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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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