Koral: Bali’s First Aquarium Restaurant — Restaurant in Kuta Selatan

Outstanding experience from start to finish. We were gifted the gourmet six course for a wedding gift. Everything was not only delicious, but beautifully presented, creative and explained in detail by the lovely staff. Not a single complaint. We had the aquarium seats at dinner and it really made the evening feel like a true experience. Great photos to show friends and the diver bringing all the fish over so every table gets a chance for a great picture taken by the staff was epic. No wine for us but even the presentation of my humble gin and tonic was more than I've ever seen before. We were staying elsewhere, but honestly, from the moment we walked into the truly vast lobby of the hotel, right through the dinner was jaw dropping. Even the regular would you like some bread question. You are then offered a choice of 6 or seven different types of homemade bread, sourdough, olive bread, some sort of croissant type buttery bread and several more. I think they would have just kept bringing me bread all night, along with the delicious seaweed butter. But hold off, the food is not to be wasted. Foams, bisques, jus, reductions, jellys, crispy things, beautiful little salads with their own dressings. I love a nice meal and have several chef mates who've fed us extremely well in Melbourne, and I know they would have loved to have eaten here, and seen the creativity the kitchen staff have. All the front of house staff were beautifully dressed, polite but not snooty. They even had some cool as flowy pants for me as I did not read the email properly and had shorts on for dinner, completely my fault, it was very clear in the email. Dress up, it's a nice place.

The one issue we had, which is no fault of Koral, is finding our way through the enormous hotel grounds in time for our booking. Without a personal guide, you'd need way more than the 5 mins we left ourselves. We were booked for 8, arrived at 7.55 full of confidence and immediately got lost in the dark winding paths. However we teamed up with another lost couple, flagged down a golf cart and got directions, got lost again, found a restaurant, that was not Koral, got more directions and finally, great success, we made it with honestly, seconds to spare of our 15 min table window. Arrive at least half hour before your booking, you will definitely want to take photos of the lobby, it's truly mind blowing in scale and decoration.

And to the one star reviews that I always like to read before a meal like this: Just because you think it should have been better or your stupid dietary requirements meant you had to swap half of it for the veg or vegan option, does not justify a one star review. Totally unfair. This is a 5 star experience from start to finish. Would definitely recommend, would definitely return. For what you get, I think the price is quite reasonable. If you disagree, you're probably just wrong. If you want 7 star dining, fly to England, go to the fat duck and pay $3000 for lunch. If you want the best dinner experience in Bali, go to Koral. Perfect way to celebrate our wedding and end our holiday.

Thank you to the whole team....

My wife and I were delighted when notified of the availability of a Tunnel table recently for the 5.30pm slot. We were on our inaugural visit to Bali and was staying elsewhere for two nights only. There was no table slots online, and so we submitted a message through the website. To our amazement, we received an email a day before our flight arrival to Bali informing us of the available slot on the night before our departure flight back home. We confirmed immediately. On the reservation day, we arrived at the restaurant at least half an hour earlier, like other guests, who similarly had received their confirmation of tables, and waited around to be admitted 5 minutes before time. We were finally seated at the middle part of the tunnel, and ordered the Zen menu for each of us. The Zen menu has an 8-course dinner, and comes with wine pairing, which we did not order, as my wife was on medication. Anyway, the food arrangement was good, and every dishes tasteful and delightful, but the quantities a tad insufficient for the price. The experience at the Tunnel, however, was awesome and memorable, especially with the special performance by the scuba diver with the fishes. The waiters, Ayu and Pawarti, attended to us and provided explanations to the dishes delivered to the table and were attentive to meeting our needs, and assisted in taking good photos of us together that made the difference. Our disappointment with the restaurant, however, is in the incessant pursuit for a non-refundable deposit before confirming a table for us, which was rather awkward and left us with a negative impression of the management. That aside, the crew at the restaurant did a marvellous job in ensuring all their guests had a wonderful experience. Wow! Guests were there to celebrate birthdays, wedding anniversaries, or special occasions. The surroundings of The Apurva Kempinski Hotel is a sight to behold, too, night and day, and can be rather difficult and a challenge to navigate around for any first time visitors. We took around 20 minutes from the Lobby to reach the Koral Restaurant, which is 16 floors down by lift, with some distance walking. The restaurant presented us with a small cake after serving dessert, and delighted my wife with a parting gift of a small box of 4 chocolate balls on our way out. Once again, thank you for having us celebrate our 35th Wedding Anniversary at the Koral...

Since there were many factors to take into account before writing this review, I have to admit that it was a mixed bag of emotions.

The service was excellent. My wife unexpectedly became ill on the day I had originally scheduled the lunch, and the staff immediately made arrangements to reschedule us for the next available date. The day we came back, the service was outstanding once more. Everything is taken care of for you; nothing is overlooked.

Location: The restaurant is housed in Nusa Dua's Auprva Kempinski hotel. Although this was initially difficult to find, after speaking with a few people, you should have no trouble at all. You will not be disappointed if you visit or stay at the hotel because it looks fantastic. You must use the stairs to descend to the restaurant since it is located below ground level. As soon as you enter, you see that tables are arranged around a sizable fish bowl. It seems as though you are the fish.

It was great that we were seated in the tunnel area. You can view every kind of fish there is, and occasionally you might spot a shark cruising around.

Alright, so on to the food. To access it, you must first pay a deposit of 3.6 million IDR. My expectation is that the food I will be eating will astound me. You are shown a menu when you first sit down, and you are then informed of your options. The best option requires additional payment. Just be advised that the cost of the food and beverages will come to almost 4 or 5 million.

The food was of excellent quality and gave the impression that you were in a classy restaurant. Although the food appears to be worthy of a five-star rating, the taste... Most of the foods had, at most, a passable taste. There is not really that much on the plate. We went with the eight-course Zen option. The Cavier and desserts were the best items. Gourmet, a five-course meal, was the alternative. As previously mentioned, the Wagu beef was incredible, and everything else was mediocre at best.

Although it really depends on your taste, we found that most of our dishes were difficult to finish. I would have expected much more from the food for what we had paid for. I have no complaints about the service. It looks great.

I would consider this if you are in area but not break your back for it. I believe this is just a hype. they are gluten...