Cendana Restaurant — Restaurant in Kuta

Not sure how can anybody rate this restaurant as excellent. Having eaten in various restaurants in Ubud or Amed before, we found this one quite average. The portions are quite small, almost no vegetables as a side dish, and if you happen to have some in your plate then they are big chunks of raw cabbage and tasteless tomatos with no sauce on it. So all there is left for you to fill your stomach with is a pile of dry rice. When we complained about the food quality to the restaurant staff claiming that in many side road warungs in Bali you get nicer portions for less money then the only thing they could come up with was that this is the way their food is served and that compared to warungs they have tax to pay. As if the tax prevented them from making the food more tasteful ! I guess they do not care about unhappy customers as in Seminyak, close to the beach the tourists will alyways keep rolling in. We ate there twice and only because we were staying at the Puri Cendana hotel but...

I guess if it was our first place to try Bali food, we would be happy, but it wasn't, and we had just the day before much tastier for half the price in the place that is located just around the corner from here. That being said, the food itself was good, just not great in comparison. We ordered oxtail soup, chicken noodles, 12 pc meat combo skewers, and drinks to accompany the food. The dishes were tasty, probably the skewers were the worst out of three, as the meat (pork in particular) was dry. For the drinks, we had one milk shake, iced tea and lemon iced tea. Milk shake was truly delicious, but the teas were such a disappointment. They were overly sweet and tasted like a very much watered and sweetened lipton iced tea in a bottle, only worse. The service and the decoration were great! I loved the pictures, the roof, the fans, the way they decorated the entrance to the...

We chose those little resto as close to the beach, with 6 of our friends who were visiting Bali. We were promptly seated and offered the alcohol of choice Bintangs or Red wine, nothing else was in stock. These were served quickly and that is where the service ended. We were wanting to dine but no one came back the place was empty and staff were dis interested and busy doing nothing, after calling out and being ignored. we. paid for our drinks and went and ate somewhere else. The staff show little interest in serving clients and compared to other restos in the area, these guys were pretty hopeless and lazy. It is not surprising that all the one star reviews are staff related, maybe its time the owner did...