- Introduction: AAround The World Using AAdvantage Miles
- Review: Cathay Pacific Lounge San Francisco Airport
- Review: Cathay Pacific First Class 777 San Francisco To Hong Kong
- Review: Cathay Pacific Arrivals Lounge Hong Kong Airport
- Review: Grand Hyatt Hong Kong Grand Suite
- Review: Cathay Pacific The Pier First Class Lounge Hong Kong Airport
- Review: Cathay Pacific Business Class A330 Hong Kong To Kuala Lumpur
- Review: Mandarin Oriental Kuala Lumpur
- Review: Malaysia Airlines First Class Lounge Kuala Lumpur Airport
- Review: Malaysia Airlines Business Class 737 Kuala Lumpur To Bali
- Review: St. Regis Bali Pool Suite
- Review: St. Regis Bali Lagoon Villa
- Review: St. Regis Bali Restaurants & Activities
- Review: Premier Lounge Bali Denpasar Airport
- Review: Qatar Airways Business Class 777 Bali To Doha
- Review: St. Regis Doha
- Review: Qatar Airways Al Safwa First Class Lounge Doha Airport
- Review: Qatar Airways First Class 777 Doha To Abu Dhabi
- Review: Le Meridien Abu Dhabi
- Review: Rosewood Abu Dhabi
- Interlude: 30 Hours In Abu Dhabi
- Review: Etihad US Pre-Clearance Lounge Abu Dhabi Airport
- Review: Etihad First Class A380 Abu Dhabi To New York
- Review: Le Parker Meridien New York
In the past two posts I talked about the two types of rooms we stayed at for our four night stay — two nights in a pool suite and two nights in a lagoon villa. Now let’s talk a bit more about what there is to do at the hotel, how the food is, etc.
The hotel has one main building, which is where all the non-villas are located.
St. Regis Bali main building
The lobby was located on the second floor, one level up from the pool suite we were initially staying in. The lobby couldn’t have been more gorgeous, whether visiting it during the day or at night. Stunning, stunning, stunning!
St. Regis Bali lobby
St. Regis Bali lobby
St. Regis Bali lobby
Both in the mornings and evenings there were two guys playing Balinese music which added to the overall “vibe” of the resort. I find Balinese music to be so relaxing, so could’ve listened to it all day long.
St. Regis Bali Balinese music
At the far end of the lobby are the stairs which descend to the ground level. As you’ll see there’s a “pit” which extends the length of the hotel towards the water, which features gorgeous torches at night that light up the property. There’s also a beautiful floral arrangement at the top of the stairs.
St. Regis Bali lobby
St. Regis Bali lobby
St. Regis Bali lobby
Off the lobby on both sides are some cool infinity edge water features.
St. Regis Bali lobby
From the main lobby you can turn left or right. To the left is the King Cole Bar (the signature bar found at all St. Regis properties), while to the right is the hotel’s main restaurant, where breakfast is also served.
St. Regis Bali lobby
The food at the hotel was incredible, so let’s start by talking about breakfast. This was included in our rate, so we didn’t even have to select breakfast in lieu of the 500 Starpoint Platinum amenity. For what it’s worth, for an extra $12.50 you can also elect to have breakfast in the room instead, though after seeing how good the selection in the restaurant was, we never took advantage of that. 😉
Breakfast was served daily from 7AM until 11AM at Boneka Restaurant, located just off the lobby.
St. Regis Bali Boneka Restaurant
The restaurant had a cool and quirky design, with some impressive lamp shades as well as Balinese puppets hanging from the walls.
St. Regis Bali Boneka Restaurant
St. Regis Bali Boneka Restaurant
Breakfast at the St. Regis is served daily from 7AM until 11AM, and consists of both an a la carte menu and buffet. You can select as much as you want from both the buffet and menu, so you certainly won’t leave hungry. And the selection was memorable, one of the best breakfast buffets I’ve seen.
St. Regis Bali Boneka Restaurant breakfast buffet
The breakfast menu read as follows:
When we sat down we were brought small samplers of the hotel’s signature bloody mary. Bloody marys were invented at a St. Regis (specifically the St. Regis New York), so each property has their own signature drink.
St. Regis Bali breakfast bloody mary sampler
As far as the buffet goes, the selection was great. It wasn’t the most impressive spread I’ve seen, but it was a good size and everything was also fresh/high quality.
