived. The crab was in decent size. The presentation was nice. I first worried about the red chili sauce would be too spicy. Actually it wasn't so bad. It's a mixture of sour and spicy and the level of spiciness was kind of in the middle. It was very good. This is a must eat dish in here. Mantau was a deep fried steam roll. It is slightly sweet. It has a wonderful texture of the crispiness on the outside shell and softness in the inside of the mantau. Dou miao is fresh. Other than the dishes. The waiters were patient to explain the dishes on the menu and to show me pictures of the dishes which I wasn't sure what they were. Highly recommend this place!

When in Singapore you MUST get crab. Well, unless you 're deathly allergic, then maybe not. But for everyone else, Chili Crab is a must. I was told a story that Singapore is green because it apparently looks like a crab and a brown crab is an unhealthy crab so they decided to plant many trees to make it a green crab. It 's alive! I think I missed some of the parts to that story, but nevertheless, crab is a really important part of Singapore for all tourists. It 's not too hard to find places that serve Chili Crab and they 're usually swarming with tourists. Crab is also super expensive but I figured it was worth the splurge as long as I could get a review out of the trip. I decided to go to Mama Kong 's because it was recommended to me by a Singaporean friend. I had tried to go last year and was turned away because I didn 't have a reservation. I wasn 't about to make the same mistake this time and booked a reservation for 5pm table for one! The restaurant is small with seating both indoors and outdoors, It 's a clean, sit down restaurant with a cozy vibe. Very different from the Chili Crab places about a block away. Reservations were made online and they have a rewards program, but since I don 't live here I didn 't sign up. I had had Chili Crab before at a tourist trap and it was awesome so I was expecting good things. The Black Pepper crab is The Original crab that is most recommended here. I was told it was spicy so I decided to get the classic Red Chilli spelling it how it 's spelled on the menu) instead. It 's advertised as your basic Chili Crab, but Mama Kong 's style. Both crabs were priced at $50 $36.67 USD), so it didn 't make a difference in terms of budget. Again, crab is always expensive in Singapore. It 's probably possible to find cheaper crab, though. I was parched and got an apple juice, as well. It was $6 $4.40 USD) and it literally tasted like apple juice, so I wouldn 't say this was special by any means. It was definitely over priced but whatever, I needed something to drink and Mama Kong 's didn 't have a special drink that I was dying to try. The apple juice came first, followed by the Chili Crab shortly after. The crab was huge and I also ordered Fried Mantou for $3 $2.20 USD) which is commonly served with Chili Crab. The Fried Mantou were so good! They were a bit heavy for me so I didn 't eat all of them, but while they may have been unhealthy, they were also very delicious. I dipped the bread into the Chili sauce and enjoyed. The crab came pre cracked. They have a de shelling service but I didn 't need it. I made piles of crab meat on the small plate they provided. I then put the meat onto the big spoon and scooped some Chili Sauce. The crab meat was juicy and there was a decent amount. The Chili sauce was sweet with a strong kick. I don 't like spice so it was borderline too much for me, but I was pretty happy overall. It didn 't go too well with the apple juice, though. Next time, I 'll opt for a water. The restaurant was pretty empty while I was there but it 's probably because I got there so early. The waiters asked to take a photo of me and gave me a copy with my check. The service was good and every one was super nice. I think Mama Kong 's is a great place to go if you 're looking for Chili Crab and you want a nice, cozy ambience. However, the actual quality of the crab was similar to that of the crab I 've had a tourist traps and the crab overall was a bit too pricey for what it was. Plus, the $6 apple juice really threw me off. TOTAL COST: $70.05 $51.38 USD) 34 Mosque St Singapore This review is copy and pasted from my blog of solo travels and solo reviews.

If you like crab, this is the place for you. We tried the classic Singaporean dish: chili crab. It's priced at $55 Singapore dollars, which is like $40 usd, not bad for a whole crab! The crab meat itself was really good and plentiful. The sauce is sweet and spicy at the same time. Be sure to order bread on the side to soak up the sauce. You can get the bread steamed or fried. We got steamed but kinda regretted it seeing other customers' fried bread.

My wife and I visited Singapore for the first time after Christmas, following a trip to the Philippines to attend a major family event, and we made it a point to sample some of Singapore 's signature dishes. We tried Hainanese Chicken Rice our first night and Fish Head Curry from Banana Leaf Apolo the following day. For our last full day in Singapore, we headed out to Chinatown to try Chili Crab at Momma Kong 's. Our initial research pointed to No Signboard Seafood as the place to get chili crab. However, recent reviews of No Signboard Seafood point to a decline in dining experience so we decided to give Momma Kong 's a try. Reservations are highly recommended as the place was quite popular and cozy, with indoor and limited outdoor seating. Even in late December, it was hot and humid in Singapore and indoor seating with AC is preferable. We made a reservation for 2 for 5:00 PM, right when they open. They must get busy since we were informed they have a 7:00 PM reservation for the same table and they hoped we would be done by then. I was a bit put off by that but I knew we would not be lingering that long so no harm no foul. I ordered the red chili crab Sri Lankan mud crab fresh flown daily at least that 's their claim with jasmine rice. My wife, a self proclaimed lazy eater opted for the prawn fried rice. For starters we shared the fried tofu chips with a zesty tomato based dipping sauce. To round out our order, we ordered fried mantou and a couple of refreshing calamansi juices on the menu as lime juice . The chili crab was the unquestioned highlight of our dinner...and it got messy. The chili gravy wasn 't spicy and even had a hint of sweetness. The crab was fresh and I had to work to extract the meat...for the both of us. They can de shell the crab for a fee $15? ...but where 's the fun in that? Needless to say, I used multiple napkins so rare to find napkins in restaurants in Singapore during dinner. The prawn fried rice was good as well as were the fried mantous. The fried tofu chips were also a hit. Based on food alone, we were inclined to give this place 5 stars. However, I rate on the entire dining experience. So what were the negatives? For starters, we didn 't ask for but we were served these coated peanuts. They were OK...nothing special. We thought they were complimentary only to find out we were charged $2 SGD Singapore Dollars for them. We also used the wet napkins on the table of course...this was a crab place and it gets messy ...and was charged $0.60 SGD for them. Oh yeah, we also found out they added a 10% Service Charge for a dinner for 2! I just can 't help but feel like we were being nickeled and dimed for what already was a relatively expensive meal...just took away from the experience. Dinner for 2 came out to just under $108 SGD...or about $75 US in real money.