Cheap Seafood and a Petting Zoo in Desaru?!
Source: JOHNPATCROSS on YouTube · embedded, not re-hosted
Watch this if you’re driving over from Singapore as a family and want the cheap-seafood, hands-on-animals, fireflies side of Desaru rather than a resort-pool weekend.
What’s in it
- A Singapore family road trip (~2 hours over via Woodlands) — and a note for EV drivers: there’s a car charger at the Hard Rock and more chargers around the Coast than they expected.
- The kids’ highlight was Desaru Fruit Farm: they paid ~RM 598 for a 2-person family package — a 1-hour guided ATV tour plus indoor and outdoor petting farms, hand-feeding emus, ostriches, donkeys and ducks (they even held a raccoon).
- Food verdict: Nelayan Seafood By The Coast — lobster (~RM 240) and an XO fried rice the host called the best he’d ever had; the whole seafood dinner came in under ~RM 400.
- Brunch at Yard & Co, a sea-facing café outside the gates — smoked duck, laksa pasta, mochi.
- The Sungai Lebam firefly cruise: book ahead (no walk-ins), get the 7:30pm slot, and allow ~40 minutes’ drive each way from the Coast — the trees light up “like Christmas trees.”
- Honest steer: outside the resorts “there’s not much going on,” and the seafood spots are most fun with a group of 4–6 so you can order a proper spread.
Our take: The best outside-the-gates food-and-family run — cheap seafood, the fruit-farm petting zoo and the fireflies, exactly the Desaru the Coast brochures skip.
Where this lines up with our guides
Embedded from YouTube and the property of its creator — we don’t re-host or re-edit. The summary is our own, cross-checked against primary sources and last reviewed 2026-06-01. Creators are also credited on our attributions page.
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Planning the trip?
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