St. Regis Bali breakfast buffet
I’ll let the pictures of the buffet speak for themselves.
St. Regis Bali breakfast buffet
St. Regis Bali breakfast buffet
St. Regis Bali breakfast buffet
St. Regis Bali breakfast buffet
St. Regis Bali breakfast buffet
Though I will jump in and say they had a chocolate fountain. As far as I’m concerned that’s the sign you’re at a truly good Asian breakfast buffet. 😉
St. Regis Bali breakfast buffet
St. Regis Bali breakfast buffet
St. Regis Bali breakfast buffet
St. Regis Bali breakfast buffet
St. Regis Bali breakfast buffet
St. Regis Bali breakfast buffet
Drinks were also included with breakfast, and you could have everything from custom made coffee drinks to all kinds of iced teas.
St. Regis Bali cappuccino at breakfast
As far as the a la carte options go, over our four night stay we tried quite a few different options.
The steak and eggs were incredible.
St. Regis Bali breakfast — steak and eggs
The Avruga pearls were a nice option, though not the best caviar I’ve had.
St. Regis Bali breakfast — Spanish Avruga pearls
The croissant french toast was sinfully delicious.
St. Regis Bali breakfast — croissant french toast
The river lobster egg omelet was my favorite savory dish on offer.
St. Regis Bali breakfast — river lobster egg omelet
And the selection of sashimi was fantastic as well.
St. Regis Bali breakfast — fine selection of sashimi
In addition to the buffet and ordering from the menu, the chef came around every 30 minutes or so with a new “creation,” ranging from freshly baked croissants to quiche.
St. Regis Bali breakfast — quiche
Suffice to say we never left breakfast hungry!
The property has several other restaurants as well. The first night we had dinner at Kayuputi Restaurant, which is open for lunch and dinner. The restaurant is located on the beach, and is described as serving “Asian inspired Haute Cuisine.” Here’s the dinner menu, if you’re interested.
The decor was lovely, as the restaurant felt a bit like a high end beach house.
St. Regis Bali Kayuputi Restaurant
St. Regis Bali Kayuputi Restaurant
The food was equally good, from the bread we had to start, to the amuse bouche, to the appetizer, to the main course. Absolutely top notch.
St. Regis Bali Kayuputi Restaurant dips
St. Regis Bali Kayuputi Restaurant bread
St. Regis Bali Kayuputi Restaurant starter
St. Regis Bali Kayuputi Restaurant main course
St. Regis Bali Kayuputi Restaurant main course
We also had drinks a couple of nights at the King Cole Bar, located off the lobby. As mentioned above, this is the signature bar found at all St. Regis properties.
St. Regis Bali King Cole Bar
The bar was beautifully decorated as well, and featured indoor seating as well as a great outdoor terrace.
St. Regis Bali King Cole Bar
St. Regis Bali King Cole Bar
St. Regis Bali King Cole Bar
St. Regis Bali King Cole Bar terrace
While I’m not usually a bloody mary guy, I love the ones served at St. Regis properties, so had more than one during this stay.
St. Regis Bali King Cole Bar bloody mary
The bar snacks served with the drinks were quite nice as well.
St. Regis Bali King Cole Bar snacks
From the terrace you could view the nightly fire ritual, which was at 6:30PM. It featured some live music, and then the fire pit would be lit for the night. It was pretty cool to watch, cheesy as it might be.
St. Regis Bali sunset ritual
Just down the stairs from the lobby is Gourmand Deli, which features a pool table as well as a restaurant.
St. Regis Bali Gourmand Deli
You can eat outside (thanks to the ceiling fans it usually stays quite cool), or you can eat indoors at high-top tables as well.
St. Regis Bali Gourmand Deli
St. Regis Bali Gourmand Deli
This is both a restaurant as well as a place where you can just grab a quick sandwich, a cone of ice cream, or some sweets.
St. Regis Bali Gourmand Deli
St. Regis Bali Gourmand Deli ice cream
St. Regis Bali Gourmand Deli sweets
We had lunch there a couple of times. The menu read as follows:
The bread served at Gourmand Deli was incredible, as was the rest of the food.
St. Regis Bali Gourmand Deli bread
St. Regis Bali Gourmand Deli panini sandwich
St. Regis Bali Gourmand Deli chef salad
One night we had dinner at Dulang Restaurant, the hotel’s signature Indonesian restaurant. This is the most “intimate” space, as it’s outdoors and has just a handful of tables with live music.
