Vidya Deshpande

If you like seafood, especially crabs, then head for Park Royal’s Empress of China. They have an all-crab menu running from November 15 up to December 15. But be warned, you will have to pay a high price for some itsy, bitsy bits of crab meat, but you can be sure of a delightful experience.

For starters, we picked the Deep-Fried Crispy Crab Claws (Rs 250), served with a chilli honey sauce. And before you could say crab claw, we’d eaten all the meat it had. For the main course, the Black Pepper Crab (which is the chef’s special at Rs 795) is wonderfully spicy and tasty. Forget your table manners, leave the fork and knife aside, and use your fingers.

The waiters helpfully place a finger bowl and an empty bowl to clean your fingers and discard the shell pieces, respectively. A shell-cracker is also provided, so you don’t really need the cutlery. The Black Pepper Crab is very spicy; a milder option would be the Beer Crab.

The Braised Broccoli with Crab Meat Sauce (Rs 325) can be given a pass, unless you want to get in your day’s quota of green veggies.

The crabs are accompanied by fried rice and crab meat and pineapples. But each person can easily eat more than one crab, so watch your bill. It would be wise to team your order with dishes from the regular menu to keep the bill down and your stomach full.