Fancy Crab Review

Fancy Crab is a restaurant I’ve wanted to dine at for some time now. I have seen lots of advertisements about it on Instagram especially - good to know those stalking marketing techniques really work! It is located on Wigmore Street which is literally the road behind Selfridges. Though I shop regularly at Selfridges and my hair salon is not too far from there, I always felt like I needed time to visit Fancy Crab and do it some justice. Plus, it’s not always easy to find a fellow dining companion who enjoys the delicious crustacean.

I visited during peak lunch time (after 1pm) and though I made a reservation, there was really no need as it was a weekday and quite empty. There were a mixture of normal seating areas and booths; since I had requested the booth, they were happy to oblige. Our main waitress Laura was professional, friendly and efficient. The restaurant itself is spacious and has two floors, and as soon as you enter, you can see the kitchen at the back where a huge crab chills, waiting to be devoured (as seen in the picture above) - the Godzilla of crabs.

We weren’t that hungry but wanted to try a few of the dishes, including starters, main, sides and desserts. For the starter, we ordered some oysters and though there were three different types, we decided to get a mixture of the three for £9.50. The oysters were fresh but hadn’t been cleaned properly as there were still some bits of broken shell with it. This doesn’t change the quality of the oyster but it gives an indication that maybe the oysters were shucked in a hurry.

For the main, we ordered the ‘King Crab Legs and Claws’ which was £18 per 100g but the minimum order has to be 200g. I love crab leg and can’t get enough of it, but I couldn’t understand why they didn’t just write it as £36 for 200g. What came out was delicious and I thoroughly enjoyed it, with the exception of the butter sauce which I thought was too greasy and sickly. They would have been better off offering a simple garlicky sauce but often crab is perfectly fine to eat on it’s own due to it’s tender and sweet meat. As you can see below however, it is one leg and one claw where the menu is very misleading as it says “crab legS & clawS”. I should beat whoever wrote the menu with a heavy crab leg!

We also ordered the ‘Singapore Chili Crab’ for £28. It was accompanied by fragrant white rice and the main dish was well-flavoured. I’ve had Singaporean Chili Crab in Singapore and needless to say, there was a difference and could not compete with the original. But at the same time, I still enjoyed it. It had a nice kick but was nowhere near as spicy as the original which is a shame as I love spicy food, but maybe it was to cater to the English tastebuds. I find the English to either be lemon and herb people, a la Nandos style or full blown, blow your brains out Vindaloo curry.

We ordered two sides to accompany the mains, including the ‘Buttered Spinach’ £4.50 and ‘Truffled Fries’ £5. Though I like salty food, the buttered spinach was far too salty - coming from the salty queen, that's saying something. I never send food back but I had to as I felt like I was overdosing on sodium. The waitress was gracious and took it back to the kitchen but by the time it had been re-prepared, we had already finished our mains therefore ended up eating the spinach with the remaining fries. Weird combo. The truffled fries were nice but mainly flavoured with and swimming in truffle oil. Though tasty, I’ve had better truffle fries elsewhere. That were more… trufflelier (not a word I know, but you get my point!)

Last but not least, we ordered the dessert ‘Crème Brûlée’ £7 which I believe was infused with lavender. Don’t get me wrong, I love lavender but just not in my food. The crème brûlée itself was very well made, and delicious but the infusion meant I felt like I was eating a potpourri bowl. The presentation was beautiful and very Instagrammable.

Not forgetting the cocktail - it was after 12pm therefore I can’t be classified as an alcoholic - I ordered the ‘Drunken Pear’ £12 which was described as pear flavoured with slightly spiced gin. Though it looked pretty, it literally just tasted of healthy pear juice. There was nothing unpleasant about it but at the same time, nothing stood out.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, the restaurant presented nice food which was tasty but nothing stood out and screamed “WOW” for me. In honesty, I visited with expectations and felt a little let down. The total bill came to £135 for one starter, two mains, 2 sides, 1 dessert and 4 drinks. This amount of food was enough as we weren't that hungry but if you were starving, this amount of food would not be enough for 2 people so just bear that in mind! The service was good, the quality was good, the drinks were okay, but that’s the point, nothing was excellent. If you see pictures on Instagram, FC looks like some amazing bouji restaurant, with Michelin standard food but it wasn’t reflected with the visit in person. Everything was beautifully presented but I felt this restaurant cared more about how the dishes looked rather than how it tasted- style over substance. There were also lots of nods towards lavender, so either the owner really loves lavender or they should rename it the Fancy Lavender Crab. In fairness, I probably would like to visit the restaurant one more time, maybe with a bigger group (ordering a whole crab) and this time for dinner to see if there’s a big difference.

Until next time xo