Enam Langit by Plataran — Restaurant in Candirejo

Five star restaurant, three star service quality! I visited Enam Langit by Plataran last week on the recommendation of the staff of the Plataran Borobudur Heritage Hotel, where I stayed the night before. My thought of having lunch while being accompanied by a beautiful view really raised my expectations. But what I got was not worth it, not even as high as the location of this restaurant.

The terrain was really not easy. to reach its location, you need to pass through hilly roads that are uphill and steep. a separate challenge for those of you who are used to driving.

When we arrived at the entrance gate (if it deserves to be called the entrance gate), we were greeted by the gatekeeper unfriendly. he asked, had we made a reservation? Of course the answer is no, we are here suddenly and want to enjoy our afternoon. He then called the restaurant (which is still about 1km more uphill) and said the restaurant was full. I then negotiated that we had been through difficult terrain and we didn't want our trip to be in vain. Can't they prepare a little space for a husband and wife so they can enjoy lunch at a 5 star restaurant. Negotiations that provoked a bit of my emotions, until I asked to speak to the manager and until I had to say that We were guest of the Plataran Heritage Borobudur Hotel until I was invited in. Huh, it really looks like the employees are not trained.

We were then welcome to enter and stop at the next gate. There we repeated the same process as in the previous gate did. The gate clerk said that there was already a group that booked the reservation this afternoon. With a little negotiation, this clerk finally called the restaurant again and then said "you can come in, sir, but the minimum purchase is IDR 250,000 per person." in my heart I said "ummm, sorry?" It's not like I can't afford a quarter million rupiah lunch, but they really insulted me indirectly. Really too far! I then discussed it with my wife, with quite logical reasons. She said "it's okay for just this once, besides if we go home now our all the struggles we endured to het here will be in vain". Okay, for the love of my life.

Right after we parked the vehicle, we entered and found the shocking thing!! the restaurant is not as full as what the gatekeeper is talking about. less than 1/3 of the seats are filled!! Then we sat down and ordered food, the price and type of food offered did not vary. Even more varied are the Menoreh Restautants within the hotel. The price is not much different.

After ordering food, we then took some pictures and started to enjoy the cool atmosphere. Yes, the view is truly incredible from up there. Our food arrived 30 minutes later, pretty long time for 2 simple main course orders. I forgot the name of the menu we ordered, but it certainly tastes so-so, the food is not warm and it's really not like a 5 star restaurant food.

I then asked the waiter, why are so many seats empty because the gatekeeper said earlier that the restaurant is full of reservations. Then he said, yes there is a reservation, but it is still 1 hour away. Wow, just wow.

In general, I am really disappointed. If you have the chance to come here, just remember that you are not paying for the food and service here... you are here only paying...

I made a reservation for 9 people at 7PM on 13th April, the reservation process itself was nice and smooth. The Whatsapp admin who responded to me was very helpful and friendly, they were very informative and even offered us a shuttle from Plataran Heritage. When we arrived, we were quiet shocked to see the access to the restaurant, i brought my grandmother who had trouble walking and needed a cane to walk so the steep uphill climb was a challenge for us. Coming into the restaurant, we were quiet lost, there were no ushers to confirm our reservations so i approached one of the staff (who didn’t even approach us to ask did we have a reservation nor greet us) who seated us at our table. We took the package menu and some of the food was quite nice, despite some of the dishes being slightly cold. The issue that i had was, one of the dishes we ordered was. the Australian Tenderloin and i had ordered it (described how i wanted it to be done, chose the sauce and sides) we waited and it was around 8.11PM and all of our dishes was served except the steak, one of the waitresses approached us and asked me again the details of my order 40 Minutes after i ordered it the first time, at this point i just told them to cancel that order because before we came to the restaurant we needed to book the shuttle and inform the driver at what time we will be leaving and we settled at 9PM and we didn’t want to risk being late and make the driver wait over one dish. There were no apologies, not even a sorry for the inconvenience, so that was quite disappointing coming from Plataran. While we waited for our reservations we went to the Menoreh Restaurant down in Plataran Heritage to order some appetizers and the service there was incomparable to the service we had in Plataran Shailendra, the staff at Menoreh was super helpful, patient and polite to us. Even if i tried to compare our experience at Menoreh to the one we had in Shailendra, it would be hard. The price was okay considering we were a party of 9, but we were definitely not paying for service nor taste. Disappointing experience overall, the only bad experience i have ever had with Plataran. Considering the effort and time it took us to get there and comparing it to the overall experience, personally i wouldn’t visit Plataran Shailendra/Enam...

I feel obliged to write this about our experience of 'sunrise breakfast' at Enam Langit by Plataran on Wednesday February 8th 2023. This was a birthday celebration, reserved under the name XXXX, we were a group of four people staying at the Heritage and also at the Resort & Spa.

We arrived at 5am promptly as requested.

We were not greeted and had to find our reserved table and seats ourselves.

Disco music (ABBA) started playing at a high volume and we requested it be turned off as this really wasn't the ambience we wanted at 5am sunrise looking out over the majestic countryside. Within 5 minutes another member of staff came in and turned the music back on and we requested again it be turned off, and again, after another 10 minutes the chef came in and turned it back on and again we requested it be turned off. Music (if played at all) at that time of day should really have been something quiet and maybe traditional, not disco music in my opinion.

The staff eventually came and took our breakfast orders.

Staff seemed very preoccupied with 3 guests who sat next to the statue. They were taking photos of them, filming for them, even letting them climb on the lion statue, this went on for the 2 hours we were there and we felt quite ignored and on a few occasions ,to the point of having to walk to the kitchen to ask whatever staff we could find where our food might be.

The butter pastries were not fresh, they were sour, the fat had turned rancid and were not edible. The food was cold and generally not very pleasant.

Random people were hanging around the area, chatting with the bar staff or just taking photos from the balcony, out of the way, but obviously not guests of the hotel/restaurant, this seemed to be fine with the staff present who were talking with them, instead of looking after their guests.

The staff were quite young and it seemed like no one was there to manage them at all, they were left to do what they want, invite their friends and serve on the highest paying guests.

This experience was just not up to the standard I have come to expect of the Plataran brand and I still feel very...