Mutiara Seafood (Wisma Geylang Serai)

Mutiara Seafood is a seafood restaurant at Wisma Geylang Serai, a community and heritage centre in the east of Singapore. It is run by JUMBO Group, the company behind JUMBO Seafood, and opened in March 2023. The menu mixes Singapore-style crab and seafood with a grill section of Indonesian-style dishes.

The name means "pearl" in Malay. The theme draws on Singapore's early fishing villages, where Chinese, Malay and Indian families lived side by side and shared their catch. The menus are written in both Malay and English.

What to order

Crab is the main draw. The signature chilli crab comes in a sweet and spicy chilli sauce, with fried mini buns for mopping it up. Crab is sold by weight, and mud crab and Alaskan crab are among the choices. Other crab styles have included black pepper, salted egg and steamed with egg white.

From the grill, try the ayam panggang kecap, an Indonesian-style grilled chicken. The wider menu covers seafood pumpkin soup, crispy fried baby squid and salted egg fish skin. Giant prawns come stir-fried with tamarind sauce, or in a spicy mala claypot with glass noodles for those who like heat. Lobster or king prawn pao fan, rice in a rich seafood broth, is another of the chef's picks.

For dessert, there is chilled mango pudding and a chilled pulut hitam pudding, made with black glutinous rice and coconut.

Set menus and groups

Set menus for groups of four to ten people are a simple way to try several dishes at once. Each one includes the signature chilli crab. Other courses range from seafood tom yum soup and Indonesian grilled chicken to steamed live lobster with egg white and garlic. The restaurant often runs lunch and dinner set promotions, so check its official website before you book.

Reservations can be made online through the website. Takeaway and delivery are available through its online store, and there is a catering service for events at home or work.

The setting

The restaurant spans two floors of Wisma Geylang Serai and seats about 176 diners in total. Eatbook described a smaller indoor dining room and a patio with around 75 seats. Private dining rooms on the second floor can be joined into one larger hall for events. That makes it a practical choice for family celebrations and office dinners.

Getting there and nearby

The restaurant is about an eight-minute walk from Paya Lebar MRT station. Geylang Serai Market is close by and makes a good stop for Malay hawker food. Read up first with our guide to Malay hawker dishes. For more crab, see our chilli crab and seafood restaurants, or browse other restaurants in Geylang and Paya Lebar. Our seafood guides explain chilli crab and the other local crab dishes.