Omah’s: Crab, crab, crab

When we want crab, we’re serious. Recently, I was in a group of 10 that went to Omah’s Restaurant in Port Melbourne on a very cold evening with one aim: eat crab until we could eat no more.

Omah’s has been in Port Melbourne for several years, selling Malaysian cuisine (they recently opened a branch in Hawthorn). The restaurant’s decor is inspired by 1950’s Malaysian tea houses, with dark furniture on the floor and wooden birdcages hanging from the ceiling. During the day it would be bright and airy as there are floor to ceiling windows looking out to Rouse Street, however in the evening the lighting was turned way down low – always a food blogger’s nightmare.

We were there to eat crabs, so we started off with an order of five, choosing an assortment of flavours. Each mud crab is $39.90 (regardless of weight) and there are several flavours to choose from – salted egg, chilli, black pepper, lemongrass and five spice.

All the crabs were fantastic, but everyone’s favourite was the salted egg crab. It had been fried in a salted egg mixture, which gave it a crunchy, rich, salty coating. I literally licked all the coating off the back of one of the crab shells – decorum be damned!

After rapidly gobbling down our five crabs, we put in an order for four more – another three salted egg and one lonely black pepper. So that was nine crabs between the ten of us… we decided after our second order that we wanted at least one more, but unfortunately Omah’s had sold out of crabs for the night. Darn it!

My second favourite flavour was the black pepper. It had been cooked in a wet sauce and had a good pepper kick. Surprisingly for someone who loves chilli, I wasn’t particularly enamored of the chilli crab – most likely because it had a sweeter style sauce, rather than a spicy one.

We didn’t eat anything else that night, so I can’t comment on any of Omah’s other dishes. I just know that if you want crabs, go to Omah’s and order the salted egg one. You might also want to ask for a crab each when booking so you don’t suffer from not-enough-crab-regret. I’ve been there – it’s a sad place to be.

Ed from Tomatom was also there that night. We noticed that they didn’t eat nearly as much crab as us. Hah.

Thanks to my fellow crab eaters for a fun, crab smashing night: K, Thanh, Allan, Bryan and I-Hua. Can you believe this was only a small part of the carnage?

For more on Omah’s, check out these blogs:

  • Simon Food Favourites
  • Kimba’s Kitchen
  • Berry Travels
  • The Chronicles of Ms I-Hua
  • Food Cautious> (About the Hawthorn branch)
  • Let’s get fat together
  • Prililicious
  • Cacao Coated
  • Food Trips in Melbourne
  • A Gastronomical Voyage in Melbourne


  • [googleMap name=”Omah’s Malaysian Restaurant” width=”600″ height=”300″ directions_to=”false”]136-138 Rouse St, Port Melbourne, VIC Australia[/googleMap]

    Omah’s Restaurant
    136-138 Rouse St
    Port Melbourne VIC 3207
    Phone: (03) 9676 9918
    Web: omahs.com

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