Looks Like a Nice Place!
Have you ever had a place in your mind where when you arrived you were severely disappointed? I am very sure that we have all had that feeling and this is what happened to me at the Ritual. The Ritual is a restaurant in Uluwatu, which is kind of like a beach club without a beach. The Ritual Beach Club that doesn’t have a beach is a Cliff restaurant with a beautiful pool and a beautiful A pillar style restaurant covered all in white. Except the white isn’t completely white. It is spotted with rust and dirt. The chairs and the tables all rock, which is one of my biggest pet peeves in a restaurant. Rocking in a restaurant bothers me, the tables, the chairs, the cups, plates whatever is on the table if it rocks, it bothers me. Not being able to eat a meal without a table or chair rocking, bugs the crap out of me because every time, I think I’m going to spill something.
The Service.
I was very surprised by the fact that this restaurant was completely empty. Having taken nearly an acre of land with a pool and several other smaller pools that were not functioning and nearly no staff in sight. This was a ghost town.
What really bothered me was the staff. There was hardly anyone in the restaurant and yet I had to go and call someone to come and pay a little bit of attention to us so we could order. On top of that, that was a minimum of 250,000 rupiah charge for any particular location in the restaurant. Sometimes I have seen minimum payments in a restaurant when it is and different prices for different locations. This restaurant has several different seating arrangements all at a 250K price which is about $25 in Canadian funds.
This may not seem much, but in Bali Indonesia, 250,000 or $25 is quite a bit to spend on a meal, and there were three of us.
The Service/Food.
In this place, both were very underwhelming. The staff felt like they were doing us a favor. The food was ordinary and disappointing at best. The waiters were eating at their perspective stations instead of taking a break maybe that wasn’t enough of them. I am not sure, but at the same time that I was eating they were eating. I was watching them eat at their station rather than them tending to me so that I could order my coffee. I was hoping that I could show this restaurant off to my dad who is visiting Bali for the second time in his life. My dad didn’t notice all these little things that I noticed but I was severely disappointed in this restaurant and I’m sure I will never be returning. Once more, the sites were amazing with the cliff view of Uluwatu Bali. The view of the cliff, the view over the ocean, and even the pool view was very beautiful. However, overall with a few staff on hand and the dull white finish that needed to be reclaimed, this place deserves an absolute four out of 10. So, if you happen to be in Bali, don’t come to the Ritual.
