Ambiente Ristorante — Restaurant in Jakarta

My wife and I are taking our wining and dining seriously. When in new places we are making searches, reading reviews, asking concierges for recommendations, studying the menus and asking the concierges to get us files with menus when they are not available online. As a result, on our first evening in Jakarta we found ourselves in Ambiente. So, I am sitting there, looking at the menu and thinking: “my head must have been overloaded with information of and about various places. How could I possibly choose this one for us?”. And then I went to a chat with a concierge of a hotel we were staying in and I reopened the menu of Ambiente that she received from the restaurant earlier the very same day. And then I notice that the menu only visually looks the same compared to hard copy that I am staring at in Ambiente itself. Same brownish paper, same looking text. But real menu in the restaurant has shrunken at least 2 times compared to what restaurant sent her electronically. For example, in an electronic version there were 17 pasta options, while in one in the restaurant that we got, there are only 9 (!!!). And the situation is the same in respect to everything else: starters, main courses. They are sorry, - our waiter said, - they made a mistake, the one we received in the restaurant itself is “an updated one”. Do they serve white wine by the glass? – I ask. Yes, they have Pinot Grigio by glass, - the waiter answers. They are sorry, it is out of stock, - he announces coming back in 5 minutes. But they have a bottle that was opened for the other clients 2 days ago, which they didn’t finish – we can have that one (!!!). Next, I am making a choice of a pasta from the few options in their “updated menu”. Sorry, lobster is out of stock today. Red wine next. The have 3 Italian labels in their “wine list”. Very adequate for a restaurant claiming to be Italian. And my very first choice – guess what – is also out of stock, they are so sorry. In the end of the exciting meal, we asked for the bill and were waiting, waiting and waiting. “Please, wait a moment”, - the answer we kept getting. After about half hour, for the very first time in my life, I told my wife: OK, we are just saying “goodbye” and leaving. Needless to say, that the bill suddenly came through when we were not more than 5 meters out of the exit. Due to all past good reviews, this place most likely was OK some time ago. But now it feels like a shop in the end of a liquidation sale. Only what hasn’t been sold and has been laying in the back somewhere for...

I don’t often write a negative review but I don’t often come across service as poor as this was. We arrived on a Saturday evening to an empty restaurant but were told other guests were due soon. We ordered reasonably promptly and our staters arrived without too much of a wait. One was burrata and one minestrone soup. The soup was described as a “clear vegetable soup, white bean, and olive” but it had a thick tomato base and some bread on top. That said, it tasted fine, and the burrata was also good. Things then went downhill. The second courses of a pizza with Parma ham and pasta salmone were both bad. The pizza wasn’t cooked in the wood fired oven and the base was incredibly tough. The Parma ham topping was ruined by the fact that it had been cut too thickly and then cooked. It could have been used to sole shoes it was so chewy! The pasta came as a huge gloop of spaghetti with salmon and vegetables. The portion size was off-putting and the taste bland. The second course was delivered and some chilli oil brought separately at which time we asked for another drink. That was the last we saw of the staff. Bear in mind that we were the only customers in the restaurant at around 8:30pm but we were completely ignored. No one asked if the food was ok, no one brought our drinks. Eventually we had to try to attract the attention of a member of staff who was at the far end of the room to request that our drinks be delivered. Even then there was no engagement. The meal ended with us watching a waiter mopping the floor behind the bar while we waited for our table to be cleared. We gave up on the idea of a dessert since it was clear we were not welcome and the staff wanted to shut up the restaurant, at about 9:15pm. I would not recommend...

Had a valentine dinner with family and the ambience was very good, there is also a live music to accompany our dinner and its really making the dinner great We take the valentine package and the taste is really good Appetizer: ravioli di gamberi (4/5) the sauce is really good with the dough being a bit crunchy , the parmesan foam alleviate the dish taste and overall the taste blends well Soup: asparagus cream chowder ( 5/5) The soup was very good , the egg combined with the asparagus soup was perfect, and the spice chilli really kicks in and making the soup taste really great Main course: Sous vide beef roulade (3.5/5) the beef taste a bit bland, shouldve asked for more black pepper. the cooking temperature is good as i like it. The beef could be more tender, but overall still good dish Ambiente pizza ( we order extra main food) (4.5/5) really good pizza the dough is chewy a bit crunchy and not too thick, the crust is crunchy, the smoked salmon taste really good with the amazing tasty tomato base sauce Dessert Molten choco lava cake (3/5) : the cake could be more melty, when you eat choco lava cake you expect the dough to be melty when you cut it., its also too sweet to my liking still ok dish Overall ill rate all the food around 4/5 A very good dining experience with good food I will surely come back...