My wife and I are taking our wining and dining seriously. When in new places we are making searches, reading reviews, asking concierges for recommendations, studying the menus and asking the concierges to get us files with menus when they are not available online. As a result, on our first evening in Jakarta we found ourselves in Ambiente. So, I am sitting there, looking at the menu and thinking: “my head must have been overloaded with information of and about various places. How could I possibly choose this one for us?”. And then I went to a chat with a concierge of a hotel we were staying in and I reopened the menu of Ambiente that she received from the restaurant earlier the very same day. And then I notice that the menu only visually looks the same compared to hard copy that I am staring at in Ambiente itself. Same brownish paper, same looking text. But real menu in the restaurant has shrunken at least 2 times compared to what restaurant sent her electronically. For example, in an electronic version there were 17 pasta options, while in one in the restaurant that we got, there are only 9 (!!!). And the situation is the same in respect to everything else: starters, main courses. They are sorry, - our waiter said, - they made a mistake, the one we received in the restaurant itself is “an updated one”. Do they serve white wine by the glass? – I ask. Yes, they have Pinot Grigio by glass, - the waiter answers. They are sorry, it is out of stock, - he announces coming back in 5 minutes. But they have a bottle that was opened for the other clients 2 days ago, which they didn’t finish – we can have that one (!!!). Next, I am making a choice of a pasta from the few options in their “updated menu”. Sorry, lobster is out of stock today. Red wine next. The have 3 Italian labels in their “wine list”. Very adequate for a restaurant claiming to be Italian. And my very first choice – guess what – is also out of stock, they are so sorry. In the end of the exciting meal, we asked for the bill and were waiting, waiting and waiting. “Please, wait a moment”, - the answer we kept getting. After about half hour, for the very first time in my life, I told my wife: OK, we are just saying “goodbye” and leaving. Needless to say, that the bill suddenly came through when we were not more than 5 meters out of the exit. Due to all past good reviews, this place most likely was OK some time ago. But now it feels like a shop in the end of a liquidation sale. Only what hasn’t been sold and has been laying in the back somewhere for years is left.

6 Oct 2023