Crab Factory @ SS2 PJ

The opening of Brolly in Persiaran KLCC meant that Crab Factory is now available closer to home and accessible to patrons who live in KL.  But my friends and I decided to have our seafood fill at their original branch as we felt we'd be more at home with the overall feel and ambience of everyone digging in and eating with their hands.

So, on a Saturday afternoon, we made our way to Crab Factory @ SS2 PJ.  As this was lunch time, it was much easier to secure a table without reservations.  In fact, we were the first ones here.

The Crab Factory's Original Louisiana Boil takes a page off backyard seafood boils where family and friends would gather for great food and good company.  You'd find prices of the seafood displayed on boards on the walls of the restaurant.  Some seafood may be seasonal but you'd still have a good selection of seafood to choose from.

Currently, the prices (just in case you'd like to know or wish to weigh the costs to see if this will be an affordable meal for you) are as follows:

Meat Crabs - available in different weights with each offering 2 pcs of crabs
RM218 (700g) / RM183 (600g) / RM148 (500g) / RM109 (400g) / RM85 (300g with 3 pcs)

King Crabs - RM34 per 100g / Brown Crabs - RM19 per 100g

Bamboo Lobsters - RM30 per 100g / Canadian Lobsters - RM190 for 2 pcs

Slipper Lobsters - RM65 (500g) / RM123 (1kg)

Australian Yabbies - RM88 (500g) / RM168 (1kg)

Japanese Amaebi - RM98 (500g) / RM186 (1kg)

Freshwater Prawns - RM59 (500g) / RM110 (1kg)

Canadian Scallops - RM96 (500g) / RM182 (1kg)

New Zealand Mussels - RM45 (500g) / RM81 (1kg)

Japanese Snails - RM30 (500g) / RM54 (1kg)

Baby Octopus - RM35 (500g) / RM63 (1kg)

How to Order:

Step 1 - Choose your seafood (and your desired weight).

Step 2 - Choose your sauce from a choice of zesty lemon & garlic butter (normal sauces) and Jamba-Jamba & Signature Southern Bang (spicy sauces) with a spiciness level of mild, medium, 'oly crab or death valley.

Step 3 - Choose your bag buddies from a choice of potatoes, corn, chicken sausages or mushrooms (king, button or enoki).

Once seated, our table was lined with a plastic sheet which will serve as our 'plates'.  And as soon as we've made our orders, our 'tools of the trade' appeared....a food hammer, nutcracker, plastic bibs and paper napkins.....everything you'll need to launch an 'assault' on the seafood to come! :D 

Put on your bib and let's get cracking......for some messy eating ahead!  Wear something appropriate, make sure your hands are jewellery-free...and get ready for the onslaught of flying cracked shells and sauce on your hands, arms or any part of your body! ;-D

Our first bag of goodies to arrive....Amaebi (500g) @ RM98 with king mushrooms (RM8.90) in zesty lemon sauce.  The sauce was absolutely tangy with the fresh taste of lemons and a strong flavour of black pepper.  This turned out to be my friends' favourite sauce.

These Japanese sweet shrimps were quite huge and they were utterly fresh and juicy.  The sweet taste of the prawns came shining through without being overpowered by the sauce.

Sucking on the prawn heads and all its juices is highly encouraged....it's an Asian thing to do! ;)

This was followed by our choice of Yabbies (500g) @ RM88 with corn (RM4.90) in garlic butter sauce.  The corn was surprisingly sweet and very tasty after absorbing all the garlic and butter flavours of the sauce.  This was my favourite sauce of the three.

The yabbies were just as fresh and juicy...and rather huge as well.  But to get at the meat of the yabby, it'll be a little trickier as the shell is harder to peel off.

Again, sucking the hell out of those yabby heads is again permitted! :D  I just couldn't resist playing with the yabby head which was kinda cute, don't you think?

Finally, our next bag was the 'piece de resistance'.....our bag of Meat Crabs (500g) @ RM148 with potatoes (RM7.90) in Jamba-Jamba sauce (mild).  We went with this weight for two decent sized crabs that are not too big (as those would be deemed too expensive) and not too small (that they won't be nice).

I originally wanted the crabs with garlic butter but the server recommended a spicy sauce and we settled for the mildest heat level as a member of our eating party can't take spiciness.  Even at mild, you can still feel the spiciness, so I definitely wouldn't recommend the other spice levels if you can't take the heat.  I can't imagine those who'd choose 'oly crab or death valley (maybe they had a death wish or maybe they just want to show they can handle the heat) but I personally wouldn't choose that as it'll overpower the taste of the crabs.  On hindsight, I would have preferred a milder sauce to let the crab shine coz I want to be able to taste the crab.  I wasn't overly impressed with this Jamba-Jamba sauce as I think our Chinese-style sweet and sour sauce (and our chilli crabs) tastes loads better.

