The Orchard Live Music Venue — Restaurant in Kuta

Everybody already knows the food is great and the staff is lovely, but nobody ever talks about how The Orchard treats the musicians who come to play there. So that’s what this review is going to be about.

I can’t think of another place on this island after living here for 10 years that treats musicians better than The Orchard treats us. As a career drummer and local band leader, I dare anybody to name a venue on the island that not only provides a place for original bands to guinea pig their material and try out untested and sometimes risky stage antics on a discerning and unassuming audience, but then also pays them well, makes sure they’re fed and watered properly, and often will re-book you before you leave the venue that night. The Orchard was voted “the best live music venue in Bali” – far too late in the opinions of the majority of local musicians – and they more than live up to that title. The stage crew and sound team have themselves together and the shows we have played there always end up in the kind of controlled chaos that only a good rock and roll venue can conjure.

If you truly want to support the Bali music community, you’ll find the very best players at The Orchard on any given night. That’s where we all go after hours to get the lead out. There are a lot of places here who think they “have great music”, but there’s a difference between someone who plays music and someone who is a “musician”.

The musicians are at...

If this was an orchard, nothing would grow. Food was cold on the inside, and some weird live music 30min sound check. Horrific.

In response to your reply;

Hi there, thanks for taking the time to reply. I was surprised at how the high the reviews were based on our experience.

I did actually complain to the staff, who were completely unphased by this. Especially Iwan. This is why I have put a review on here, isn’t this the place to review? Or are only positive reviews welcome?

The jalapeno poppers were basically frozen inside, they were sent back and replaced. No apology offered. I also said the garlic cheese bread wasn’t great and undercooked. Again staff were unphased. It’s extremely frustrating as a customer when the staff don’t do anything to sort out complaints, although the food was replaced it was a robotic response, and no follow up questions “how was everything, was that better?”. You would imagine with the amount of food left over and the two complaints something wasn’t right.

And yes music is my thing, hence why I was annoyed it was being butchered, I am well aware of how a sound check works. The drummer was good but it was the 30 mins before of singing the alphabet, silent night, and making random sounds that wasn’t to our taste. By this time we had enough, and the sub standard food wasn’t enough to...

Provisional three stars from Missy The Cat. Has definite four / five star potential but would need to visit at different times of week to give it that 'bump'.

It's a charming venue, and a real pub atmosphere compared to the many resto-bars in the area. Very appealing. Also, the ONLY place (during our recent fortnight in Bali) that managed to play consistently good music. Well done!

Prices . . . arguably a bit high for what it is. Not the end of the world, but still.

Staff . . . way too many staff members doing nothing much of value, busily chatting with each other. No harm to us, but I see other commenters picking this up as well.

Side note: this is a pet peeve, more than an issue purely down to The Orchard, but I recommend not using 'the pint' as a measure for drinks unless you're selling olde skool Imperial Pints (568 ml). Which makes eminent sense if selling by the bottle, or in proper pint glasses of British provenance. In contrast, when selling a 500ml glass, then no point calling it a pint. It's a half liter. [Of course there's never any excuse whatsoever for dudding customers with a short American pint (473 ml) in the US or anywhere else.] In any case, I ordered a pint and got half a litre instead, which gives me the weasels whenever I'm paying over the...