Bela Seafood Cafe — Restaurant in Kuta Selatan

I will not come back again ! I will go back to Menega Cafe

This is my 6th time to Jimbaran Bay for dinner. 4 times at Menega Cafe. I always satisfied with menega cafe. Come to Bela is because It was recommended by Movenpick resort concierge staff. He told me Menega sell live seafood but change to dead one behind the kitchen. (I explain my experience below)

Good thing about Bela

1. food as good as Menega.
2. free rice, veg and cut fruits
3. seat are cushioned

Bad thing about Bela

1. overpriced. Price stated in the menu doesn’t say how big the portion is. Turned out to be much smaller than described by the waiter. Also smaller than Menega. Thus Menega is cheaper. See the picture. Small crab for 350000rp Small prawn (sold as big prawn )6pieces for 350000rp

2. waiter liar. Told me they are all live seafood. U see there is no live seafood in the tank. All display dead seafood in ice. So the Movenpick staff lie to me too.

3. I spend 1,300,000rp or 95USD. Family of 4 don’t feel full at all. One fish, 2 plate of 6clams, 1 small 🦀, 1 plate of 6 prawns.

4. there is not many table filled up. Yet my food come after 40min.

5. pay in CASH, no printed receipt. Charge 10% gov tax on TOP of the price.

I conclude. 1)Both restaurants sell dead seafood. But at least Menega show me the seafood I pick, weight the clams and tell me the price. I see the size of the prawn and know the price. Bela cover up all these.

2)Do not believe in any tourist staff or driver which restaurant is good. They are commissioned.

I will not back to...

Tasty seafood, and a pretty sunset, that's where the positives end.

Most importantly, the set menus are a scam and are unavailable. They will tell you they don't have the "small" seafood options required to fulfill the set menus. They will instead point you to their recommended a la carte options, which will be 3-4x more expensive. In total, I would have been disappointed with what I got for the price if this was on the beach in the US, let alone in Indonesia. I spent $70 on two fish and one prawn dish.

The beach is overrun with tourists and pushy vendors, spoiling almost any photo or peace you might expect to have for a nice sunset dinner.

Extremely slow and unhelpful service. Repeatedly forgot orders.

The wait for the food was over an hour, despite nobody else being there when I arrived. I was told that the many other groups that arrived over 30 minutes later had "ordered ahead" somehow, which is why our food food was so slow. Maybe this is true--hard to tell, but in total I was ready to leave before the food even arrived almost 90 minutes after my order.

Maybe there are better places on this beach, maybe you're better off avoiding this tourist-choked spot altogether. There are better places to see the sunset and cheaper options for food.

I have no idea why this restaurant has such...

We have been to couple other restaurants in the same area and by our nature we decided to try something new. Based on positive reviews, we decided to try Bela Seafood. I must say that we got very disappointed by the level of engangment of the service. Waiters didn't understand English (questions on the menu, status of our order, reason for the delay etc.). Two waiters kept smoking cigarets between the tables where people ate. Three other tables got their food prior us, even so we ordered first and in fact the same grilled food. When we asked for a status nobody checked with the kitchen and we kept waiting. At that point we asked for a bill and we were told to wait one more miinute. This minute became 10 minutes and in the meantime all the waiters disappeared and whoever tried to ask didn't speak any English. Our food tasted smoky and my piece of lobster in a combo plate was in a size of a tiger prawn. I wouldn't recommend this restaurant...