Three Monkeys Sanur — Restaurant in Denpasar Selatan

I'll start this off on a positive note. The restaurant itself has some cool unique decor. We were given the option of sitting upstairs in the air conditioned room which was great! It was a welcome change not sweating while having dinner! My girlfriend had a Marroc pizza and we shared some duck spring rolls. Both were very good, high quality and genuinely enjoyable. The sauce base on the pizza almost has this subtle sweetness to it which gave it this really unique flavour. The spring rolls were perfectly crispy, with the initial taste of duck followed by lingering notes of lemongrass. Really good flavours.

However.. I ordered the 'bebek betutu fettuccine' which was quite frankly revolting. The menu described it as a Balinese spiced duck in a ragu with fettuccine pasta. Typically you'd think this would be a slightly spicy duck with some subtle hints of ginger, turmeric and lemongrass; All of which should be great flavours to accompany a rich tomato ragu and fettuccine. What arrived in front of me was.. definitely not what I expected.

All I could smell was an overwhelming pungent aroma of fish sauce. Slightly offput by that immediately I took a few bites and unfortunately all I could taste was fish. At that point I was starting to question if I was accidentally given tuna.. so I asked my girlfriend to try it as well and she insisted it was duck but reeked of fish. Besides it being revolting taste-wise, that was most definitely not a ragu. There was little to no sauce in that dish at all outside of the fish sauce that I could so clearly smell and taste.

After a few small bites I pushed the plate aside and shared some of my girlfriends pizza instead. At no point did any of the staff come over and query if the food was ok after I did this... Three staff members were standing outside the air-conditioning area having a conversation near enough to us that they most definitely could have seen my plate pushed to the side.

When a waitress eventually did come over to clear away our plates I let her know that the pizza and spring rolls were really good, but my pasta was awful and reeked of fish. Her response was "Oh that's just how it is" and then tried to tell me that duck normally smells like fish unless you ask for crispy duck... I really didn't know how to react after that explanation.. Not only is it unprofessional but it's also absolutely nonsense. To add to that unprofessional behavior I then saw her go outside the door of the air conditioned room, show my plate to another waitress while trying to subtly point in my direction. Not so subtle I'm sorry to say..

A more professional response would be to apologise at the very least, and if you wanted to go the extra mile for customer service then offer a replacement dish or remove it from the bill instead. This is how it was always a handled when I worked in a restaurant. If this was offered I would have declined; I wasn't complaining to try and get free food or a discounted meal. It's simply offered as feedback. Nothing will change unless an opinion is shared.

Simply put, revolting food and bad customer service means I cannot in good conscience recommend this restaurant, and I most definitely will not be back. There are far better restaurants around Sanur with much nicer food, proper customer service and...

Food: 3/5 Drinks: 3/5 Service: 2/5

"Is it worth it index": 2/5

Food: The spiced cashews were underwhelming. They could have gone a little easier on the spices and the flavourings especially the ginger and sugar. The bruschetta, zucchini fritters and monkfish were excellent. The dessert, a chocolate cake with a raspberry coulis was almost excellent. The chocolate cake was excellent but the raspberry coulis was so sour that they might as well have had a lime compote instead.

Drinks: Medication meant that I had to stick to the non alcoholic drinks. The banana smoothie was great, the "mad for mango" on the other hand was more a "mad for vanilla".

Service: By far the worst service I have had in Indonesia. When we arrived, in spite having reserved way in advance and the restaurant being almost empty as it was still early, we were directed to the worst table in the restaurant. When we requested for a change the waiter rudely told us that all the tables were reserved. We had to talk to the restaurant manager to get a better table in a half empty restaurant! Since we changed levels and waiters in the process, I thought that we would get better service bit well... The welcome drink arrived in the middle of the main course with no apologies provided. I also think that the waiters have been instructed not to smile and to look down on their customers. The level of arrogance matched that of a snobbish Parisian bistro and seemed out of place in laid back Bali.

Is it worth it index : Considering that you have to book 3 days in advance, that they charge European prices and the service is terrible, I would give it a...

I have mixed feelings about this place. For sure atmosphere is nice and they have not so bad wine menu but food had up and downs. We ordered A) Basket of bread. Different type of breads with olive oil and vinegar/balsamic sauce. It was nice B) Duck spring rolls. It was OK too. We liked it. It is deep fried so it is not a difficult dish. I stayed 4 months in Vietnam. They do best spring rolls there. C) Turkish pide. What yes! They serve Turkish pide in the middle of Sanur. Or they think it is Turkish pide. It was terrible. It was so plain. I lived 20 years in Turkey. If this is pide then I am Balinese. It needs to be removed from menu! D) Semplice pizza classic. So so... nothing to like or dislike. E) Ravioli Prawn special. It was good. But actually there was no sauce on it. I mean there was something added to juice it but it was not enough. I believe this dish should be served with garlic or roquefort sauce. F) Sirloin steak. The star of the night. It was a 5 star dish. Super juicy steak with a local sauce. Unbelievable tasty Mashed potato. G) Red wine. I’m not going to rate the wine but I want to mention that they claim they transport and keep the wine in required temperature conditions. (See photos)

Service is at Bali level. Meaning slow but very kind staff. It took like 15 minutes for olive bread to come. Come on... Price is expensive versus value. And unfortunately I saw a mice running at the garden side but I guess this is also very common in Bali. This is an open garden restaurants and side walls are made of bamboo. Overall it was not a good experience. I don’t feel I got...