If you're looking for a local spot for authentic Singaporean Chinese food, this is the place for you. Not touristy, fresh seafood, good service, reasonable prices. We came here for the chilli crab and steamed crab with noodles. And got to taste the Chinese new year specialties Lo Hei, tasty veggie dishes and the savory short ribs. Everything was delicious. With beers and other fees total came out to be 504 Singapore dollars, which is not bad at all for the amount of foods we ordered. The restaurant is not very big, but clean and bright. Feels inviting. Good for family and large groups. Special thanks to Ms. Alice for the wonderful service. Highly recommend by IG@winedinenvacay

Wow seriously the BEST crab experience in Singapore thanks to my local friend taking me here! Got the clay pot vermicelli crab, has the freshest soup with fresh peppercorns that I had to have 3 bowls of with such tasty crab Also got the chilli crab. A bit saucier than what I thought chilli crab was with a sweet and spicy sauce. Leaves you wanting more and more and more haha Paid us$70 per person , including the fried man tou (bun) to dip the sauce in. YESSSSS took a grab over here for $20 way worth it Great service coming by . Need to ask for more wet towels. Chill environment with everyone just really excited eating the crab. Quite hot though without fans so make sure you wear comfy clothes!

Was taken here by two Singaporeans to enjoy several plates of great food. We chose the set meal which is served family style. We also added two crabs: chili and claypot. Everything was well prepared and the claypot crab and chili crab were a huge hit. Great local spot that isn't your typical listed places for crab.

There is a lot of inconsistent information online about this restaurant: 12 November 2019 they DO take reservations and credit cards. Party of 6 was seated immediately at our reservation time, and while still missing 4 people. They changed out table from round to rectangular when they saw we had two children, one of which required a high chair. Service was fast and very helpful. Waiters were able to make space for the many dishes we ordered. This is THE spot for spicy and black pepper crab, and certainly lived up to its expectations. Plenty of other reviews cover foodie details. The restaurant is easy to reach via Grab, bus and MRT. It is in a residential area with a "market" of hawkers across the square. Quiet and safe at night. Good for larger groups and couples too. Enjoy an outstanding crab meal here

This place was formerly a Melben Seafood, which is a chain in Singapore. In my opinion, the best Melben outlet is in Ang Moi Kio. But the challenge is they they don't take reservations and the queues can be extensive especially on the weekend. Kelly Jie takes reservations, which was a huge bonus. So take advantage of this option and make a reservation. However, you may need a mandarin speaker. Also, as an FYI, you can also reserve your crabs. The crabs here are delicious! My favorite is the Bee Hoon Crab, which is basically crab in a light buttery with rice noodles. Yum! Other favorites are the Curry Crab and the Black Pepper Crab. Bring lots of friends so you can order lots of different flavored crabs. The famous Singaporean styled crab is actually Chili crab, but I decided long ago that I wasn't crazy about it. For me it's just a bit too sweet and not enough spicy. But if you find yourself in Singapore for the first time, it is a much try.

Kelly Jie (previously Mellben) with the famous Butter crab. This time we tried their award winning Poached crispy fried rice with seafood with superior broth. It is actually seafood fried rice topped with crispy rice crackers and poured with yummy broth. When you eat it, it is like rice with lots of broth but you can taste the crispy rice. I find it special and yummy. We also tried the truffled pork loin, tasty but not special. The first time seeing restaurant menu with bible verses. . Food : 4.5/5 Service : 3/5 Price : $$$ Place : 3/5 . Halal Rest : Kelly Jie seafood Location : Toa Payoh City : Singapore .

