Mel’s Place

We stumbled across Mel’s Place after taking a walk along East Coast Road on a Sunday evening. Our first thought as we walked in was Wow, this place really is huge, with both indoor and an expansive outdoor «garden». We did not eat here, but had a couple of drinks and took in the ambience as darkness fell.
It’s hard to put your finger on why this only gets two stars. The beer selection is good, with Archipelago as well as the more usual brews on tap. Good happy hour promotions. Extensive cocktail list. Live band. Staff ok. This does check may boxes. And yet…
…It seems to miss the mark. It feels like with such a great location and great indoor and outdoor areas that it really should be a much bigger «hit» than it appeared to be. There were not many customers and those that were there appeared to also be there for the first time. Many people walked past the entrance, stopped to check out the menu and then kept on walking.
I accept this is all very subjective so maybe I will come back and pay this another visit at night, try some food and see whether my initial perception is wrong.

Great food. Only problem is the overly loud band. However after new management took over seems the prices keep going up but the service is getting worse. Ordered a whiskey neat and was given on the rocks twice. Whiskey dry became whiskey tonic three times.

It’s Oktoberfest! And football on tv! What a winning combination — how could I resist? Granted, I’d never been to Mel’s Place before, only driven by it on my countless visits to I12 Katong (still the reigning duke, but let’s see how long that lasts), but I’d always thought it’d be an awesome place to kick back with some buddies and watch football with a cold one in hand. And the time finally came.
Last weekend, Liverpool visted Newcastle, and to make matters more exciting, Mel’s Place hosted a pretty solid Oktoberfest partay as well. 68 bucks for two tall mugs of Erdinger, and free rein of a seriously stellar buffet spread — sausages, sauerkraut, pork knuckle, turkey, meatloaf, potato and bacon soup, pretzels… and that’s not even the half of it. The band, and the party festivities made everything fit perfectly, and all the kitchy décor that people talk about just. makes. sense.
Don’t overthink it. It’s just a place to have a drink and hang out with your buddies, and when a fun thing like Oktoberfest rolls around, it makes everything better.

Thankfully, I had great company the evening I visited Mel’s Place because it was not a place that left a positive impression on me. We came for post-​dinner drinks and to catch up, and we ended up being seated outside, which is fine because the evening was actually a little cool for Singapore. But there was a musician who could barely carry a tune out there, too, so that was torture for the ears and good only for laughs.
Our server was barely there — slow and hardly paid any attention to us.
There are far better bars in Singapore than this. So unless they get their act together in this awesome, prime space, I hope someone else takes over to improve on the prime real estate.

With the expansive space that they have and the ample garden area, Mel’s Place has so much potential to be better than what it is right now.
The décor is generally confused, as is the identity of this restaurant bar. There are fairly romantic outdoor seating options, but the sheltered spaces are tacky and uninspired. It also touts itself as a sports bar, although I haven’t visited on a game night. With all these different elements at play, it’s really hard to pin down what Mel’s Place is trying to be and who it wants to cater for.
The food and drinks are average, and the service staff constantly look bored and unimpressed.
A real pity.

Mel’s is situated right next to the main Katong stretch, and occupies quite a bit of surface area. There are different areas to sit at: under a pavilion, inside the A/​C space where the bar is, or smack in the middle. I don’t quite get the layout though, small steps leading up and down but the whole place doesn’t gel perfectly. There are also palm trees wrapped in fairy lights, which is a little kitschy and reminiscent of a tiki party, to be honest. On the whole, I find the place too noisy. At the bar, the jukebox is blaring. At the pavilion, there are dudes watching the sports channel with the volume turned on to deafness level 10. At the fringe of the place, you’re too close to the main road and conversation is drowned by the traffic outside. There’s no real compromise, unless you’re there to watch the World Cup and bask in the camaraderie. Beers are of an ok selection, and bottles of reds/​whites are wallet friendly. Don’t go for the food, it’s mostly of the frozen and flash fried variety.