Crocodile Rock Bistro — Restaurant in Terengganu

Malaysian Hospitality at Crocodile Rock Villa

Went there last week. Horrible experience. Planning to stay there 2 nights, end up checked out after 1 night.

1. Upon check-in, we didn't get a friendly welcome from the host. Just a sour face from her when we humbly asked if we could pay extra beds for our friends. Our request got declined because it will exceed the maximum pax of the villa (we totally understand). But why the sour face? Not even a welcoming greeting toward us. We are your guests after all. But we still in a good mood since we just arrived and looking forward for a good weekend here at crocodile rock villa (which didn't happen obviously)

2. The host's dog keep on barking on us for no reason. This barking experiences lead to the next horrible event that happened to us during our 1st night there.

On the 1st night, we came back late to the villa around 1.20am bcs we were walking back from Long beach to our villa (around 40 min walk). Tired from the long walk, we offered our friends (who stayed at Chomel Chalet) for a quick break, drink and resting before they continue their walk back to their chalet. Our friends didn't come inside our room, just stay at the balcony only

On the way from the lobby to our room, the dog barked at us super loud resulting the host to wake up and checking on us. The host went to our room asking why so many people and we explained to her the situation and then she asked us not to make a loud noise since other guests are sleeping. We understand and we asked our friends to leave right away.

But, after 1 minute the owner left, 1 man (probably the husband/worker) came to our room and asked my friend RUDELY to leave the premises at once. We were utter shocked from the rude request. You don't have to asked us twice and definitely not with the rude tone of yours. SUPER RUDE ATTITUDE.

3. The loud noise definitely came from the dog and not from us. We didn't make any scene, no loud noise what so ever.

4. We as the guest have the right to came back to our villa at any time that we please. As long as we didn't interrupt other guest. The host can ask our friends to leave (totally understand) but WHY THE RUDE BEHAVIOUR TOWARD US?

5. The place - our room is decent with basic necessities. The view is good. The environment is great. The host?

Kalau ada sumur di ladang, Boleh orang menumpang mandi, Kalau adab sekecil kangkang, Datang sekali tidak...

I wanted to buy a single beer here and was told that I can not be sold the beer unless I buy food with it, despite the fact that me and my wife spent a considerable amount at this restaurant the previous evening and also made a reservation for the next evening, needless to say we will most definitely not be going back here after this experience, it is not as much the “policy” that gets to me but rather the tone and attitude of the person whom addressed me. Later that evening me and my wife went back as the food was delicious the previous night, despite my reservations regarding the owners bad tone earlier the day as suppose to a friendly and warm explanation of her policy to not sell alcohol unless food is purchased. We order chicken, both me and my wife, I smelled the intense smell and saw the smoke coming from the kitchen and I told my wife “I hope that’s not our chicken”, as our luck had it it was, the burnt chicken was so badly charred that some pieces was downright frankly inedible, when we told the waitress when she collected our plates she simply said “okay”, we then got up and went to pay at the front desk, I again told the chef that the chicken was badly burnt, at this moment the owner came up and told us that our chicken is not burnt, it’s suppose to be that way, in a very rude tone again, no apology, no compassion, she did not even look at us in our faces and simply said it’s the way Barbecue chicken is supposed to be, I then told her outright that barbecue is one thing but our chicken was burnt to an inedible point. Despite the great food the night before we will never ever return here, and never ever have we ever been treated this badly at the back of a complaint, and it’s by the owner !? Wow! Our business may not mean anything to you, but we did spent a lot of money two nights in a row and of that is how you treat your paying customers, as a business owner myself, I wish you all the luck going forward cause you’ll need it, salute, you lost a customer...

Now I understand the other bad reviews of the host’s sour and unfriendly attitude. We had a lovely dinner at Crocodile Rock and were welcomed by the owner’s son who was friendly and chatty and our food was delicious. So, for our last night on the island, we decided to splurge again because we’d had a great experience (and believe me - it’s a splurge… $50+ for 2 people). When a place is this pricy, you expect commensurate levels of customer service. This night, we both ordered 2 different kinds of chicken. As we waited, we could smell burned meat wafting through the restaurant and had a bad feeling it was our order. Indeed it was. Not wanting to spoil our last night, we didn’t complain and ate around the burnt bits. However, we told the waitress, who said, “okay I’ll tell the chef.” Lack of apology number one. When we went to pay, the friendly son was there again and I made small talk with him about how it seemed like they were in the weeds and that our chicken was unfortunately burnt. He seemed like he might have been about to apologize when his mother (or at least I assume it was her, as he had mentioned her the night before), stepped in and told us we were wrong. It’s BBQ chicken, she said. I told her mine was burned too, and not BBQ. No apology, just venom followed. Lack of apology number two, with the added icky feeling of gaslighting.

We live on a tiny remote island in Southeast Asia as well, with expensive prices and daily challenges and understand having a bad day. But we make every effort to be kind and compassionate to tourists and rectify our mistakes instead of blaming them if they politely raise an issue. Luckily for this owner, people just pass through so she doesn’t have to be accountable for her toxic attitude. Would only recommend if you’re sure it’s...