L'Osteria Pizza e Cucina Canggu — Restaurant in Bali

I was thinking from what to start exactly. I am not this person normally who spend time to write reviews, but in this situation and with this restaurant I decide to spend a bit of time .

My friend invite me to have dinner at new Italian restaurant in canggu, apparently they have same in a Ubud. For this evening I decide to leave my baby at home with nanny to have nice quiet dinner without running after my lovely son. Parents will understand me. Evening suppose to be with joy, good food, good conversation with nice glass of wine and etc

But... Restaurant look nice. Design is beautiful. And unfortunately that’s it. Start from the service, the stuff look a bit lost, and don’t really know what they have to do.

Menu is good. Many options. When you read you want to try this dishes.

We order wine, simple salad and main courses. I don’t eat onion and I order pasta without onion. Waiter say ok, no problem. They bring wine, salad after big amount of time for this. And after was moment of waiting our main courses. After 20-25 min manager came and sad that they can not make this pasta with no onion. So, I change my order. We was waiting 20-30 min more, no one was trying to remove empty plates from salad from our table which we eat like 30 min ago , until I ask to clean the table.

So, at some point they bring my pasta, which was completely not what I ordered. And still was no pizza for my friend, pizza, which normally you get in10-15 min was making around 1 hour . Pasta which they bring I couldn’t eat because there was pesto which I don’t like and I will never order obviously.

Finally spending more than an hour in this place, we didn’t get our food. We have to leave because time was running and I have to put asleep my child.

And the worst thing, they charge us money for all this food which we order but never get.

Honestly, living in Bali for several years I never had situation like this. And this restaurant pretend to be high quality, which is very very far...

Extremely slow service. Like absurdly slow. Snails pace. The food took 45 minutes to come out on a Sunday evening where the restaurant was only mildly busy. I counted 6 tables of mostly 3's and 4's.. So definitely not busy.

One of the menu items we ordered was the burrata salad. And it doesn't take a professional chef to know assembling a salad shouldn't take 45 minutes.

The exact same thing happened at the Ubud location, where we were given 3 rounds of breadsticks before the appetizer even showed up. Slow service seems to be the bane of l'Osteria's operations. One table next to us of 3 even walked out because they didn't get food after an hour.

The service however was super friendly here, at both locations actually :) But charming service doesn't make up for a super slow kitchen :(

Regarding the food itself, it's very "homemade" Italian food. As in, one could make it at home. For example, I ordered the cacio e pepe. Being born and raised in Rome I know what a cacio e pepe should taste like, and this just wasn't it, sadly. The tableside service aspect was "fun" but sadly the pasta was far too watery and cold, so the cheese didn't absorb well when adding it to the cheese wheel and make the "cremina" that is required in a cacio e pepe. Furthermore the risotto my partner ordered was far too al dente and it wasn't pleasant to eat. The dish was finished because she was hungry.

Lastly, the ambiance was super bright. Like uncomfortably bright. They ought to dim the lights IMHO. Also they brought the incorrect bill twice.

I very rarely leave poor reviews, but l'Osteria was very disappointing. I certainly hope they figure their work flow and kitchen...

First off let just say that there was a boy taking care of us who was 5 star, he tried EVERYTHING to make things right. But unfortunately, this review isnt about that great server... it's about the food. So here we go.

Terrible Milanese, tasteless and bland, the sauce to put on the Milanese was an aoli, not sure for the fries or the meat, but it too just tasted like mayonnaise. So i asked for some pomodoro sauce. It was blended so thin it was like chef boyardee made it. No chunks of tomatoes no signs of any herbs. Meat was shoe leathered and chewy. Breading without herbs or salt it appears.

Awful experience topped off by the manager arguing with me that it is authentic. Anyone who's been anywhere where good Italian food is, knows italian pomodoro is not blended. Unless canned or bottled.

Bruschetta was soggy also without herbs, just tomatoes on bread.

Chicken marsala the wife had was palatable, but they need to drain the sauteed mushrooms before adding it to the sauce. Sauce was greasy.

Main room was like a sauna. Just a terrible experience for a place with 4.6 stars Tells me at least one thing, the place isnt run by Italians, and was told by the manager they have an itallian cook. I would love to speak to this Italian cook to tell him how ashamed his grandmother would be of his sauces and tasteless food.

UPDATE: on our way out i asked to speak to the Italian who cooks there, and was told... He's out of town for the moment. Which explains maybe the low quality checked food. Id ask if the chef is in before...