I stumbled upon Ming Kee Live Seafood one day while walking along McPherson Road, trying to get to another eatery (Wo Peng – i wil review this soon!) along the McPherson Road stretch. It looked like a little nondescript place with an outdoor and indoor seating area, with the outdoor tables adorned with the good old-fashioned pink tablecloths. Peeking in to the restaurant, I was intrigued by the medals / newspaper cutouts recommending the restaurant and I instantly decided that this place would go on my “To Try” list.
The medals and newspaper cutouts certainly lived up to their expectation, as the food at Ming Kee was well prepared and very fresh. Unfortunately, we were just a party of 2 on our visit that night, so we could only try a limited number of the dishes that were recommended.
First up was Steamed Bamboo Clams in Garlic Sauce. This was a dish recommended to us by the server, and she was spot on about it. The clams were fresh, plump and juicy, steamed to perfection. Resting on these perfectly steamed bamboo clams, was a heavy dousing of minced garlic, slow cooked and softened, without losing any of that yummy garlicky flavour. The garlic sauce was so memorable, I can still taste the sweet garlic on my tongue 3 months since my visit. Whether it is the bamboo clams or any other seafood steamed in that garlic sauce, this is a must try when you visit Ming Kee.
We also ordered the Guinness Pork Ribs on the recommendation of the various blog posts / reviews that we had read of the restaurant. While it wasn’t a disappointment as the ribs were tender and moist, I did not find that the Guinness flavour stood out at all. This could have passed off as Honey Pork Ribs and I would not have even raised an eyebrow. Still, this was well executed and delicious to boot.
Our final order was the reason why we had come to visit Ming Kee: Crab Bee Hoon. Not a soup-based beehoon like what Mellben Seafood serves, this was a beehoon dish that was fried dry, something like the Crab Tung Hoon that one gets in some Thai restaurants (except the Tung Hoon is replaced by Bee Hoon). The Bee Hoon was flavourful and had a nice wok flavour, but seemed to just miss that edge overall. Perhaps the crabs didn’t quite do the dish justice, as they weren’t as sweet as we’d expected (in this area, it seems Mellben has the best tasting crabs ever), and when a dish is named “Crab Bee Hoon”, both the crab and the beehoon have got to stand out. The beehoon, by and large, did its job, but the crabs were just a tad disappointing. Overall a decent rendition of the dry crab beehoon, but I’m sure there are better dry crab beehoons out there!
Even with the slightly disappointing crab beehoon, the high quality of the food (and the yummy garlic sauce) will see me back at Ming Kee. Reasonably priced food establishments serving up well executed dishes always deserve repeat visits, and Ming Kee Seafood is one of those places! In the words of Arnie the Terminator, “I’ll be back!”
Ming Kee Live Seafood
556 MacPherson Road
67474075
