Kelong Seafood Restaurant Nirwana Gardens — Restaurant in Riau Islands

I rarely write reviews but when it is this bad, I feel others need to know.

Have been coming here about 6 times over the years for its cheap, great live seafood & views.

This time round the meal was so very disappointing. We came for fresh live seafood but was served dead and frozen food instead.

Understand it is off peak season and the restaurant was 90% empty but it is unacceptable to find the food is so bad and more shockingly the menu prices are even more expensive than jumbo seafood in singapore.

Ordered live Crab but was served frozen crab and there was literally 25% meat on the crab. We returned the dish and they recook a new one n it was 500% better but they gave a much smaller size crab but still charge the same price.

Order the black garoupa 600g but it was at best 400g.. We were charged a higher price of red garoupa instead. We highlight to the waiter and instead of checking, he argued with us that we had ordered a red one but the fish came with dark skin and not red. Red was 30% more expensive.

Roast duck was on the menu but when asked, waiter said it was frozen and prawns is dead prawns but charge at ‘live’ prawn prices. Lucky we asked so did not order.

We ordered a salt and pepper quid and it was frozen pre-made squid and a smaller serving for the same price as Singapore.

The bill for 2 pax came to S$190 for 4 dishes of 600g crab, 600g fish, kailan veges and salt pepper squid. Service is 10% and tax is 11%. It’s fine to not serve ‘live’ seafood but at least let the customers know and charge lower prices accordingly. But what is unacceptable is the bill which is later corrected ….reluctantly.

Before ordering, please ask if the item is live, fresh or frozen.

Never again will I come back. We spent idr350k just to taxi to the restaurant from our beautiful hotel resort then have the most disappointing unromantic and unappetising meal.

The venue is very nice though and the lady waitress did provide very good service and was apologetic which made us feel better.

Looking forward to going back to Singapore for a much better live and quality seafood experience and...

First of all, be warned. The price is almost the price in Singapore restaurants and the service charge and tax meant that you'll be paying at least 20% more.

Price aside, let's look at the food I ordered.

Vegetables - Xiao bai chai. Quite tasteless and you can see that it was overcooked so they were limp.

XO crab meat fried rice - another tasteless dish. Did not taste the XO sauce at all and the crab meat added nothing to this. What I did was then to ask for sambal chili sauce (which was excellent) and mixed it to get a great tasting sambal fried rice. I also asked for tomato sauce and it too can work.

Red Garoupa in steamed Hong Kong style. This is a dish that I know how simple it is to cook so it is hard to get this wrong. I felt that they should have added Ginger. Since the fish was live hence fresh, it was okay.

Honey salted egg crab. I thought this combination sounded interesting and I certainly did not see this in Singapore. The sauce was nice. Here's what was wrong with the dish. The dish was a bit doughy. It was like the flour bits were chewy. Secondly they crab was really deep fried to the point where you could eat the legs of the crab. This also changes the flesh texture of the crab. Lastly, the crabs were moving in the tank. In Singapore, the crabs are tied to conserve their energy. The last thing you want is to find that the crabs have little flesh you are paying for the shell. This was what I found for one of claws. Shrank and shrivelled.

To conclude, I did not mind the high price but I certainly did not feel like I got what I paid for. The Service is excellent but the high price of the meal for such dismal standard made it a regret for my first trip to Bintan.

I gave one star for Service and one star for the freshness...

Food review

Fish (7.5/10) 900g for 810,000 RP (~SGD 68.69). The black grouper, deep-fried with kelong chili, was fresh and large. The flavor was reminiscent of sweet and sour, but the batter was too thick.

Stone Crab (5/10) 600g for 630,000 RP (~SGD 53.43). We tried it with salted butter and honey. While the batter was excellent, the crab itself was disappointingly small, with barely any meat to enjoy.

Kangkong Sambal (small) (8/10) 135,000 RP (~SGD 11.45). Overpriced compared to zi char prices back home, but thankfully, the dish was very flavorful—enough to justify the price.

Prawns (steamed, small) (7/10) 245,000 RP (~SGD 20.78). The portion was reasonable for the price, and the prawns were fresh, sweet, and satisfying.

Rice (plain) 30,000 RP per bowl (~SGD 2.54). Standard pricing for a restaurant.

Ice Lychee Tea (6/10) 70,000 RP (~SGD 5.94). It lacked actual lychee fruit, which was disappointing. Even chain restaurants like Collins serve better versions with fruit included.

Lover Lemonade (mocktail) (5/10) 90,000 RP (~SGD 7.63). Overly sweet, to the point where I had to wait for the ice to melt before drinking it.

Ambience The setting was quiet, windy, and very pleasant. The staff were friendly and welcoming, creating a nice dining atmosphere. Theres a small bar at the end of the restaurant facing the sea. Very calming and chill environment.

Overall, While the experience is worth trying once, there are more affordable alternatives—though they might be...