Another day, another complaint against Sin Huat Seafood at Geylang Lorong 35.

This latest Oct. 24, 2017 complaint is about how four seafood dishes for a family of three people at the low-key eatery in the red-light district can even come up to S$353.40.

The dishes included a fish, squid and crab bee hoon.

Always has been expensive

For uninitiated diners, Sin Huat Seafood has come as a rude shock on many occasions.

The prices are expensive, the place doesn't even look like it has seen better days, the menu is non-existent and the chef looks much the worse for wear as he personally takes orders and serves the food when looking grumpy.

Searching for reviews of Sin Huat Seafood online throws up results of people already making the same complaints at least 10 years ago.

History of Sin Huat Seafood

The place is run by Chef Danny himself over the years.

He was a pig farmer but was forced to open a restaurant after the government shut down the last of the local pig farms in Pungool in he early 1990s.

He started out with regular zi char dishes and attracted a following.

The anecdote of how his crab bee hoon dish came about was after a patron did not want to order both a crab dish and a Hor Fun and the two got combined together.

Chef Danny continued to work on the recipe and submitted it for the AsiaFood competition in 1997.

What do people complain about

The list of complaints against Sin Huat Seafood has been constant over the years. But they have done nothing to its existence.

• Chef Danny is always referred to as a Food Nazi

• No menu to indicate what dishes there are or how much they cost

• The service is horrible

• The place is run-down

• The food is nothing to shout about

• This is not a usual zi char place

• The waiting time is 45 minutes or more

• The cost is exorbitant

• There is limited variety

On the contrary, the complaints only serve to make this place more infamous, and rightfully, more intriguing.

However, customers who know Chef Danny attest that he is actually friendly. And as he knows his regular patrons well, he knows what they like and is cordial.

What do people like about it

Sin Huat Seafood has a limited variety of dishes because these are the best.

The only reason you will find Sin Huat's stir fried kailan as the most photographed vegetable dish online is because that is probably the only vegetables they serve.

Chef Danny does not do chicken or other zi char dishes.

Accolades

Chef-host Anthony Bourdain listed Sin Huat Seafood as one of the 13 places to eat before you die back in September 2011:

5) Sin Huat Eating House (Singapore) It's grimy looking, the service can be less than warm, the beer is served in a bottle (often with ice), and the tables sit halfway into the streets of Geylang, Singapore's red-light district. But the crab bee hoon—giant Sri Lankan beasts cooked with a spicy mystery sauce and noodles—is pure messy indulgence. The whelks, steamed spotted cod, prawns, scallops (in fact, any seafood available that day) are all worth having. Warning: It looks cheap, but it's not.

Sin Huat Seafood is still listed on the 2017 Singapore Michelin Bib Gourmand after first appearing on it in 2016.