Mellben Seafood (Ang Mo Kio)

The crabs are yummy, especially the chilli crabs and crab beehoon.

Got to be there as early as 530pm to avoid the long queue.

HOT = popular = spicy We had to wait for more than half an hour to get us a table for 2. Hopes were high due to the many positive reviews and long wait. The chilli crab was too spicy for my liking but it’ll probably be good for those who love spicy food. The man tou served well with the thick gravy. The stir fried vegetables was average.

Ha! today is Sunday and after reviewing my woes on a lousy seafood restaurant i went to yesterday i decided to give my long due review on Melben @ amk! I went there a few times before with my colleagues and friends, and last month with my gf on a saturday evening @6.30pm. Had tried to make reservations but they do not have this service, so we queued and it was a pretty long queue. From afar one might mistaken this queue for 4D! Less than 5mins we were attended by a waitress, she was nothing down the no. of persons for everyone in the queue. Very fast and polite and informative. good. Then she came back to us and proposed a table indoors for us, i actually prefer outdoors. but such long queue made me accept the offer. and we were ushered into the restaurant. All in all, we were seated in less than 15 mins queuing outside the restaurant. luckily we were the only couple in the queue as i noticed mostly were large families. I ordered my favorite crab dish, they recommended butter crabs. I requested for crabs with roe (female crabs) and scallops with asparagus with xo sauce, also crabs with beehoon in a claypot. We waited for quite some time for the food, about 30mins... a few tables were waiting too. Finally the dishes arrived and the crabs were good! they were big and fleshy and fresh! with lots of roe too! we had a 2 big crabs in total and the scallops were succulent and perfect with the asparagus and xo sauce. Service was adequate with regards to the restaurant being full house. We really had a nice meal and i will definitely bring my family there again in a few months time. Must keep their cholesterol level in check! 

My second or third time to this famous crab joint already, but I am still not incredibly wow-ed! Is it the high prices, long waiting time, or simply the poor service? We arrived here at 5+ in the evening. The decor is crabby, literally. Lots of large crab shells are adorned on the walls, and a special wall is even dedicated to crab shells with celebrities' signatures. Cool? On to the food:

Fried Beehoon - Ordered this while waiting for the crabs to come, but oh my, what an expensive plate of beehoon this is! $6 for what seems like half a portion you can get from a normal cze char stall outside. Taste wise it is okay, but not worthy of $6. At all.

Garlic Kangkong - Ordinary and nondescript.

Pork Floss & Mushroom Tofu - A refreshing change from the usual tofu dishes. Pork floss is tossed over crunchy beech mushrooms atop the tofu block at the bottom. The gravy is savoury and thick, and made yummier with the sweetness of the pork floss! Surprisingly good.

Butter Crab - A large crab cooked in a creamy, white butter-cream sauce with strong notes of condensed milk and coconut milk. The dish is heavy on the palate, but not cloying. The sweet flesh of the crabs is further accentuated by the fragrant curry leaves. A must-order if you can take creamy foods well!

Crab Bee Hoon (Soup) - A disappointment. The standard has dropped... Although it is still delicious, the soup lacks the salty-seafood oomph from the fresh crabs. A result from cutting corners? Either that, or the soup served to me did not contain the crab flavours well. Really a drop from the previous delicious bee hoon I savoured.

A visit here is of course always memorable with the poor service standards. The service staff are undeniably busy, but in their haste they have forgotten that customer is king. Don't even talk about smiling waitresses, they probably even bordered on being rude, shoving my family around. Sigh!

On the overall, this eating joint is really more hype than substance. Come here only for the butter crab, there are much better crab bee hoon outside! And of course, come here if you have the free time to spare, and to wait for up till an hour till peak dining periods on weekends. You'd been warned!

I consider myself as a regular of this branch since I love their crab bee hoon. I brought my friends to Ang Mo Kio branch for dinner Ang Mo Kio branch on 16 Nov’09.

To be honest, their food price increased a lot since the last renovation. But thank goodness, the standard didn’t drop. Current price match as Seafood Paradise.

For that meal, we ordered its specialty "bee hoon crab soup", chilli crab, baby kalian, Mongolia pork rib. Two of my friends tried for the first time. They love the bee hoon crab and Mongolia pork rib.
If you want to avoid queue, you must go there by 5+/6pm. If you are late around 8pm... the crabs may be sold out.

Bee hoon crab soup - crab is at $38/kg. If only the pricing be lower will be perfect. The soup taste great, my friends finish the soup to the last drop. Crab was a little small about 750g to be shared for 4 adults.

Chilli crab with man tou – crab is at $38/kg while man tou is charged separately. The crab is big and juicy. My friend’s only complain is not spicy enough but for another buddy of mine who doesn’t take hot and spicy find the combination of dipping man tou in the sauce is great.

