I tend to go to Fu Lim whenever I visit Ipoh but it was closed that day so we went to Menglembu East Ocean Restaurant instead. The restaurant is spacious; meant to accommodate wedding banquets and grand birthday celebrations judging from the décor.
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Old school decor
It reminds me of Overseas Restaurant in Imbi – elderly staff manning the floor so don’t expect service to be jovial. They are polite, but seemingly jaded. I don’t remember the exact names of the dishes because ordering was done rather hurriedly but we had a salted herbal chicken, claypot pork belly with salted fish, fried kai lan, house special tofu, assam seafood and XO prawns.
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The prawns were fresh and sweet, but the XO sauce lacked oomph for me. While salted chicken is an Ipoh specialty, I didn’t fancy the version from Menglembu East Ocean Restaurant; it was overly salty so you can’t taste the herbal notes in the chicken.
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Claypot pork belly with salted fish was nothing to shout about. I suggest you opt for marmite pork ribs instead as the pork belly lacked char and crisp edges; key element for this dish. I think the assam seafood might be one of the stronger dishes we tried that night as the gravy had a balance of sweet, savoury and tangy, and the seafood used were fresh.
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House special tofu comes topped with minced pork and scallions for umami. This was not bad. The kai lan with black fungus is pretty standard, I would say. They only had egg “pudding” for dessert and it wasn’t great. Very strong egg-y smell and taste, which tasted odd in my opinion.
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We paid close to RM400 for all the above for 6 adults and 3 toddlers. A tad pricey and rather average tasting. I guess this is one of those old school establishments where people go for nostalgic reasons. Either that, or we were recommended the wrong things to try.
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Ambiance: 6/10
Price: 6/10
Food: 5.5/10 (non-halal)
Verdict: Banquet-style Chinese food which I found rather average in taste.
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Menglembu East Ocean Seafood Restaurant
No. 1- 13,
7, Hala Perusahaan Menglembu 7a,
31450 Menglembu, Perak.
Tel: 05-282 9457
Business hours: 11.30am till 3pm, 6pm till 10.30pm