Nelayan Restaurant — Restaurant in Melbourne

After returning back to give this place a second chance, the same female with the grumpy face/squared looking mouth was there once again - I waited to place my order with somebody else given my previous poor experience involving her. Yet again, she proved to be unable to change her behaviour by running to the protection of their potatoes and informing the staff member serving me around portion sizes and charging extra should it be requested. She engaged in this very behaviour last time speaking in a foreign language right in front of me where it was queried as to what her apparent concern was. This individual appears to be on some kind of vendetta treating the potatoes as if they were gold. Previously, the same female staff member was seen running from the kitchen the moment I arrived immediately telling others to charge me extra should I request for another spoonful of their dishes - despite the spoonful to begin with being disproportionate. This staff member needs to go as such behaviour will chase business away.

Update: In trying to liaise with the owner over email, he too was completely ridiculous and a manipulator distorting the truth to suit his own characterisation of events. It’s evident that they don’t take customer feedback seriously and are heavily prejudiced creating a mockery out of you if you raise issues. They essentially played the victim twisting the truth to make it look like I was the one creating the problem when in fact their staff engaged in repeated questionable behaviours on various instances. The owner threatens legal action around alleging photography, when the photo referred to correlates to their own photos taken on their Facebook page through their own accord - so anything around consent doesn’t actually apply when they’ve publicly posted it themselves. They speak of apparent consent however, prove double standards by referring to surveillance of myself portraying me in defamatory form which I don’t recall providing my consent to and can equally pursue legal action - perhaps you should practise what you preach? Why is it okay for you to record me and insinuate I was looking in the direction of your staff when it was because I could see them gossiping about me to begin with essentially engaging in harassing behaviours? I didn’t provide my consent and I didn’t ask to be mistreated either. This is why the refund was requested because the same childish and immature behaviour was being repeated yet you put it on the customer to make it look like they’re in the wrong and claim you’re protecting your staff’s “safety” by dishing out absurd behaviours. The responses on all the posts clearly show their agenda and they essentially have an answer to everything. Best continue to report them to authorities who will take the appropriate action and don’t waste your time with the owner who will cause you unnecessary grief. It appears that the reviews continue to get worse which no doubt will result in continued downturn of their business regardless of deflection used by the owner, customer truths always prevail. Plenty of other lovely mannered food chains around - don’t lose your appetite...

Had a bad experience in terms of service. There was a very very rude waiter (with hijab). She speaks rudely...shooing off customer to queue outside the door, she bangs plates on the table, she pulled a long papaya face, when i asked for 4 extra plate, she gave us big dinner plate...how do u expect 4 extra plates to fit on a small.table.of 6. When i said then its ok with 2, she raised her voice and said * you asked for 4* and banged 2 plates on our table. My suggestion is pls hire more friendly waiter...if they hv life crisis, pls ensure they settle it first before serving customer...we came on Christmas Day and i am pretty sure they are paid more and we dont mind the extra service charge, but pls dont be rude...we thought it was just us...but she was rude to practically everyone. Beside serving the table, she also serves as a cashier...she took everyones money with a long face... its ridiculous and best part a hijab women with an attitude? I think Nelayan restauent owner should send someone to check out her attitude...we paid aud150 and came out sore and feel sorry for other customers

Food wise, ok..we had a decent meal...though Selero Kito is better..the ambience in Nelayan definitely didnt taste good at all with such a tall hijab waitress pulling a...

📍 𝗡𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗮𝗻 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘁 ⭑.ᐟ

❤︎ 𝗠𝗼𝗼𝗱-𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱: craving comfort food that reminds me of home ❤︎ 𝗙𝗮𝘃 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗵: nasi tempong lele ❤︎ 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿: Indonesians in Ausie who miss authentic sambal ❤︎ 𝗩𝗶𝗯𝗲: casual, clean, and great for group dining

ꫂ ၴႅၴ

I came here with one mission: to satisfy my craving for lele. Being in Australia, it’s not easy to find catfish done the Indo way—crispy, flavorful, and paired with a proper sambal. But Nelayan delivered.

Their nasi tempong lele brought me back to the kind of warung food you find in Indonesia: white rice, crunchy tempe, golden tofu, and lele goreng that’s deeply seasoned. The sambal tempong was the real star—fiery and fresh, it hit all the right notes. That first bite reminded me of home, of meals eaten with bare hands and iced tea in tall glasses. For a moment, it felt like I was back there. And for anyone far from home, that feeling is everything.

ⴵ 𝗪𝗮𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲: quick service (around 10 mins) 𐀪 𝗖𝗿𝗼𝘄𝗱: medium crowd, mostly fellow Indonesians ☼ 𝗗𝗮𝘆 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱: Thursday dinner ‎𐂐 𝗢𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿: nasi tempong lele (with tofu, tempe, greens, sambal)

𝗪𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗜 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻? Yessssssss...