What is crab bee hoon? A short guide to Singapore's crab noodle
Mud crab, rice vermicelli, and two ways to serve them.
Quick answer
Crab bee hoon is a Singapore dish of mud crab cooked with rice vermicelli (bee hoon), served either as a soup or in a drier, braised or stir-fried style. Wikipedia credits Sin Huat Eating House in Geylang, and its chef Danny Lee, with originating it. Many restaurants now serve their own versions, ours included.
Definition
Crab bee hoon is a Singapore dish made from crab and rice vermicelli. The crab is usually a mud crab, cooked whole or in pieces. The vermicelli, called bee hoon in Singapore, absorbs the stock or the sauce. The result comes in two broad styles: a soup bowl with a lot of broth, or a drier, braised or wok-fried plate in which the noodles carry the flavour.
The dish is eaten with the hands as much as with chopsticks. You crack the shell, pull the meat from the claws and body, and use the noodles to mop up what is left. Because the crab is whole, the price tracks the size of the crab, and many restaurants quote it by weight.
Where the dish is said to come from
Wikipedia’s entry on crab bee hoon credits Sin Huat Eating House in Geylang, and its chef Danny Lee, as the originators of the dish. The entry cites food writing by Leslie Tay (2007), Mothership (2017), Time Out (2008) and CNN Travel (2010).
We cite this as Wikipedia’s account, not as established history. Singapore’s restaurants have their own origin stories, and we have no way to settle them. Eatbook (2 November 2023) describes Sin Huat’s version as having wok hei, and reported a price of about $80 a kg, plus a $16 bee hoon top-up, as of that date.
Two styles
Soup crab bee hoon. The crab sits in a stock, often herbal or milky, and the noodles are served in it. The Eatbook and HungryGoWhere round-ups describe claypot versions with broth boiled from crab shells, and a clean, balanced broth. Our signature is a soup: a milky herbal broth with Dang Gui.
Dry crab bee hoon. The crab and noodles are braised or stir-fried with little liquid. Round-ups describe wok hei, a charred wok aroma, and a gravy that coats the noodles. Our dry version is the Black Pepper Crab Bee Hoon, which the kitchen says is stir-fried dry.
Our menu also has a laksa-broth version, the Crab Laksa Bee Hoon, a soup-style bowl in a spiced broth.
Some places serve both and let you choose. If you cannot decide, soup or dry crab bee hoon sets out the tradeoffs.
How the price is usually quoted
At zi char restaurants, crab bee hoon is often quoted by weight and by season, which is why round-ups print “seasonal price” or “market price”. HungryGoWhere wrote in June 2026 that a typical crab bee hoon runs about $90 to $150 per kg. Our kitchen quotes fixed-size bowls from $39.80 as of October 2026. The price guide sets out the difference with dated sources.
Where our kitchen fits
Chicken Pie Kitchen & Don Signature Crab is one place among many that cook crab bee hoon. Chef Don Lim founded Don Pie and co-founded the kitchen, which cooks the signature soup today under the DonChef name. The crab dishes began as family cooking in the early 2000s and went on the menu after customers asked for them. Read our story for the dates, and the disclosed guide for other places to try.
Spellings you will see
You will see “bee hoon”, “beehoon” and “bihun” in menus and searches. In search suggestions for Singapore, “crab beehoon” appears alongside “crab bee hoon”, and the Ang Mo Kio claypot family appears as both “Mellben” and “Melben”. They refer to the same dish, and we use “bee hoon” throughout.
Questions people ask
What does bee hoon mean?
Bee hoon is the name Singaporeans use for rice vermicelli, a thin rice noodle.
Is crab bee hoon a soup?
It can be. Some places serve it as a soup, some as a dry, braised or stir-fried dish with little or no liquid, and some offer both. See soup or dry crab bee hoon.
Who invented crab bee hoon?
Wikipedia's entry credits Sin Huat Eating House and chef Danny Lee. Other restaurants have their own histories. We cite Wikipedia and do not settle the question.
What is the difference between crab bee hoon and chilli crab?
Chilli crab is a crab in a chilli gravy; our kitchen describes its version as a blend of sweet, spicy and savoury elements, with optional mantou. Crab bee hoon puts the crab with rice vermicelli, in soup or dry form. We cook both: chilli crab and more.