CRAB. apparently is a "MUST EAT" when in singapore. & That's exactly what I did... 2 days in a row... Mellben Seafood was the 2nd day. And it did not disappoint! The food did not. The service was definitely just frustrating and straight up terrible. But, I was very excited to try this place because the Foodporn show on clicknetwork (youtube channel) did a segment on their shimmering sand crab and salted egg chicken drumstick lollipop! There are two locations apparently. This one in tou payoh (sp?) and another one. This one is located across from a food hawker center. Currently, there is construction going on so the front of the restaurant might be hidden from the street view so you'll have to tell your taxi driver to drop you off at the side with the numbers "211" on. Basically, go inside the carpark and after you pass the gate, turn left..? and there should be a durian stand in the front. Now, don't be expecting some fancy high end restaurant with Air conditioning okay. This place is where LOCALS singaporeans go so the food better be bomb but that also means that the place is going to be pretty much kind of like a hole in the wall. & it kind of was. The restaurant was a bit tiny inside so they kind of expanded out to the courtyard where a few tables were set. Smaller tables are inside the store, cooled by basic fans. We had a table reserved out in the courtyard because our party was originally bigger than 6. It was so hot and ratchet outside seriously. and it was dark too. They had one or two street lights but they didn't help much. Since they're known for two tyypes of crab: the braised beehon style and the butter style, We got both ! Yay for two crabs for one meal! Def. get crab. It was soooo fresh and delicious. The hardest part about eating crab will always be taking the shells off. & that will always be a pain in the ass but that's what makes the crab meat even tastier. Be sure to dip the meat in the sauce so that you're not eating some tasteless crap. I wanted to also try shimmering sand crab but it would have been way too many food for just a party of 6 haha. We also ordered the salted egg chicken drumstick lollipop, which was da bomb!! Def get that! Some other dishes were the tofu with enoki mushrooms. steamed fish, green veggies, and pork spareribs. Pretty much over ordered! So, all the food were pretty yummy! My favorites were the crabs and the chicken lollipop. And also, the coconut juice here is fresh and yummy as well! Their dishes have different sizes you can order from small, medium, and large. Now, onto the disappointing part of the experience: the SERVICE! It was definitely a bust!! My grandma and I had arrived before the rest of the party. I was told to tell the host the reservation information. I don't know if speaking ACTUAL ENGLISH, not SINGAPOREAN English, is considered to be a bad thing or what... but when I spoke English to the girl, she treated me like crap! She just pointed to a table out in the courtyard and simply said, "that's your table." Okay, like can you actually walk us over there. Wtf. Anyway, onto the rest of the evening. We sat there for the longest time and NO ONE came to check up on us. I repeat, NO ONE. Not even to ask if we wanted water. or Even if we were ready to order for that matter. Granted, the rest of the party hadn't arrived yet, but still. When everyone arrived and we were ready to order, none of the servers cared to check on us. My cousin had to basically flag down the waiter who was taking the orders of the adjacent table. All throughout dining, every time we needed something, we had to be prepared to wait forever until they noticed us. It was definitely frustrating. If they're that understaffed, you'd think the management would hire more people or at least train these people to be more efficient. Food was delicious. Service sucked. Decor sucked. Prepare to have drops of sweat roll down your face as you're going at it on that crab claw.

Let's see... how do we summarize our dinner at Melben? Yum. Yum. Yum. Let's just jump straight to the crabs. First time having salted egg yolk crab for me and I think I just found a new favorite preparation for crab. The savory salted egg yolk elevates this fried crab dish and brings out the sweetness of the crab. I just wanted to gather the crab roe and salted egg yolk to make a "crabonara" sauce to throw with some pasta. The crab with tung hoon dish had a nice fragrance and this peppery preparation of crab was truly delicious too. As before the crab is incredibly sweet and nicely counterpointed by the black pepper. Lastly, the crab bee hoon soup was just sublime. I could drink that sweet and savory broth for days on end. Honestly can't remember too much about this crab because the broth was just that good. All in all, we had a nice variety of crab preparations and they were all yummy in their own unique ways. You would think other dishes would suffer when you are known for one thing, which in Melben's case is crab, but their other dishes are pretty decent too. From the garlic veggies to salt and pepper pork chops to the cuttlefish youtiao, the dishes were pretty pretty tasty although relegated to playing back up to the crabs. My aunt called ahead to reserve a table and our crabs and I think y'all should too. As everyone has mentioned, you need to come early otherwise you're out of luck. Or as I would like to think, feeling really crabby for the rest of the night.