Sa'Mesa Canggu — Restaurant in Pulau Bali

This was not a pleasant dining experience.

I want to start by saying that this dinner is a party - please be aware! This is not why my review is bad. A party can be fun! The crowd is young and very Instagram-influencer-esque. Again, be prepared to party! There are conga lines, lots of singing and dancing, dancing on tables, etc. The concept is fun - come as strangers, leave as friends.

The meal itself was fairly good. It is generous and plentiful and mostly tasted quite good. The cocktails were also yummy.

We had emailed in advance and asked if the meal would be appropriate for vegans and vegetarians (some restaurants don’t cater to this, which is understandable!) and had been assured it would be. They serve many courses and don’t explain what anything is so you can self-discover the food. Which worked well for most of my group, but no one (despite us asking many times) would point out what was OK for the vegans and vegetarians in my group. They just had to guess. They also were served very little food as compared to the others. At one point, a dish came that was claimed to be vegan cheese but we are fairly certain it was Parmesan. It would have been odd to have been vegan cheese, as vegan cheese did not seem to be used ever again in the menu. If they had it, why did they use it just the once? It tasted like parmesan. My friends were charged full price and barely ate. It may have been helpful for the restaurant to explain to them what they could actually eat.

Again - had they told us the meal wasn’t appropriate for vegans, we would have understood. We had been told: “Yeah no worries we have all different options for different diet.”

The meal comes with optional wine pairings (three glasses), which some of my group did. I am not sure if this was intentional or not but some of my group were served the three same red wines for each “pairing”. The server confirmed this. Had we known this, we would have ordered differently.

The menu comes with all you can drink limoncello. This started fun but we saw several people inside gagging after taking shots straight from the bottle (encourage by hosts) and we thought one person threw up at their plate but couldn’t confirm. Again, fun concept but some folks took it too far. Some of the shot pouring seemed quite forceful and was at times uncomfortable to watch.

A few guests were very very drunk. One woman stole food with her bare hands from someone’s plate, multiple times, and started handing it to stray dogs. When asked to stop by our group, she made a scene. Later, she came over and physically launched herself at the member of our group that had asked her to stop touching our food. She had to be separated by many men. Only when we finally got the attention of the hosts was she kicked out. This girl was way too drunk. She fell off her Go Jek when it came to get her. Despite her actions, we hope she got home ok. While we think she arrived drunk, so it was not entirely our hosts’ faults she was so drunk and violent, it was clear that they didn’t have any control over the situation at any time. A half-hearted apology was given to our group.

This is certainly a unique dining experience, and not one I would want to experience again. The staff looked miserable. It may be for some people but I wanted to give an accurate depiction so that people could choose...

Unpleasant and horrible experience to say the least. In my opinion, the people in your group or table truly shape the experience.

In my unfortunate case, going for this as a couple, my table was peppered with large groups of people celebrating a special occasion - on one side we had a group of 7 celebrating their friend’s hens night; on the other side, a group of 6 celebrating their friend’s birthday. And us 2 people right smack in the middle of them. So while this sort of dining experience encouraged interactions and community-style-dining, none of the 2 groups were interacting with us so it was definitely an awkward dining situation to say the least where we felt very alone despite being surrounded by many people.

Word of advice to Sa’Mesa: when seeing each night’s bookings, perhaps place all large groups together on the same table as they would 99% of the time just be interacting and partying among themselves; and place all 1-3 person smaller groups on another table where cross-group interactions would be more encouraged.

Other tips to readers: the inside of the restaurant is better as (1) it is aircon, (2) the music is louder, (3), they will flicker the lights like a disco at the end, (4) you get to dance on the chairs and tables at the end (though do also note the inside might be more popular amongst larger groups) the outside tables will have people smoking and is right next to the road, so take note of potential loud street noises limoncello is “free-flow” but you have to constantly ask the staff to refill. They don’t go around often to refill unless asked food is decent, homemade and very filling. Not sure if it is worth the cost though or if we really got 18 dishes if you want to savour your garlic bread, hold onto it at the “half-time” mark when the staff clears the entire table for part 2 of the meal if not it will be cleared as well - mine got cleared before I could eat it :( go in a larger group for a funner experience. As an individual or couple, this may not be the best experience for you (unless you are fortunately at the same table with other individuals...

I really wanted to like this place. The idea of communal dining as a solo traveller seems excellent, and I was recommended it by a friend so booked it weeks in advance, but this place was a massive disappointment.

Most people came in groups. Our table had a group of six in the middle who refused to speak with other diners. I was the only single diner. I’m lucky that I was next to a group on my left happy to chat with me, but it was still awkward.

Second, this isn’t a ‘dining’ experience. When you advertise yourself as a dining experience, I’m expecting conversation, and sharing meals together and drinks. Not unlimited limoncello shots, dancing, excessively loud music, and partying. I think Sa’Mesa should advertise this for what it is - a party. There’s nothing wrong with it being that, but it’s not something I would’ve signed up for if I had known. I have sensory issues, and ended up leaving early due to the loud music because I hadn’t prepared myself for that (so not really neurodivergent friendly either).

The food also wasn’t incredible, some interesting dishes but not enough to go around so that you actually feel full like you would if you went to an Italian nonna’s house… which is the concept they advertise this place as.

Overall, I ended up leaving early as the food had finished and the music was so loud that I couldn’t even hold a conversation with the person next to me. Also really wasn’t worth the price.

I would totally recommend this place if you’re looking to party! However, if you’re looking to meet people from all different walks of life, enjoy a cool meal, and chill with some drinks, this isn’t the...