The crab cake is comfortably the more popular appetiser option on @wadodining menu, as expected. Sure, the crabby duo look kinda small & paltry in size, but do bear in mind that you’ve most likely downed a bowl of soup before this, plus you’ve got a full sized main course coming right up. And that’s not to mention dessert. All things considered, the portion size of the crab cakes are adroitly allocated.⠀

As momma always said, it’s what’s inside that counts, right? Well, yes. A creamy concoction of crabmeat cooked in a rich béchamel stuffs the crispy, deep fried casing to the gills. Yep, it’s pretty much a croquette. The crabcakes should’ve been fried for about 30 seconds longer, or in hotter oil. It was a little unappealingly pale on the plate, and one expects a little deeper shade of golden brown on a deep fried croquette.⠀

Like many of the other savoury items on the menu, I found the crab mixture within to be bland, and it was mostly creamy without much flavour. However, unlike the rest of the savouries, I didn’t mind it as much. Why, you ask? Well, the smidge of chili crab mayonnaise applied to the plate was a stroke of sheer inspiration. It’s a great example of how to adeptly infuse well loved local flavours into a western classic without any element feeling out of place.⠀

The chili crab mayo was almost a dead ringer for the chili crab sauces you’d get at an excellent Chinese seafood restaurant, with its brilliantly balanced sweet & savoury essences, and a slight but noticable sour tone at the back. Boosted by the creaminess of the mayonnaise base, this is a uniquely umami sauce. Shame there wasn’t quite enough of it, but what you do get is rather redolent.⠀

Despite the improvements that could be made, there’s no crab involved when I say that these crab-tivating crabcakes are decently claw-some in their own right.

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