Crab Hut at Shaftsbury Square, Cyberjaya: Review

Crustaceans mark their latest conquest in Cyberjaya: Crab Hut, a spin-off of Petaling Jaya’s Crab Factory, is now open at Shaftsbury Square, springing saucy surprises & offering a real reason for food lovers to take the trip to Malaysia’s tech town.

Getting Your Hands Dirty

Like Crab Factory, Crab Hut is about getting hands on & coming to grips with a hearty meal: Bags of cooked crabs & other seafood are spread across the table’s paper cover, beckoning customers to dig into these shells & dig out the fresh, meaty flesh with their fingers, mopping up lip-smacking sauces like Garlic Butter, Zesty Lemon, Jamba-Jamba Tomato & Signature Southern Bang. But there’s something extra, exclusive purely to Crab Hut: Promotional sauces that change every two months.

New Sauces for November and December

For November & December, Crab Hut’s new sauces are Asam Pedas, for a tangy kick, & Spicy Plum, supplying a sweet sting, both memorably robust but masterfully tuned to complement the seafood. Upcoming sauces are poised to take patrons around the world, potentially inspired by the likes of Mexico’s mole pablano, Penang’s assam laksa & other border-hopping recipes.

The sauces are stellar, but our satisfaction ultimately boils down to the seafood. Brand founder T.Y. is passionate about crabs, happily travelling to Klang to satiate her hankerings – she promises customers that Crab Hut remains unflaggingly honest about the weight of its seafood & is committed to fair prices. Here’s another reason to rush to Crab Hut before 2015 concludes: Australian spanner crabs – a large breed with distinctive physical features & a source of ravishingly sweet succulence – are available in Nov-Dec for only RM13+ per 100 grams (versus the regular price of RM19). And of course, there’s a wide range of other seafood to select: King, brown & meat crabs, plus a variety of lobsters, prawns, baby octopus, scallops & mussels.

For a Quick & Clean but Well-Prepared Meal

If you’re here for a quick & clean but well-prepared meal, Crab Hut also features pan-fried or barbecued single-platter specialities – red lobster (RM76.90+), salmon (RM28.90+), Aussie sirloin (RM39.90+) & spring chicken (RM24.90+), carefully cooked for optimum tenderness & matched with deliciously chosen sauces & sides (juicy corn & thick-textured mashed potatoes). If these look familiar, they’re also served at Persiaran KLCC’s Brolly, which is part of the Crab Factory family.

Crab Hut maintains a Louisiana link – you’ll find comfort fare like jambalaya (RM25.90+; this version is fried, with moist rice mashed up with prawns, chicken, spicy chicken sausage & mussels in vegetable stock), gumbo (RM13.90+; still the Klang Valley’s most satisfying interpretation, a steaming-hot soup with rice, prawns & sausage submerged), plus hush puppies, chicken & waffles, & Cajun-spiced okra. Other recommendations: Aussie onion petals (RM10.90+), squid tentacles (RM14.90+) & enoki mushrooms (RM8.90+) – crispy-fried, crowd-pleasing snacks that can be washed down with playful beverages like ice-blended Bandung crowned with whipped cream (RM7.90+). Many thanks to Crab Hut for having us here.