Mellben Seafood (Toa Payoh)

I have been here eons ago.....and did not find I had to return for a taste. As chance would have it, I returned as some mates decided it was a convnient place to have a "long time no see" meal.

It appears the place have been renovated since my last visit. The crowds are still packing it in at dinner time. That has not changed.  arrived just before 7 pm to see the place filling up. by 7 pm, all seats inside were full and the few tables outside were full as well as inclement weather prevented them from opening more alfresco tables.  Point to note....our reservations meant nothing to them...so do arrive early if you like a nice spot. HINT: Its stuffy inside, grab an otuside table is best.

I must say the crab bee hoon soup is still a crowd drawer. We had 2 servings one medium crab each .....highlight of the nite. Thes rest fo the dishes were borderline to me. We had aapargus in sambal, scallops in yam paste, playboy chicken, stout ribs. All pretty boring but edible. It makes the hawker centre next door looks good.

 

At a friend's recommendation, went to try the Crab Bee Hoon Soup. Our server recommended for 3 of us, 2x 500g crab would be sufficient, so we ordered that and a side of  kang kong fried in sambal belachan.

The kang kong arrived first which was a good thing, when the Crab Bee Hoon Soup we quickly forgot about the vergetable. The soup was rich, milky and absolutely tasty! The crab meat was very sweet and the combination of bee hoon, crab and the rich soup went really well!

We went at 6pm and were seated and served quickly, but by 7pm (on a Monday), it was full!!

There's not much else to say, I will definitely be back for more! YUM!!

My friend had a craving for crabs and I was tasked to find a place to go to. Planned to go to the AMK branch, but the thought of the long wait puts me off. Read somewhere that the waiting time at TPY is not so bad, therefore we headed there straight after work on a Tuesday

Made a reservation and reached at about 7.15pm. Ordered a butter crab and a chilly crab with some mantou. We waited for about 35 mins and the chilly crab came first. The sauce was sweet and slightly sour, and not too spicy. My friend loves it! My butter crab was very very good. We each ate a crab and 2 plates of mantous. Very filling and satisfied dinner!

I hate their service. I hate their long queues. The one in Toa Payoh has an air-con 2nd level sitting area but it is super duper noisy to eat on the 2nd level! Gosh. Hate it. I can't even hear myself think.

I generally don't like the food I've tried, except for the crab beehoon soup. For that, I'm still willing to brave the crowds ocassionally. The crabs are generally big and succulent and super sweet and fresh, except if you're down on your luck and given smaller crabs, which happened to me before. Otherwise, the crabs are really worth the trouble of slowly picking out the flesh.

The dishes we tried:

1. Special Deep Fried touhu (someone loved this dish, it was average for me)

2. Pai Gu in Stout (its simply too sweet to swallow, even for a sweet tooth like me)

3. Mayonnaise Prawn (the prawns were huge and meaty. But otherwise, the meat was tasteless, and a tad oily for my liking)

4. Nai You crab (hmm... too sweet for me)

5. Soup Beehoon crab (yummest, but you'd have to pay for extra beehoon and soup)

6. Assorted veg - lotus, gingko, etc. (A bit tasteless. A smiliar version done at Dian Xiao Er is tons better)

I'm not sure which dish has msg, but the after-effects of msg was hard to miss after a meal here.

I heard some good reviews so I came here to try, not the famous two as most reviews here have mentioned (crab bee hoon or the other 金沙crab), but the black pepper crab. What I did not agree upon is the quality of the crab meat. Melben told us that it was all crabs from the Philippines. Well, the crab meat is the same kind as that of indonesian crabs. Moreover, the crab meat was hollow, meaning not too fresh. Anyway, that cannot beat any day any time Sri Lankan crabs. So IMO, not good value for money, as the price difference between Sri Lankan and indonesian/philippines crabs is significant.

The black pepper crab bee hoon is also not good, as said by another reviewer, just simply too much peppery taste.

Came in a group of 9, and yes, made reservations (although I heard we were on waiting list..) and to be more kiasu, some group members managed to arrive early at that place and secured all of us a table.

Ordered 金沙 crab and chili crab (one each). The accompanying deep fried man-tous were sweet and made a tasty morsel when it soaks up the sauces. Personally I preferred the 金沙 as the chili crab's sauce seemed lacklustre that night. Crabs were very fresh and the meat was firm. These two crabs costs a total of $110, and came as sized medium with the chili crab a larger size.

Other dishes that we tried were the fried tofu and the 'playboy' chicken. Thought a dish with fancy name such as 'playboy' chicken would be different but alas, it was just deep fried chicken cutlet served with sweet chili sauce. The stir-fried spinach was quite healthy looking with garlic slices and little oil.

As with any busy zhi char stalls, service will come if you request it. Probably we were early, hence the food arrived quite fast. We were almost three quarter into finishing the food when one stall helper plonked a reservation sign onto the table suddenly. It stated the next reservation information, which was to be in the next 20 minutes time. Amused because the stall helper did not utter a single word. No worries, we got the message.

You can't miss this place... it was full house on a Saturday evening. Best to make reservations before hand :)

Now don't say I didn't warn you... gotta wait up to 45 mins for your food to be served.

