The Embun SG | Live Seafood • Ikan Bakar • Fresh Seafood (HALAL) — Restaurant in Singapore

OVERHYPED AND AWFUL SERVICE!

The only saving grace was the location and ambience. I agree with the many, many 1☆ reviews here that touched on these points:

• PRICE, QUALITY, PROPORTION: The price tag is quite unjustified for the quality and portion of food we're getting. $18 for a chilli crab but you only get pieces of 🦀 meat drowning in a small ramekin bowl of sauce and some small, not-crispy mantous. (Refer to my pic.)

We understand this is 'standard restaurant price', but please make the quality justified to what we're paying for, and less like, "sucking-diners'-wallets-dry-to-pay-the restaurant's-rental." We had chilli crab coincidentally the day before by a home-based caterer at a small function, and that was much better than this restaurant's. smh

• LIMITED MENU: We also had crispy baby squid and an omelette, because I have food allergies, so there wasn't much on the menu I could eat without worry (or much that the kitchen was willing to help with).

Which brings me to a point that a few other reviews here also mentioned; the menu variety. Very unexciting and small. There's only one soup in their menu. Even their dessert menu had more variety. (Maybe they should consider becoming a dessert bar instead of marketing themselves as a restaurant. 🙄)

In most other establishments like these, I could still at least enjoy the dining experience with my family because there are many other food options for myself, and of course more soup varities.

• BAD SERVICE This was a constant in most of the 1☆ reviews. It seems like there is no change despite the restaurant acknowledging this. Obviously it's lip service only.

We were unfortunate to experience this as well and it truly spoilt our whole lunch. It was SO bad, I have to split our encounter into more than one part.

• BAD SERVICE (PART I) Wait staff was hard to get a hold of and not attentive. Had to leave the table to get their attention. When I did get one, most were clueless. Had to approach a few more before someone could help. (My shoutout to one of the staff. She was Filipino, didn't catch her name, but she was the only commendable one there.)

• BAD SERVICE (PART II) A wait staff wanted to clear my husband's drink when he still had water in his glass. Not only that, he picked it by the rim (not the body) before returning it when my husband stopped him. Unhygienic.

• BAD SERVICE (PART III) Came here for the croffle. Ordered croffle. Didn't get croffle.

Alerted the staff when we were ready for dessert. The staff comms on his walkie to the dessert counter to inform them. We heard this. 15 mins later, no croffle. Called another staff over (this itself was another hassle) and he said he will inform them. After a total of 20 mins we told another staff to cancel the croffle. Even then, it took him time to compute what we were telling him.

• BAD SERVICE (PART VI) Made payment at counter. Overheard the dessert counter staff say to the cashier that nobody told him to prepare our croffle when we told her what happened. Clearly something went wrong somewhere because we did hear someone convey this earlier. (See Part III.)

• BAD SERVICE (PART V) All the cashier did was smile, apologise, give an obvi textbook line or two, and continued smiling when we told her about the missed order.

While smiling is considered a good touch in customer service the situation in which she applied it wasn't. (I was a service quality trainer for years.) It came off as insincere and even creepy after awhile. Better ways could've been taken for service recovery or to remedy the situation. Unless this is a common occurence and they don't really care about it.

We were excited when we heard we could finally enjoy dining at The Oval because there was a halal joint here. But what a let-down it was. It's also obvious that customer reviews have fallen on deaf ears, because there seems to be NO change in the pain points raised.

Such a pity because it has a lot of potential. At the way they're going, I'm honestly suprised they're still...

please do not even think about coming here. let me tell u why

lobster wasn’t fully cooked in which could lead to foodborne illness. chef “recooked” it and it became burnt.

lobster wasn’t fresh because we had a hard time trying to eat the meat. mind you, we had to scrap it. the meat was stuck to the shell

we pre ordered our meal. everytime came but guess what?? we waited almost one hour for the rice and u have the audacity to charge me $1.50 for a bowl of rice in which we had to wait for 1 hour with no follow up asking “have u receive ur rice? OR hi im sorry because we are full, rice might take abit longer”

no follow ups, no service recovery. its the typical we wait for our customer to complain then we do something about it

buttermilk chicken was hard. charging us at a yahudi price of $24. yeah sure, rental is high bla bla. but please ensure price matches with quality

prawn was not cleaned properly

halfway being unimpressed, we decided to add broccoli and scallop for the kids. we had 4 starving kids btw. moments later, mr chad apparently the manager came up and said “hi we do not have the broccoli and scallop, is it ok for me cancel?” dude come on lah. after so long then you guys realised eh shoot we do not have broccoli. do i look like i have a choice to not to cancel it?

let me be abit nicer and say they did offset the lobster. as they should of course duh. i requested to not pay for the rice and the buttermilk chicken. because again, why should i?

upon leaving the the aesthetic place with zero service. not even 1 star.

manager did not come up to explain to us to why things happened and what’s there to rectify. it’s a shame.

please do not be a typical business owner. do tiktok, do reels, do trending dance etc and not sort your system properly. it’s a major turn off. i do not recommend this place, at all. just dine in at thasevi and...

We ordered a seafood spread: 450g of sotong, 300g of cockles, 1 chilli stingray, 20pcs of satay, a plate of truffle fries, kangkong belacan, and 6 tiger prawns.

Sadly, what arrived was a showcase of missed opportunities in both taste and value.

Sotong: Severely overcooked and rubbery, lacking any discernible seasoning or finesse. A dish that should be tender and flavourful ended up as an exercise in jaw strength.

Cockles: Sparse in portion despite being claimed at 300g, and underwhelming in flavour. The visuals didn’t inspire confidence either.

Chilli Stingray: The only saving grace of the meal—well-cooked, with a good balance of heat and spice. It stood in stark contrast to the rest.

Satay: Overcharred and disappointingly sour, suggesting either poor marination or questionable freshness. The peanut sauce was especially baffling—watery, bland, and shockingly devoid of peanuts.

Truffle Fries: At $18, expectations were high. But the portion consisted of thin, fast-food-style shoestring fries with barely-there truffle aroma. Simply not worth the premium.

Kangkong Belacan: Lacked punch, both in heat and in the signature umami depth that good belacan should bring.

Tiger Prawns: A mix of inconsistently cooked pieces—some juicy, others dry and stringy. Quality control was clearly lacking.

To be fair, the ambience is lovely, and the service team was polite and accommodating. The restaurant has potential, but it must rise to the standards it sets through its pricing and setting.

For now, Embun feels like it’s leaning heavily on location and decor, while the culinary execution lags behind. With a more thoughtful approach to seasoning, ingredient handling, and portion justification, it could become the gem it aspires to be. But as it stands, diners may leave with lighter wallets and heavier...