Mell Ben Seafood (Toa Payoh)

I brought the gang down halfway across the country to Blk 211 Toa Payoh Lorong 8
#01-11/15 just to taste the famed Mell Ben Seafood. This was actually my first visit to the Toa Payoh branch but my expectations were considering I’m not a crab fan but loved a previous rendition of the crab beehoon soup.

Fellow critters for the day.

CRITTERS CHOICE

• Crab Bee Hoon (price based on weight)
• Sliced Fish With Spring Onion And Ginger
• Sweet And Sour Tofu
• Stir Fired Vegetables With Abalone Slices (i think…)

Total Bill: $84.50 (Inclusive of food and drinks)

Note: I wasn’t there to do the ordering (cuz I was picking Bernard up) so I do not remember the actual pricing of each item.

Crab Bee Hoon

My Top pick and purpose of coming. The soup base is milky with a hint of butter and essence of crab. I heard that we were warned that the crabs did not look particularly good that day but they went ahead with the ordering anyway.

Taste wise, it was disappointing based on my expectations. The broth was not as thick as imagined and what should have been a buttery savory experience (closer to butter crab) was semi drenched in milk (closer to Alfredo). Also perhaps due to the lower crab quality of the day the essence of crab that adds the “kick” to the soup was somewhat lacking.

Both me and Bernard agreed that there was a drop in standards with the broth being less tasty than it should have been.

However to be fair, first time Bugs Jia Jiet and XH thought it tasted great.

Not to be biased and considering we were warned, though the crab failed to blow me away, it was still considered a tasty treat.

Taste: 3.5/5

Price: 3/5

Overall(considers service as well): 3.5/5

Sliced Fish With Spring Onion And Ginger
The fish was decent. The style was a typical manner of stir frying with what probably was garlic, white onion, spring onion and oyster sauce. Nothing to go crazy about but satisfying non-the-less.

Taste 3/5

Price: 3/5

Overall: 3/5

Sweet And Sour Tofu
The sauce was flavourful but a little to starchy for my liking. Perhaps the over adding of starch to the sauce mellowed the flavours leaving it lacking as a “power” dish.

Taste: 2.5/5

Price: 3/5

Overall: 2.75/5

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Stir Fired Vegetables
Definitely less disappointing than the previous dish. With all the items that you see on the plate, what can go wrong? Lol.

Taste: 3.2/5

Price: 3/5

Overall: 3.1/5

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Conclusion

Hitting an average score of 3 and above, Mell Ben has out lived it’s prime in hype but is still definitely a place worth returning to. A little pricey for an average meal but brilliant for a small gathering of friends.

Jloves: Food fests