Kelong Seafood — Restaurant in Batam City

Tldr overpriced food, rundown place and long waiting time.

We came around 4pm, and were the only ones there. Initially we were told that the restaurant is open at 5pm, so we wanted to head back to the resort for a bit. The staff then told us that ok, they are open. So we sat, and ordered 2 items: salted egg squid, chilli crab (the menu has 🌶️ symbol on it) and hot plate seafood bean curd.

Firstly, the food is really, really overpriced. We were expecting this, as it was a resort environment after all. However, we were hoping that the food would at least be decent.

Boy we were wrong. Salted egg squid was just outright overly salty. No creaminess, no sweetness, no umami. Just salty. The only saving grace was it was at least crispy. The crab was seriously disappointing. The sauce is sour and not spicy at all. It tasted more like tomato sauce instead of chili. Just sour, no umami, no nothing. The hotplate bean curd was somewhat decent - mild, in a good way, umami and had a variety of ingredients in it. This is the only dish that I can remotely recommend.

The waiting time was long. Almost 40 mins for 3 simple dishes, and we were the only ones there on a Friday afternoon.

The atmosphere is subjective. While others might appreciate the "rustic" vibe, it felt rundown to me.

Save yourself the disappointment. Get your seafood fix...

Kelong

Cut to the chase, the food is not great and the service is very slow.

I am staying at the Batam View and called at 15:30 to ask when Kelong opens. They said open from 12-21:30. Great, we go and arrive at 15:40. They say yes we are open but we don’t start cooking until 16:00. Ok - how does that compute?

We order iced tea and water. It took 20 minutes. We ordered food when the drinks arrived at 16:00. I asked if they sell wine - no. I said no problem, I have a bottle. 200,000 idr to open. Never mind.

A fish arrived at 16:48. Undercooked - sent it back. Veggies, prawns and re-cooked fish arrived at 17:00. Large prawns were small, old and mushy. Chicken fried rice for the baby came last at 17:10 and it was chicken fried rice with prawns. Fish after Re-cooking was OK. 15 minutes to get the bill. Why?

We have eaten there before and it was OK, nothing memorable or poor and in-line with a 3.8 rating and slow.

This time was a disaster. Never again We ordered delivery...

Fantastic, best seafood for this trip. We came early 5plus, no one is around. Attended quickly and got our orders done, went to jetty to look around and get some photos. Came back and waited a short while and the food is served. Very fresh steamed fish (sea bass 700gm), nicely fried cuttlefish, fresh lala ginger onion (but quite a number of them is not opened), hokkien mee is really salty, and a bit spicy, kailan is ok. End of packing 2 chilli stone crabs (300400gm each) and buns, and enjoyed so much at Montigo Resorts which is just 3~5 mins walk away. So will be back for seafood if around here.

I am not pro photographer, and i too hungry, photo took after eating, looks not good, but seafood...