Mellben Seafood (Ang Mo Kio)

Mellben will always be be go-to restaurant for crab. Hands down my favourite.

Crab here are always fresh, meaty and the sauce is great.

Female crabs are full of roe, but the claws are smaller.

Male crabs have bigger and meatier claws.

5% Discount if pay by cash.

Please make reservations before coming. Unless u want to queue and wait.

@mellbensignature_sg prides themselves on their crabs, specifically their chili crab. So naturally my dad & I gravitated to the nearest Mellben restaurant to get our chili crab cravings fixed, and we happily ordered two standard sized ones, priced at $98++ per crab if I remember correctly.⠀
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The chili gravy was absolutely exquisite, possibly the best chili crab gravy I’ve ever had the good fortune to slurp down. Calling it a chili is a bit misleading, as it’s mostly tomato sauce mixed with chilies, eggs and vinegar. As you might expect from the description, the chili crab sauce is terrifically tomato-y, blending savoury, sweet & slightly sour perfectly into a tremendously thick sauce that’s speckled by copious amounts of egg mixed in. It’s slightly spicy from the chili added in, but the mild spice didn’t deter us from mopping up that glorious gravy with the deep fried mantous & rice.⠀
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Unfortunately, it was painfully obvious that the crab was overcooked. The crab meat had lost some of its suppleness and moisture, and it clung tight to the shell. Sure, the Sri Lankan crab was meaty and fresh, but sadly the otherwise spectacular chili crab was marred by the chef extracting the crab two minutes too late from the wok.⠀
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Sure, I still enjoyed this chili crab because of the sauce, but the overcooked crab clawed away at the satisfaction of getting our chili crab cravings satiated.

@mellbensignature_sg is one of the most established seafood restaurants in Singapore, and I got to experience why they’ve been doing brisk business since 1985. We ordered a Soon Hock ($70++ for ours) done Hong Kong style, and we were absolutely thrilled by just how stellar the soon hock was.⠀
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Hong Kong style fish is shockingly simple, but is stunningly sapid if all the elements are perfect. And here at Mellben, everything was definitely perfect. The soon hock was unbelievably fresh, and it might even have been swimming around in a fish tank just before we ordered it. Press F to pay respects to the fish, and to honour its delicious sacrifice. The stunningly fresh fish is steamed to perfection with the sauce mixture, consisting of (but not limited to) light soya sauce, hua tiao chiew (aka shaoxing rice wine), some Ve Tsin (MSG), a dash of sugar, some scallions and a lot of ginger.⠀
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That’s all that is required for a fabulous fish dish. The sweet, supple flesh of the perfectly steamed fish is infused with the superbly savoury flavours of the sauce mixture. The steamed Hong Kong style fish may be simple, but it is certainly an ethereally excellent dish. I would recommend washing the saltiness down with a bottle of wonderful Sauvignon Blanc from Villa Maria. Normally, seafood restaurants have below average to average wines, but Mellben has this stunning sav blanc on their wine list that’s too good to be missed out on, just like this fantastic fish.

Chilli Grab (Small - $99) - this is the star of the night and such a big crab that 7-8people shared. We ordered other dishes like salted pork ribs which is so tender, deep fried chicken wings, cereal prawns, vegetables and fried rice.

A good swing from your usual meal everyday and once in a while seafood feast with bunch of friends.

Chilli crab is also one of their signature dishes here at Mellben.

Decided to get a 1.4 to 1.5kg female crab to be cooked: Chilli style.

Female crab: lots of egg, roe. (BUT)Small claw

This crab today is full of roe. Crab meat here is very consistently good, consistently fresh.

The chilli is a little spicy, but I really enjoyed it.

Chilli crab > crab soup

#TeamChilli

Mellben seafood has been opened for along time here at AMK. The store is the main branch.

The crab bee hoon soup is Highly recommended dish here at mellben.

Crab confirm is fresh here, meat is so tasty.

Decided to go with a 1.1kg male crab for this dish.

Male crab = large claw, no roe.

Claw was huge.

The broth was also so flavourful, really like it, until we both decided to pay $5 just to top up the soup. Simply shiok.