The crabs were meaty with very fresh and sweet tasting meat.  Holy crap.....just look at the size of that claw!  You could pour out all the seafood from the bags onto the table top (like what you'd see on most blogs) but we didn't as we wanted the seafood to stay warm and steeped in its juices and sauce for as long as possible.

My favourite parts of the crab are the claws and the 'spaceship' (top shell of the crab).  I enjoyed eating all the innards in the 'spaceship' and digged all the goodness out....yum, yum! ;D  If this was an egg crab, that's where you'd find the eggs too (those that are still intact and have not fallen off into the sauce).

And this was the aftermath of our seafood feast...it looked like a typhoon just came through here!! :D :D  Well, it's certainly better to have enjoyed and made a mess than never to have enjoyed at all!

Of course, we just had to try the Gumbo @ RM13.90, a Louisiana staple of a stew or soup in a strongly-flavoured stock with sausage, shrimp, shredded chicken, rice and vegetables of celery, bell peppers and onions.  This was a hearty soup, full of spices, that I enjoyed very much.

For the two young ones in the party, I ordered a serving of Pollock Fish Fingers @ RM14.90 that came with fries sprinkled with something strange on top (that looked like icing sugar?).  I wouldn't know as I didn't have any.

For our drinks, we ordered four Smooshies @ RM8.90 each in the flavours of Guava+Soursop, Watermelon+Cucumber+Mint, Orange+Pineapple+Mango and Apple+Dragon Fruit.

We started our meal on a low....and then it went on a high...and ended on a low.....and here's why:

Side Story #1
I didn't know water was such a precious commodity until I came here.  My friend, who was in a detox programme, needed a cup of hot water to steep her detox tea bag as it has to be drunk before any meal intake.  She asked for it but the server say they don't have hot water (huh, a full running kitchen and they don't have water?).  I asked again, she told me the same thing.  So, I asked to speak to the manager.  She brought me her senior (not the manager as I saw the manager earlier as I can recognise him from their Facebook page).  He also gave me the same answer.  I then told him that my friend needed it for her medicine and he reluctantly agreed and finally returned with a disposable plastic cup filled with just an inch of water initially.  I asked for a bit more and he came back with two inches of hot water...wow, water is very precious here!  But when he saw my friend put a teabag into the water, he literarily pounced on her and said, "I thought you said it's for your medicine.  It's our policy that we don't allow outside food or drinks."  I told him, "This is not out an outside drink, it's a detox tea."

He continued to show his dissatisfaction and annoyance by questioning my friend further and she even brought out her packet of detox tea to prove to him (which she didn't need to, in my opinion, they obviously have not heard of the line "the customer is always right").  I can understand his displeasure if we had not ordered any drinks but there were four of us and we ordered four smooshies....isn't that enough?  Apparently not!  Here we are having a meal at their restaurant that is costing us close to RM500 and they can't bloody well give us two inches of hot water???  Shame on them!!!

Side Story #2
And our discontentment didn't end there.  When I reached home and checked the bill, I realised that I was overcharged RM25.75 (inclusive of 10% service charge) for four drinks that we didn't consume.  Yeah, I know, we're partly at fault for not checking the bill there and then but I would hope that they wouldn't be that incompetent as to charge someone else's drinks into our bill.  I usually do go through the bill before paying but, this time, because my friend's little one was crying and, in my haste to leave, I only checked the bill for the big item prices (the crabs, amaebi and yabbies) and not the entire bill.  I know it'd be impossible to claim a refund (not that we'd be bothered to anyway) as we cannot prove that we didn't consume those drinks but that didn't stop me from showing my displeasure with an email (2 weeks ago) to the restaurant just to see if they'd reply...and, of course, they didn't!  I rest my case!

My Personal Opinion

Overall, there was no denying that the seafood was extremely fresh and good tasting....and undeniably finger lickin' delicious!  We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves with this meal although the prices are very steep, not something we can indulge in on a regular basis.

As much as we enjoyed the meal, we can't say the same for the service!  We were really pissed off by the hot water and the overcharge in our bill.  Maybe, if the manager had handled the situation, it could have turned out differently, I don't know but he wasn't around at that point in time.

In the end (I'm still gonna be objective in my review), I have to say that the crabs were good......but the service was crap! >:(  Will I be back?  Let's see...I pay probably about the same amount for a meal in say a place where I'll be assured of getting good service (maybe even doted upon) or some other equivalent just-as-good seafood place.....what do you think?

The Crab Factory
21 Jalan SS2/64
47300 Petaling Jaya
Selangor
Tel: 03-7865 5850