The must eat dish is of course the 金沙蟹. It is their star dish.. Very creamy and delicious. The sauce is just different from other crab dish I tried. We also ordered the black pepper crab bee hoon which i didnt quite like as the peppery taste was overpowering.

Prepare more cash or use card as it's not cheap dining here..

Was here for dinner with my colleagues last evening (5 Jan 2009) after a meeting nearby. We arrived at about 6.30pm.

It was my first visit to this eatery though I was told their main shop was at AMK. Surprising the coffee shop was quite packed slightly past 7pm.

It was a coffee shop setting and so I would not be able to comment on the ambience. We sat at one of the tables outside the coffee shop. All, if not most, of the serving crew were from China and we initially could not really understand what were they saying (due to their heavy accent). But service was ok, as they would change our used plates from time to time and helped us served and distributed the Crab Bee Hoon. We actually did not wait for too long before our food were served.

We ordered 4 dishes, included the well-known and popular Crab Bee Hoon Soup (with the crab about 1.7kg), Golden Doufu, Pork Ribs and Mixed Vegetables with Cashew Nuts and Lotus.

Among all, the Crab Bee Hoon Soup stood out. Not only the crab was huge and gigantic, it was also very juicy and sweet. We enjoyed this dish. The soup was thick (come with milk) and tasty.

The doufu was ok, smooth inside and crispy outside and was well fried, which is same to the vege. As for the pork ribs, though well marinated but I felt the meat was a bit soft (not chewy). Overall, the meal was good!

My colleagues ordered 2 bottles of beer and I ordered a coconut drink (totalling about $15). If excluded the beverages, the total bill was $98. Though considered pricy paying this amount at a neighbourhood coffee shop (where you can enjoy quite a good buffet spread at a 5-star hotel restaurant), it was quite "value for money" if you like to eat good and big crabs and you will definitely enjoy it!

Mellben Seafood needs no further introduction in the local scene. Renowned for their claypot crab bee hoon, many food lovers have braved rain and storm to queue up in its heartlands outlet, all just for their crabs. The first Mellben Seafood has been around at Ang Mo Kio for several years now, and it’s until last year where they open this one at Toa Payoh, and i recently also heard that they have a third branch at Pasir Ris.

Prawn paste chicken ($10)

The prawn paste chicken or “har cheong kai” is always a dish on our list to order when my family had zi-char. Personally i’ll prefer sweet sour pork to this anytime, but my brother is a fan of chicken. The chicken came pipping hot and the fermented puréed shrimp taste was very evident in the crispy skin. But at $10, the price is slightly higher, as most zi-char stalls offer this dish at $8.

Fried sambal Kangkong ($10)

We also seem to have the habit of ordering sambal kangkong. Mellben’s rendition was truly hot and spicy. Again at $10 for a vegetable dish, it was priced higher than the usual $6-8 repertoire.

Chili Crab ($41.80)

While patrons to Mellben always order their signature claypot crab bee hoon, we decided to buck the trend and had the chili crab ($38 per kg) instead. Our decision was vindicated, the chili crab proved itself no less than the more popular claypot crab bee hoon counterpart. The thick chili gravy was spicy and slightly sweet, and i particularly enjoyed the eggy taste.

My family’s always has a soft spot for crabs, not me though, i’m too lazy to eat crab. But when i do eat crab, i always take the big pincher, because they are by far the easiest to eat and with the most meat. One bite settles everything, all the fleshy meat into my stomach!

i’m a sucker for those fried mantou that always come together with the chili crab. Some people will like to drench the whole bun into the chili gravy, but for me i always like to poke a hole in the middle of the bun. After which i’ll put some thick spicy eggy gravy into the middle and let it flow inside. And after the first wonderful bite, i’ll then dipped the remaining bun to get the maximum soak of chili gravy. Heavenly!

Total Bill was $71.50 for 4 people. This is actually quite reasonable for 4 people, but if you examine closely, the price range of the food at Mellben is substaintially higher than the normal zi-char store. This is partly due to the popularity of Mellben, and they are able to commend a slight premium over the rest. The chili crab was excellent, and we will be looking to try the rest of the crab-mates next time.

One thing to note about Mellben though, the two branch at Ang Mo Kio and Toa Payoh are both not within walking distance from the MRT station, which means to say you will need to take a feeder bus in from the interchange which can be quite a chore. Nevertheless, they are selling out the crabs every night, this tells you something about them!

You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!

What can I say? The crabs are superb! Big in size yet tender and juicy enough to make any crab lover (a.k.a. ME) go crazy!

Since I found this new outlet of the famous Mellben Crab last month, I have been there twice already, and will definately go back for more.

Besides the usual Chilli Crab with fried buns, I had also tried the Curry Crab "甘香螃蟹". It tasted of curry powder, very "lemak" and tasty, unfortunately it was a bit too spicy for me.

The fried toufu is another MUST TRY. I think they blend toufu with seadfood paste then shape and deep fried it, so it's chrispy on the outside, smooth and tasty inside.... yummy ~

And of course, I won't forget my "DIE DIE MUST EAT" crab bee hoon soup! The soup was really, really, absoulately good! Everytime I was there I'll sure pay $3 to ask for soup refill. Those piping hot goodness... arr~ heaven!

It's a little pricy compared to many other crab places I have been, but... for that kind of quality and yummy-ness, I don't complain liao.