Crabby Day @ Mellben!

The girls have been talking about a meal at Mellben for the longest time.

For the uninitiated, Mellben.. well, Mellben is da place for the famous Butter Crab and Crab Bee Hoon :)

I’ve always thought Mellben was a stall at a kopitiam.. you know, those normal looking kopitiam at suburbs.. but man, it wasn’t! The truth is, it looks very much like a restaurant! A spanky new restaurant! Then the girlfriends told me Mellben just received this new look not too long ago.

Aaaahhh.. that explains it!

check out the Q man.. i was armed with 50mm lens so i couldn’t quite capture the whole Q. the real deal was longer than this!

The girls got there early.. around 6pm and the queue was already long!

By the time the orders got taken, it was almost 6.40pm and the food was scheduled to arrive at 7.45pm only. Like any Malay would say, makan pun susah! :P

But we were pretty lucky. Our Crab Bee Hoon came at 7.15pm, much to our delight! *yay*

When the girls were discussing on the items to order over the emails, i got pretty skeptical when they insisted on the crab bee hoon.

My first reaction was, crab bee hoon?!?!?!?!? How good can that be?!? -- don’t hammer me, girlies! –

It looked so plain and unappetizing in the photos. Afterall, it was just some milky soup with no other ingredients but crap crab. But you know what? I was very wrong!

The crab bee hoon was very soothing to the palate, the soup especially. It was light, robust and the natural sweetness (from seafood)… it was, oh wowwee!! In another word, addictive! I couldn’t help but had quite a bit of it. :P

It kinda reminded me of laksa soup though..  sans the coconut milk and spiciness.

Shortly after the arrival of our first dish, our second dish came.. Butter crab!!!

The only let down was the fried mantou. After waiting for it for more than 10mins, i got up (could wait no more!) and reminded the service staff about it, and it came straight there after.

I heart the butter crab to bits!

Love the gravy most, to be honest. :P

I have only 1 thought on my mind then.. which was to wipe clean the plate with my mantou and the girls + i did just that! Not an ounce of the gravy left by the time we finished. Heh.

As for the crabs, personally.. i prefer the ones in crab bee hoon. They were much sweeter. Importantly, they weren’t overcook.. unlike the other dish. Uh huh.. much to my disappointment, the crabs in butter crab dish were overcook! So cooked that i almost didn’t wanna eat my last piece.. It was really quite dry.

Oh well, hits and misses.. inconsistencies.. that have been the review of Mellben of late. However, it will not steer me away from patronizing this place though. I simply cannot forget the Crab Bee Hoon’s soup and the Butter Crab’s gravy with fried mantou. Hee!

Oh, wait. How can i forget this!

Check out the crab roe!! (the whole lump of it.. not just the visible front side)

We had many heavily pregnant crabs in both our dishes. So much so until we had enough and didn’t want it anymore…

Did i tell you the girls are the loveliest bunch?

They are always full of surprises!

Pâté, lovingly lugged back from France by a girlfriend and as for the cupcakes miniature, you won’t believe what it is! – Lip gloss! -> This particular girlfriend has an eye for everything cute and will not hesitate to buy us all whenever she spots any.

Pretty awesome of her, aye? :)

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Mellben Seafood

#01-1222, Block 232 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3 S(560232)
Ang Mo Kio
Tel: 6285 6762