We had foreign visitors visiting Singapore for the first time, so we just had to bring them to eat black pepper crabs. Considering it was closest to where we were, we decided to bring them to Long Beach Dempsey. We called at 11am that Tuesday morning to reserve a table for six, and lo and behold they only had free tables out on the patio. All indoor tables were taken up, shows how popular they are even on a weekday night! We ended up getting a table on their deck area and although I was initially afraid we were going to get feasted by mosquitos since we were in a darker section, I'm happy to say none of us were feasted upon.

My mum who had been here before said that the sets were worth looking into and she also had a "VIP card" that entitled her to 10% off and it also doubled up as a $10 international calling card (weird, but I'll take it) that she had received the last time she was here. I took a look at the set meal for 5-6 persons and thought the selection wasn't bad so we went for it.

The set consisted of:
1) Bamboo clams with garlic - This was sold out by the time we got there. The manager offered to replace it with sharks fin soup instead. The soup had crab meat in it as well. It was quite a standard sharks fin soup.
2) Scallops cooked either in garlic or Portuguese style - We chose the Portuguese style which was covered in cheese. I thought it was a little heavy in cheese, but the scallop was otherwise succulent.
3) House Prawns - Deep fried and a little like the butter style which had bits of fried fat, I assume. We thought the prawns were not fresh because it was tough and the skin didn't come off easily. The manager told us it was probably because the fire to cook it was too hot and not because the prawns were not fresh... who knows.
4) Black pepper crabs - By far the star of the night. The crabs did not disappoint. They were fresh, very tasty and succulent. Finger licking good. The out of towners were impressed.
5) Fried rice - Disappointing. There were pretty big sized pieces of lard I think. Nothing to shout about. Not much ingredients otherwise
6) Mushroom/Kai lan stirfry - Shiitake, straw mushrooms and kai lan in the usual thick gravy.
7) Dessert - Pulot Hitam with ice cream. Not a bad pairing.

We decided we wanted another vegetable dish so we got persuaded into ordering their special deep fried morning glory with cuttlefish. Each individual leaf was crisp and melted into your mouth. But knowing it's not very healthy didn't give one a good feeling. The cuttlefish was a little fishy but fortunately paired with the hint of the salty sauce on top made it less so. $20 was on the expensive side though...

On the whole dinner was pleasant. The restaurant was indeed hopping with lots of big parties going on. So much for tough economic times! We came here for the crabs and we weren't disappointed. Even though some of the dishes in the set were lacklustre, we thought value was there. With the drinks on top, paying $60 per person for a full meal wasn't bad, helped by the VIP card. Remember to make reservations!