ViaVia Jogja — Restaurant in Yogyakarta

Below is my wife comments on Trip Advisor.

I arrived for dinner around 19:45, there was no staff to greet us so we found a table for ourselves. After sitting about 5 minutes the waiters didn't seem to notice us so we asked for the menu, after that a staff took our order. I asked about some of the dishes information but she just bluntly said that she didn't know anything about the food without asking other staff. This is actually already disappointing but okay, maybe she was new.

We ordered Caprese Sandwich and Moroccan Chicken. About 5 minutes later the sandwich arrived (around 20:05). It was quite tasty and well-made. My husband (he ordered the sandwich) ate first while I waited for the chicken. Five minutes had passed, the chicken had not arrived. I asked the staff from the bar near my table (different person, not the one who took my order), without thinking or checking she just said please wait a moment and then continued being busy. Second time disappointing treatment from the staff.

Another five minutes, I asked another staff (another different staff) passing by what is the status , she also said that please wait a moment without checking and continued being busy. This was the third time and I was pissed already.

Another five minutes, I went to the bar and asked again to the staff earlier at the bar, still nicely, when will my chicken be ready? What is the status? What took so long? Well, this time (again) the staff just said wait a moment and she left me standing there.

At that point I was livid. It's not about the waiting only but I felt that I had been treated poorly by all the staffs. They were not that busy, too and I was not interrupting them with other guests. Now I raised my volume, I stated that it had been 15 minutes since my husband's order arrived and I hadn't had a satisfying answer about the chicken I ordered, I wished to cancel my order. Well, I guess that making a scene finally got their attention. Now the manager came and tried to calm me down.

She handled me well, apologizing over and over and giving excuse that it was a busy night, many of the staff are new blah blah, insisting that I shouldn't pay for the food. I also insisted that I'm paying for what I already ate, just not the damn chicken. After all, I lost my appetite already so we left, paid the bill for...

I have been here before, maybe 5 years ago and raved about it then. This time around I have mixed feelings. It has certainly developed - it now has a bakery and shop on the premises selling up-cycled and sustainably sourced goods, which is great. However, I felt that the menu had fallen behind in terms of what similar types of establishments are doing on Bali and in other parts of Asia such as Cambodia. I'm celiac so am looking for gluten free options, which they have, thankfully, and they also have vegetarian and vegan options. I also love that they don't serve drinks with straws - well done! I had dinner late on a Friday night, live jazz night, which is great. I ordered pan fried fish of the day with carrot salad and boiled potatoes. Unfortunately, the fish steak felt like it had been defrosted or cooked in a microwave first, as the edges had that tough over-microwaved consistency, before it was pan fried. The shredded carrots, whilst healthy were plain and difficult to get in my mouth with a fork and knife. The potatoes were fine if a touch plain. For dessert I had coconut pannacotta, which was nice if a bit too set for my palate. Maybe it's just me, but I like a little bit more flavour to my food whereas everything seems to be prepared simply and naturally with little or no additional salt or sugar for flavour. What really annoyed me, and this is not their fault it's an Indonesia thing, was that they only had beer and cider on the menu. So I ordered cider only to be told that they can't get it anymore as the supplier for Jogja can't get it!!! (I passed a restaurant with a hastily written sign that said, all beer sold out no stock!!!). Indonesia, don't you just love it. Recommended if you like your food very natural. Good prices, nice coffee, very friendly staff and...

Okay, so this is just my experience, hoping they will use this to improve. I came in 18:21 on a Monday, with my girlfriend, got a table immediately and ordered 10 minutes later, around 18:30. Got my food at 20:15. We waited 1 hour and 45 minutes. I cannot remember if I waited this long for food ever in my life. The crazy part is we went for a “quick bite” with just a Greek salad and a poke bowl, dishes that take 5-10 minutes to make, since everything is prepped and cut already. They had some bigger groups and they clearly cannot handle the amount of tables they have. Or they don’t know how to prioritise. I see in the reviews this is not a new problem, but we never thought it could take this long. The whole evening was gone.

After 70 minutes of waiting I asked where our food was (we were already very patient). But even then, they didn’t really made an effort to get the food asap. The waiter said 10 more minutes, but we waited another 35 minutes. The waiters cannot do anything about this, this is a simple case of bad management. There is a simple solution to this: communication. If they told us that it could take a while to get our food, we could decide if we want to wait. And they knew 100%, but nobody told us what was happening and how it takes so long to make such a simple dish. No words for...