東昇園海鮮家 Restoran Tong Sheng — Restaurant in Malacca

Came after searching on Google.. as per what was reviewed by others…this is indeed a busy restaurant and even though we went on a Wednesday evening, there was a long queue. Luckily, there were chairs outside the restaurant and we could sit while waiting. Although the queue was long, we got to the front after 40 minutes and placed our order with Ah Liang. Ah Liang can speak mandarin and English so no issues for foreigners visiting the restaurant.

After placing our order, we were seated and after waiting for another 40 minutes, we got our food. We ordered the cheese cream bee hoon (medium), marmite pork rib (small), one salt baked crab and one creamy crab. The food was great and very well cooked. We may have over-ordered as the portion was big and there was only 3 of us (2 adults plus 1 child) but it was so good that we finished everything.

1. Creamy cheese bee hoon (medium-RM98): Quite expensive for a plate of bee hoon but the portion is big and is enough for 3-4 adults. There are also 3 to 4 huge prawns in the plate which explains the price. The prawns are fresh and have been halved plus deveined (super important as we don’t want to be eating those stuff). Don’t let it’s name (cheese cream) put you off as the taste of cheese is not so strong and even my wife who doesn’t like cheese likes this dish. Taste is on the light side and may not too salty.

2. marmite pork (small-RM20): very well marinated and sweet. My kid loves this dish. The pork is crunchy on the outside while soft inside. At RM20, super worth it to order.

3. cream crab (1kg at market price RM180/kg): this is the house recommended cooking style. Similar in taste to the cheese cream bee hoon but with much thicker sauce and spicy. Quite unique flavour as it’s creamy and sour. Not our favourite but the crab quality cannot be faulted as the crab was big and packed full of meat. The crabs must have gone to gym as the flesh was firm and the pincer super big :)

4: salt baked crab (1kg at market price RM180/kg): our personal favourite as this cooking style allows the quality of the crab to shine through. Super super yummy that we were so tempted to take out 2 more of this crab to eat back in the hotel but our exploding stomachs protested against such a greedy move. Lol…

Overall, we spent RM550 for the meal (including drinks etc). Not cheap but really depends on what you ordered. Most of our money is on the 2 crab (around RM350 for both) and the quality is really good. The prices of the other non-seafood dishes on the menu looks quite ok and similar to what we pay in other Malaysian restaurants.

Advised to make reservations to avoid the queue. Most of the waiters/waitress can only understand limited English so if you really need help, look for Ah Liang or the Chinese...

Food was good, crab sauce was slightly sweet but still nice. Reason for giving 2 stars is due to the restaurant incompetent management skills. I don't understand how they manage their queue system. We arrived at the restaurant 5.15pm and there was already a long queue so we decided to queue as well. They opened at 5.30pm, only a handful customers were allowed to enter due to insufficient tables & we noticed a lot of the tables were reserved for bigger families. After waiting until 6pm we noticed some of the tables haven't even started ordering as they were still waiting for some of their other family members to arrive meanwhile as you can see from the video I shared everyone are waiting for a table & hungry with a long queue.

Even until 6.30pm some of the tables who went in first still HAVEN'T ordered anything & still waiting for their LATE family members while the other customers out there are waiting in the sun hungry & starving. In my opinion they shouldn't allow people to reserve & hog the tables if your family members are late? This is my first time encountering such rubbish queue management system by a restaurant. We waited more hoping our turn will come & we finally got a table at 7.30pm!!! After waiting for more than 2 hours & the worst part we still need to wait for our food 😅 Food finally arrived at 8pm & we weren't hungry anymore, thank god it was nice otherwise I would have given them 1 star instead. We weren't the only one frustrated & hungry, plenty others who were waiting behind us probably had to wait 3 hours just to have dinner. Some even decided to leave after awhile.

Worst management system, we understand they want to cater for bigger families because the bigger the family the more $$$ for them to earn but allowing all this inconsiderate Malaysians family to hog tables for more than an hour just because some of their families members are late is a little too much in my opinion. Hope the restaurant will improve but judging by the amount of crowd I believe they couldn't care less.

Tip: Please eat something before coming & be prepared for waiting at least 2 hours...

The food here is truly exceptional. The Cheesy Prawn Meehun (first picture) is one of their signature dishes and is guaranteed to amaze your taste buds. The prawns are incredibly fresh, and the addition of cheese and milk creates a silky, flavorful sauce that perfectly complements the seafood. It's an absolute must-try!

The second dish is the Crispy Honey Sauce Pork, which is also very good. It's crispy, packed with flavor, and delicious, although it doesn’t stand out as much as the Cheesy Prawn Meehun.

Lastly, we had the Famous Fresh Milk Crab (third picture). Words can’t do justice to how amazing it was. The crabs were large, fresh, and the sauce paired with them was incredibly well-balanced, enhancing the natural sweetness of the crab meat.

However, I must note that this place is quite expensive, and I strongly recommend making a reservation in advance. There was already a line 30 minutes before they even opened! The three dishes we ordered cost nearly RM800 for three people. My only issue was with the pricing of the crabs. I was informed that the crabs come in different price tiers based on their size, ranging from RM190 to RM230 per kilogram. I ordered two crabs of noticeably different sizes, yet both were charged at RM210 per kilogram. This felt unfair, as they should have been priced according to their individual sizes (RM190 for the smaller one and RM210 for the larger one).

As for the service, it was commendable. The staff (who are not locals) were very attentive, frequently changing our plates to ensure we had clean ones throughout the meal. Unfortunately, the owners were less welcoming. When we arrived, they didn’t greet us or smile, and the only interaction was asking if we had a reservation. After that, they simply handed over a paper to one of the staff without any further communication.

Overall, if you decide to visit this restaurant, I recommend coming with high expectations for the food but lowering them for the service. Personally, I wouldn’t spend another RM800 (for three people) for the entire experience, as it simply wasn’t...