Jumbo @ Dempsey

You know that Jumbo Seafood @ Dempsey has the chops when it is constantly flowing with guests.

You could attribute it to her central location at the uppity Dempsey Village enclave. Or to its slick bistro-like design; a timber-decked alfresco patio surrounded by lush greeneries and a colonnaded black-and-white interior adorned with floor-to-ceiling seafood tanks, a see-through wine cellar and a glass-framed kitchen.

But it’s definitely the exemplary seafood seasoned with aplomb. Steamed bamboo clams arrived doused with generous helpings of piquant minced garlic, scallions and vermicelli in a heavenly-light soya sauce while the dong xing ban garoupa fish is steamed simply and confidently to reveal pristine slivers of melt-in-the-mouth flesh. The star dish is, however, Singapore’s iconic crab dish; Sri Lankan crabs bathed in a tangy chili sauce or fried with heaps of tongue-searing coarse black pepper.

Their desserts menu may not raise many eyebrows; but what they do they definitely excelled. We love our or nee, a silky smooth paste of yam topped with sweet-corn flecked milk.