St. Regis Bali Dulang Restaurant
St. Regis Bali Dulang Restaurant music
Duland Restaurant has a simple set menu. And when I say “simple” I simply mean the selection process was simple, as they made all the decisions for you. The food itself was anything but simple. 😉
The menu read as follows:
Again I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves, as the food was incredible. As someone with a perpetual sweet tooth, I quite loved that they offered eight desserts as well. 😉
St. Regis Bali Dulang Restaurant snacks
St. Regis Bali Dulang Restaurant starter
St. Regis Bali Dulang Restaurant mains
St. Regis Bali Dulang Restaurant dessert
We also had room service lunch one day. St. Regis offers complimentary coffee through butler service, though I was pleasantly surprised to find that my order for an iced coffee with lunch was also comped.
St. Regis Bali room service lunch
The restaurants at the St. Regis exceeded my expectations. The service was consistently sincere and attentive, and the food was top notch. The prices were high by Bali standards, but by St. Regis standards were reasonable, in my opinion.
I also quite appreciated that there was nowhere to add a tip on the bill. There’s an included service charge, but then not a space on the check which requests additional tip.
In terms of the other features of the hotel, there’s a gorgeous pool by the beach, which is right near the beachfront restaurant.
St. Regis Bali pool
St. Regis Bali pool
The pool is separated by a bridge from the saltwater lagoon, which is what our villa offered direct access to. I loved the saltwater lagoon. I’m not much of an ocean person but also don’t love chlorine, so this was a great alternative. The lagoon was massive, and I often just floated around in it for hours.
St. Regis Bali lagoon
St. Regis Bali lagoon
St. Regis Bali lagoon
Hilariously the lagoon also had an underwater “house,” where you could sit in a chair or on a couch… except most of your body would still be under water.
St. Regis Bali lagoon
St. Regis Bali lagoon
St. Regis Bali lagoon
Across from the pool was the beach, which featured plenty of seating. Contrary to what many believe, Bali isn’t actually much of a beach destination. The water isn’t all that beautiful, and a lot of the beaches have rocks. Generally it’s a place where I prefer just relaxing by the pool.
The St. Regis had one of the nicer beaches, however, though tended to be pretty empty.
St. Regis Bali beach
St. Regis Bali beach
I may have also had a bloody mary or two at the beach. 😉
St. Regis Bali beach drink
It’s worth noting that the St. Regis faces east, and therefore you don’t have those spectacular Bali sunsets from the hotel. That’s minor but also sort of sad, since the fondest memories I have of Bali involve the spectacular beach sunsets.
As is the norm at St. Regis properties, the hotel also had a Remede Spa, which was beautiful. I had a massage there one afternoon, which I enjoyed.
St. Regis Bali Remede Spa
St. Regis Bali Remede Spa
St. Regis Bali Remede Spa
St. Regis Bali Remede Spa
The gym is also connected to the spa, and is small, though features modern equipment.
St. Regis Bali gym
St. Regis Bali gym
In terms of other general thoughts about the property, I was impressed by the staff across the board. They were so kind, genuine, and attentive. I find Balinese people to be among the friendliest in the world, and that was only amplified at the St. Regis. What a fantastic team.
The resort is located in Nusa Dua. I know a lot of people prefer not to be in Nusa Dua, but personally I quite like it — there are some great restaurants in the area, it’s not too far from the airport, and you can easily make a day trip to Ubud, etc. If I were spending a long time in Bali I’d certainly split my time and spend some nights in Ubud, but as far as the coastal destinations close to Denpasar Airport go, I quite like Nusa Dua.
Bottom line
Bali is one of my favorite places in the world, and the St. Regis didn’t disappoint. The property was gorgeous, the suites and villas were beautiful, the food was great, and the service was top notch. The property isn’t cheap, especially if you’re upgrading to a villa, though for a special occasion I think the resort can be worth it. There are other properties I’d like to try in Bali, but at some point I’d absolutely return.
Your travel logs are absolutely brilliant! The fact that you capture so many finite details (in pics, tips others wouldn't think to note, but that all of us would benefit from knowing) is appreciated. I've been hedging on staying here or an alternate property based on Trip Advisor reviews. But your blog about St Regis completely bowled me over. Thank you Lucky! We're booking a room for May!
