(Note: I would give it 3.5 stars if Google let us...

(Note: I would give it 3.5 stars if Google let us) From the US, have lived in NYC and been to many high end restaurants around the world. I'm not a crazy foodie but feel like I have enough experience to tell truly special meals from good but not amazing ones. We had the Archipelago menu a couple days ago with wine pairings. First thing that jumps out at you is the cost. I understand Seminyak isn't cheap, but we left having spent over 4mil rupees which is around $280, so even by US standards this is pricey. But it's still Bali so I expected to be blown away for that kind of money which unfortunately I wasn't. Everything was presented beautifully and the plates were so unique. The food is clearly of super high quality and we were impressed by the look of the menu. A couple misses for us were the tomato dish which had a ton of potential but really just ended up tasting like a tomato. And the tuna tartar with avocado was something we see on a million menus in the US these days and just didn't have much to differentiate it. That said, the stars of the night were the fish (sooooo good), the ravioli (very rich but super creative) the lamb and the dessert. Where the entire experience was a big miss for us was the wine pairings. Just felt like a bit of a jumbled mess. A way too sweet pairing for dish 3 which I'm sorry to say tasted like it could have come out of a box. We had never heard of the grape variety and it tasted like plum juice or something similar. We wouldn't recommend the wine pairing. Just pick what you like and go with it as they have a very nice wine list.

Be aware, this is a TON of food. Like too much for so many courses. Both of us felt over-stuffed as the portions were surprisingly large for such a high-end restaurant. With so many courses plus the little extras they provide which were really good they could definitely cut down on portion sizes.

The last thing we'll say is we sat in the front of the house on the banquette with the leather arm chair. There is no nice way to say it, they were some of the most uncomfortable seats we've sat in at a restaurant. And this dinner lasted 3 hours so it was very tough for us to stay seated. The banquette's bench is so deep that my 5'6 wife's feet almost didn't touch the ground and it also meant she couldn't sit back at all during the meal. They provide a pillow but it's not enough. My chair's back was so far angled that I also couldn't sit back either. Made for an extremely restless meal where both of us just kept shifting positions to unsuccessfully try to find a comfortable position. Ask to sit in the back area and hopefully the seats are more comfortable.

Overall we enjoyed the food, no question. But again, at the price for a Bali based restaurant we really expected to be wowed and just weren't. We went to Merah Putih the night before and spent less than half of Teatro and felt that meal was just as good.