Baby kalian with garlic – personally, I find it average but my friends love its fragrance and tasty.

Mongolia pork rib – my friends and I love the juiciness and tasty especially there very little bone.

Service – those belong to the family are very friendly and socialise with customers but those waiters and waitresses that they hired have lots to improvement. They are either very pushy or rude.

Their dessert listing is the only problem I have, there is nothing appealing and not many choices for me. Normally by the time, I finished my meals there, I no longer have any “storage space” for dessert.

I definitely will go there again with my buddies and family.

This place is so run-of-the-mill that I really don't have much to say about it.

We first had vegetables (kailan with garlic) and a steamed red snapper with soy sauce (Cantonese style), which was not really fresh, and was slightly overcooked (imo). Most disappointing, and I've had far better for similar prices (at Imperial Treasure Great World City, for example).

Then came the signature dish: the chili crab. Long story short, if you want Singapore-style chili crab, this is probably not the best place in Singapore to have it: the gravy was not spicy nor was it rich, but just the right tone of blah (with a watery mucus-like texture) for a very blah and unenthusiastic food review like this from me. It doesn't help this review of Mellben that the crab was accompanied by "man tou"s that were approximately the size of stamps. Overall this chili crab was as disappointing as Obama to date.

The butter crab was decent: the sweet flesh of crab went well with their sauce, which was rich and fragrant with the addition of curry leaves.

Overall, I'm not sure that the food justified the hike to Ang Mo Kio, with me getting lost (somehow) on the wrong side of Bishan Park, and having to hike over to Mellben by foot in the rain.

Note: If you do want to subject yourself to the above, it is good to either turn up early, or to call and book beforehand.

The crabs are very well done. The service staff were prompt in getting us a table, and to reduce our waiting. Must try their chilli crab! :)

I've eaten some of the best crabs in Singapore, black pepper, chili, white pepper, butter.. And I believe that we should just eat what's signature at each place. I don' go KFC to eat burgers.. (that's what I keep telling my Hubby)

Anyway, back to my review. Parents decided to give me a birthday treat, and I brought them to Mellben to try the crabs. I've tried the Toa Payoh branch, and didn't have very high expectations of the AMK one.. the shimmering sand crab at TP was substandard.. but then, i digress, that's another review for another time. :)

Again, back to this review, the service wasn't fantastic. And for some strange reason, they actually "force" you to order before bringing you to your seat. ie there was a crowd at the entrance, served by 2 - 3 waitresses whereby they take your order. Talk about pressure.. the family was standing around whilst they waited for me to look at the menu. Not very comfortable too when the entrance was narrow. I have learnt JIT, but don't think it applies here..

Do not understand the need for this, if someone could, pl leave me a comment and enlight me on this.

Ordered the butter crab, crab bee hoon, minced pork tofu and veg (the last 2 was mediocre, so not really worth a mention) The butter crab was good. I love butter crabs that are creamy, as opposed to the "chewy" butter sort. and with the side of mantous.. it was yummilicious.

The Crab bee hoon was good, i had a niggling feeling if i had underordered under pressure. and should have added beehoon, or soup (+$3 ea). but it turned out to be just enough for 4..

Overall, it was worth a visit. my parents were happy, and i enjoyed the experience.

I’ve been to Mellben a couple of times, and I quite like the place, so was surprised to see the low ratings that it has.

Sure, it has no impeccable service, nor a great view, or anything pretty, but its crabs alone are worth the trip. Definitely. Especially its crab beehoon – to-die-for! Succulent meat in a savoury soup base, yummy! Granted, it is not cheap, and a medium-size crab for two people could set you back at about $35 or so, and if you intend to order other dishes too then the bill could be quite substantial.

But listen, don’t get other food, just get the crabs. The other dishes are very normal zi char fare standard, so don’t bother really. And if you’re going to queue up just to get to this place, it’s simply not worth your time ordering other food.

To me this is THE place to go for crab bee hoon soup. Really sweet, delicious, crabby stock. Can drink up every bit of the soup. Crabs and big and fresh. The rest of the items are regular zi char items, nothing really special. Never tried the butter crab others have raved about but I think that may be the next item on my list!

Just wanted to add a note about the other bad reviews about the chilli crabs, other food items and service. (1) This place is famous for the CRAB BEE HOON. No one said the chilli crab is good, and indeed, its very average. If you want chilli crab, go no signboard or something. Same goes for the other food items which I feel are regular zi char, decent enough. (2) THIS IS A COFFEE SHOP FOR GOODNESS SAKE. what type of great service you expect? We don't even pay for the service anyway! Have been there many times and I have not experienced bad service in the sense that they are rude to customers or slow with serving the food. Sure, they are curt at times but seriously, I don't understand how you guys can expect more.