Room4Dessert A Very Unique Concept in Bali

Room 4 Dessert is a restaurant located in Ubud, Bali in Indonesia. Its a very unique concept. A tasting menu which focuses on desserts. The head chef and restaurant were featured in Netflix’s Chef’s Table. Watching the show before coming gave me a greater appreciation of the restaurant, and made me look forward to the experience. In this post, I will give you some info about the experience which will hopefully help you understand more about what is to come. I know I had a lot of questions prior to coming. So, lets get started. Upon arrival, you will be given a short tour of the garden and someone will explain to you a bit about the concept. You will then be seated at a bar for the first stage of the experience. A 5 course savory menu.

This basically answers one of my first, and main questions about this place: “Was the menu only desserts”? and “Can this be dinner or just dessert”? The answer to both questions is that there are an equal number of sweet and savory courses, and there are enough savory courses to be a dinner. The first savory course was pea shoots on crisps that reminded me of Ritz crackers. The dish was very well seasoned and delicious.

Next, were squid noodles that had a smoked delicious flavor that impressed me with the attention to detail. It came with a Thai sauce and herbs from the garden.

Next, a tasty bite of the restaurant’s interpretation of chicken and rice.

After this, a dumpling with some vinegar and ikura; I believe the filling was veggie based. It was just ok with some bitterness coming through from somewhere.

The last savory dish was a pork rib that was pretty good.

Up until this point, I was impressed with the service and food, and could not wait to move on to the dessert courses as this was the restaurant’s namesake. This is where the evening started going downhill. First, while we were seated at the counter for the savory portion, for whatever reason, we were seated at tables in the dining room for the next portion as the counter was apparently full. I think for this type of experience, its imperative to sit at the counter and they should tell you when making the reservation if this won’t be the case.

Anyway, the first dessert was the Planifoglia. It reminded me of a Basque cheesecake with cold elements.

Next, some meringue which was a disappointing dish. Considering the talent potential of the team, I thought this was a boring dish and had me thinking “meh” at first bite.

This was followed by a dish called “footsteps”. It was a black rice pudding with gelato. It was flavorless and had me thinking “this is a dessert restaurant but the desserts are not mind blowing”. Also, the service at this point slowed considerably. Both for each course and drinks.

The fourth dessert course was a Balinese tiramisu.

Lastly, chocobubbles4eva:

Overall, I thought the desserts lack refinement and “wow” factor. After this, we moved on to a third location for basically petit fours. I liked the moving of locations which ads a much needed refresh when doing long tasting menus. This part of the evening the service slowed a lot and at times I wondered if the staff forgot about us. The first bites were a mango cone and an interpretation of the famous snack – Pocky. While visually stunning, each bite was just average.

The last part took forever to come. Some star fruit shaped like a leaf, a macaron and some chocolate coated coffee beans.

Overall, this was a very interesting experience and very unique in the world, with its focus on dessert. Unfortunately, the service varied too much throughout the evening, and the savory food outshined what should be the star of the restaurant’s offering. I would not return. However, the experience is unique enough that I would not necessarily say “don’t go” but I wouldn’t recommend you rush to go either.