Nelayan Seafood By The Coast — Restaurant in Johor

Came here with my colleagues, attracted by the scenery, planned to have a good chill time together enjoying the sea view and seafoods.

We were glad that there is no wait for the table. And after we placed the order, the first food came quickly. All seems to be perfect until this time. However, the whole scenario suddenly became a huge mess within a short period of time.

We are a group of 9 person and we ordered a 6 pax set meal, that came with around 6 dishes. We added in crab and another meat too. The foods came fast, but way too fast until we cannot really enjoy them. This is because the foods are served in big plates, and there is very limited place on the table (only able to fit around 3-4 plates). And all of the dishes came non stop to our table. We didn’t have the time to slowly dig in the meal. The staff is just holding the plate standing at the side. We had to quickly divide the dishes onto our plates so that there is enough place to put down another dish. For the whole 10-15 mins we were just busy standing up, scooping, dividing and so on. And when it finally stop, we looked down to our plates and we lose our appetite because our plate is just a mess with all food on it, and it just look like chap fan that we eat everyday. At this time, we had no mood to enjoy the food, but just trying to clear the food in front of us.

Hoping that no other big group facing the same issue as us, our friend gave the staff an humble advice:”please slow down the speed of serving dishes as we want to enjoy the dish. It feels very rushing now.” But the staff replied, “bcz today not a lot of customers that why is so fast”. As a floor staff, why cann’t you communicate with the kitchen staff, and tell them there is not a lot of order now, there is not enough of place on table, let them finish their dishes on the table first then only serve another dishes. Or maybe arrange another table or a bigger table for us to put down the dishes, instead of just holding the plates and let us settle the scenario ourselves.

I understand seafood tastes nice when is served hot. I understand that maybe some other days your restaurant maybe full house and you all need to act fast. But as a “high end” seafood restaurant that charged high end price, organising the speed and sequence of serving, make adjustments according to scenario, in order to provide comfortable eating experience to your customers, is equally important than the taste and quality of the food. Honestly in our scenario, the experience had spoiled the taste of the food and we cannot really tell the taste of each plate of dishes. The sequence is wrong too, such as give us the soup, but no bowl until we requested, served the mantao before the crab arrived, served the crab but never provide the tools etc. All of these were just worsen our experience here.

And what make it even worst, is the attitude of the staffs. We were not trying to make complaints, we were not trying to make big scenario. We were just asking politely “can we talk to person in charge?”, trying to share with them our honest feedback on it so it can be improved next time. As we think of it, the set meal was supposed to be for 6 persons only, but we (a group of 9 people) already facing problems with it. How can 6 people able to enjoy and finish the dishes faster than us? But all the staffs are just passing the ball around, saying there is no person in charge. One staff is even mocking my friend, saying “is it the first time you all come here?” What is that supposed to mean. Because we are first comers, so we don’t deserve to have a wonderful dining experience? Honestly, it is just a small matter that can be fixed easily if your staffs willing to take in the advice and make some adjustments from there. But your staffs are just being ignorance and pushing away their responsibility.

Thus, in short, foods okok, not very stand out. The one good thing about here is seafoods are fresh. However, the atmosphere (flies), the staffs’ manners, the lack of organisation, make our dining experience...

Okkay first of all, masa sampai kat kedai, the staff asked to wait for 30minutes which is not a problem since its on weekend. But we saw one shop (named selling ikan bakar) infront of nelayan seafood so we asked the staff whether can we go down there to see the shop while waiting. The staff answered “oh noo tak boleh turun bawah” so we’re like oh okayy and keep waiting.

Then we got a table after 15mins, and the staff work efficiently except when we said we would like to see the kedai selling ikan bakar infront there. The staff said “ohh no need, order yang dalam menu ni. SAMA JE”. So bluntly ikut je apa staff cakap oh sama je but I already have bad instinct since the staff being very fishy about the shop infront there.

When food arrived, the ikan bakar we ordered look so not interesting at all, macam steamed and they put the sambal on top! At the same moment we saw a guy brought in a green plate with AMAZING LOOKING IKAN BAKAR next to our table and went out to the shop infront I mentioned earlier. That moment we knew the STAFF LIED. ITS NOT THE SAME AT ALL. Tengok masakan pun lain! We were emotionally triggerred rasa tertipu. Honestly mula2 rasa okay lagi but the fact that the ikan bakar taste so dull made us very mad and kenapa orang sebelah boleh je order ikan bakar kedai depan and boleh je hantar ke meja. UNLESS KALAU STAFF SAID OH TAK BOLEH ORDER MAKANAN LUAR OR ANYTHING. We would totally agreed and accept with open heart! ni tak terus “oh tak boleh! even dari first before masuk pun lagi kedai nelayan seafood ni.

The only good thing about this restaurant is the butter prawn. Lauk lain semua biasa je plus with an overpriced (kailan ikan masin small around rm20+) not even masin! and we found the chewing gum yg melekat tepi magkuk tomyam. Like seriously?!

There’s always room for improvements Please la jangan menipu cakap itu ini tengok2 masakannya biasa2 je. In conclusion, nelayan seafood taste 4/10, staff 4/10 and...

The sea view is wonderful full stop end of review.

But as a responsible reviewer, I thought I should warn my fellow humans about this restaurant.

You will be eaten alive by the larger-than-normal and very persistent flies. They are not shy, they are hungry and they will get your food. Coming here felt like you are bringing your children to a third world country that’s under developed.

All patrons are see waving their hands and flapping their fingers in vain trying to keep the flies at bay.

We were seated right in front of the epi centre of the flies - the aquarium. A shallow container with exposed seafood attracted the flies to swarm around it.

We asked the waiters repeatedly, HELP!!! But they couldn’t do anything about it. They provided candles and a fly fan to deter the flies but they are not solving the root of the problem!

We’ve eaten by the sea in the open in other parts of Malaysia, Bali, Thailand - it was pleasant!

Let’s now dive into the food. The live seafood in the aquarium is all but an illusion. Whatever we ordered tasted funky and gamey.

Prawn Paste Chicken Gamey chicken taste with yellowish skin and an unsettling blend of prawn paste and batter.

Soft shell crab some portion of the crab meat tasted watery and bad! The portion was so small it could have been eaten in one bite.

Prawns the shells of the prawns were stucked and fixed into the meat. It wasn’t deep fried and trying to eat it in full may cut your throat.

Squid with salted egg Toughest squid we have eaten. On top of that, it’s chewy and rubbery.

Black Pepper Crab this comes across as crab and sauce at best. Where is the pepper!! There is no spicy kick in this and it was a let down. The 2 crabs were in diet and the meat is limp, soft and mushy.

We’ve had better. Pls put your heart into the food and do something...