Sushi Koen — Restaurant in Pulau Bali

Utterly disgusted. If you are looking for a classy sushi omakase experience then save your money and go elsewhere. It's overpriced sushi train using expensive ingredients and a fancy decor. The service was horrendous with staff chatter as I was trying to enjoy the omakase experience. I went for the koen omakase (most expensive) and was told that the sea urchin was out and they would replace it with foie gra which I was fine with but they combined it with the ootoro which completely overpowered the ootoro (fattiest and most expensive cut of the tuna). During the course they said that the a5 wagyu was out which was not mentioned at the beginning. If that had been said then I would've opted for the 2nd highest omakase without the expensive cuts. After some confusion among the staff they said that the sea urchin was replaced with akami (an inexpensive cut of the tuna that can be found at any food court sushi) and the wagyu was replaced with the foie gra that was combined with the ootoro. After showing my dissatisfaction they offered a complementary wagyu and foie gra which they said earlier that it was out! If you brave this place then be extremely careful with what they offer. Go through each individual ingredient with them before agreeing. I would've been okay with this whole mess but the asking price nessitate fine dining quality which this was a very, very poor imitation of. For reference this compares to a general diner...

Nobody cares about you unless you're a white foreigner.

The place itself has a good ambience, however, their service was so unprofessional. We made a reservation because we wanted a ladies night out and saw the ladies night's promotion on Chope. When we arrived, the waitress had no idea about it and said they didn't have any promotion. I showed her the one they posted on Chope, she went back asking her supervisor, and got back to me saying it has ended long ago. Then why was it still there? It was so misleading! I did complain to her, seeing Gardin is not just a low-standard bistro, hoping for a better solution than just a "oh that promo has expired". Not even a sorry! And then she just left saying "wait a moment," prolly asking for her manager or something but nobody showed up! They just left us hanging like that, no explanation, no follow up, no nothing. Then the waitresses just walked in and out to the table across of us, tending them and completely ignored us. For someone who claimed to be an upscale bistro, their service is trash. We ended up leaving because they just wasted our time and we were so fed up with the...

What I liked best was the ambience. The décor and atmosphere was unique and very romantic. My husband and I dined on a quiet Monday evening so we nearly had the entire dining room to ourselves, which was nice. Although the staff was present and very polite, they were not very attentive and attuned to subtle signals. We had decided on our dinner so we turned over the menu and laid it near the edge of the table. We glanced at our server several times (who was situated near the entrance and staring into the dining room) to indicate we were ready to order but he didn't catch on. Finally after a couple more minutes, my husband waved him over. Presentation of food is on point. The mushroom soup is actually a bisque and exceptional! My husband really liked the Crispy Fried Duck Leg but I was disappointed with the Slow Cooked Short Rib. The temperature was lukewarm at best and the ribs were composed of 70% fat which was wasteful since I didn't eat it. Given a chance, I would probably return for lunch service or afternoon tea to enjoy the atmosphere and décor...