Bali’s only aquarium restaurant | The West Australian
Spooky sci-fi music plays in the background as a long flat creature with big googly eyes swims past our table. I take a sip from my beverage: a fluorescent blue liquid with a large fluorescent green ice cube that makes my head swim as our waiter brings a pair of mushroom-shaped skewers made from the flesh of a sea creature to our table. No, I am not at the Mos Eisley Cantina on the set of the original Star Wars film, or in one of the famous underwater restaurants in the Maldives. I am at Koral, an aquarium restaurant built under the ground at the ultra-luxury Apurva Kempinksi resort in Bali’s Nusa Dua. This dimly lit fine-dining restaurant isn’t set ‘inside’ an aquarium as I imagined. Rather, there’s a huge aquarium with 15cm-thick glass inside it filled with stingrays, reef sharks and hundreds of tropical fish. Tables, leather couches, a bar and open-plan kitchen are set on either side of the aquarium, though the best and most expensive seats in the house are inside a glass tunnel that connects the two sides of the restaurant.
Dining at Koral is strictly by reservation; the best I could get with only 24 hours notice was a 5.30pm sitting. A reservation deposit of $50 per head is required and if you’re more than 15 minutes late, you can lose your booking.
Camera IconThe restaurant features a huge aquarium with 15cm-thick glass. Credit: Supplied
Instead of choosing dishes from the menu we opt for one of the six-course degustations, or set meals, that include two desserts. But we end up getting about 10 courses if you add all the extras executive chef Jean-Baptisite Natali — a prodigy who at 27 became the youngest chef in France to earn a Michelin star — sends to our table, including some Australian Wagyu with a marbling score of 8/9 that is perfectly matched with Balinese peanut satay sauce and a couple of glasses of 15-year-old red from Bordeaux. Most of the time we have no idea what we are eating. At one point our waitress serves us barramundi, even though it looks like something a Klingon warrior might dangle into their mouth in an episode of Star Trek. We turn down the toadfish, a Japanese specialty that can kill you unless sliced properly, and a couple of the dishes they serve us are downright weird.
Camera IconBedugul tomatoes at Koral. Credit: DicoBramarta/Supplied
There are four different degustation menus at Koral, including a vegetarian option. Dinner at Koral costs $180 to $380 per head with matching wines, though I got a freebie for this honest-to-god review. kempinski.com/en/the-apurva-kempinski-bali
Camera IconThe restaurant is home to tables, leather couches, a bar and an open-plan kitchen on either side of the aquarium. Credit: SuppliedCamera IconSole at Koral. Credit: DicoBramarta/SuppliedCamera IconTangerine tartlet at Koral. Credit: DicoBramarta/SuppliedCamera IconBanoffee Valrhona at Koral. Credit: DicoBramarta/Supplied
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