Great review Ben. Thank you very much. I am a regular visitor to the St.Regis Bali and I like it very much. I usually stay at the Orchid Suite, which is very spacious, but to be fair, the 'standard suite' is more than enough. Normally, if they have private villas somewhere with a private pool, I go for them, but not at the St.Regis Bali given that there is no point for me to have...
Great review Ben. Thank you very much. I am a regular visitor to the St.Regis Bali and I like it very much. I usually stay at the Orchid Suite, which is very spacious, but to be fair, the 'standard suite' is more than enough. Normally, if they have private villas somewhere with a private pool, I go for them, but not at the St.Regis Bali given that there is no point for me to have a small pool when you can spent the day in the gorgeous and huge salt water lagoon. The only problems I had at the St.Regis Bali is that they often are unable to serve the food they offer (e.g. oysters and loobster) given that they have often problems with the supplier. I usually spent a couple of nights in the Intercontinental or the FS at Jimbaran to have dinner in one of the seafood restaurants there on the beach and to enjoy the sunset before going to the St.Regis.
By the way, the restaurant called 'Bubu' next to the St.Regis Bali is worth a visit (but do not expect cheap food, the fancy stuff is about the same price as in the St.Regis Bali).
Thanks Ben for splitting this great review to 3 parts. The tough part now is choosing between Amankila & the St Regis.
We have experienced the Kayuputi brunch on several occasions is one of the best food experiences we have had.
Lucky, did you go to the brunch at Kayuputi? I went to their sunday brunch and it was amazing (food, drinks, service). They only serve less than 15 people and it lasted for five hours
Have stayed at Amandari and Amankila a few years ago. Decor at Amankila needed updating and you get great sunrises but zero sunsets as resort faces east, fantastic beach, great service
My memories of bali include paying $aud1.75 for a big plate of food and a bottle of coke from a little side stall and having to sacrifice a pair of jocks the next day.
They served Kopi Luwak and you didn't drink it? I expected more from you as a coffee hound!
Nice review. How would you compare the St. Regis to the Grand Hyatt a few doors down?
A great review, love the pictures of the breakfast buffet, I cannot believe how much they offer. Keep the reviews coming Ben, love them. Thank you.
We didn't stay there but on our last trip to Bali had drinks at the bar and dinner at Dulang. Although very pricey for Bali, it was well worth it and the best Balinese food we ever had. Bumbu Bali in Tanjung Benoa is close in quality though, but the atmosphere and service at Dulang was spectacular. So for those not able to afford a stay I recommend to at least visit the restaurant and bar one night and enjoy the beautiful surrounds.
Amazing review! We stayed at Amanusa this summer and this review made me wish we had stayed at the St. Regis. Looking forward to your new product reviews!!
One of my favorite SPG properties, stayed in the oceanfront villa but feel like the best median is the lagoon villa. Get a chance to talk to the head butler Ben? Incredible guy, used to be the right hand man for Will Smith
This is my all time favorite hotel/place to vacation.
Great review Ben! We are going this fall for our 10th anniversary trip (staying 5 days then 4 days in Hong Kong) and I'm torn between the St. Regis and Four Seasons Jimbaran. Have you stayed at the FS and If so how did it compare to the St. Regis? Thanks!
Great review!
No toilet pictures? Or door knobs...or hallways...or soap bars?
Wow, this looks really amazing. Thanks for the review...I hope I can go there one day.
Great review as usual. We've stayed at Amanusa and Amankila and had lunch at Amandari while on Bali, as well as stayed at Amanjiwo on nearby Java (my favorite hotel experience ever, tied with Singita Boulders). I'm also SPG Plat 100 and generally love St Regis properties, so I've always wondered about this one. You've done an excellent job in making me wonder if it isn't worth it for us to consider this St Regis...
Great review as usual. We've stayed at Amanusa and Amankila and had lunch at Amandari while on Bali, as well as stayed at Amanjiwo on nearby Java (my favorite hotel experience ever, tied with Singita Boulders). I'm also SPG Plat 100 and generally love St Regis properties, so I've always wondered about this one. You've done an excellent job in making me wonder if it isn't worth it for us to consider this St Regis Bali property whenever our travels may bring us back to Bali. Considering how incredible the 3 Aman properties are there on Bali, that's really saying something! My guess is that we'd combine the St Regis Bali with Amandari in Ubud, since we always regretted that we never stayed at Amandari.
Thanks again, Ben...and happy 2016!