Gooseberry Restaurant: Upscale French restaurant in Uluwatu
My fiance and I stayed in Uluwatu for our last few days in Bali and in doing so, we had some extra cash to blow on our last night. We decided to treat ourselves to a fancy and expensive meal and made a reservation online to the Gooseberry Restaurant.
Gooseberry Restaurant describes themselves to be a modern casual French restaurant, but I feel that it is more upscale than casual. Compared to other local spots in Bali where you can eat dinner for $4, Gooseberry has pricing more similar to what you would see in Vancouver. They are known to be a steakhouse with fish and seafood options.
Interior
So the exterior of Gooseberry is pretty hidden inside a narrow alley/street, but once you get there, there’s a bunch of workers just standing outside waiting to greet you (like a valet or the person who helps you with your luggage at a hotel). They have a lot of seating options outside and a small pool as well but we selected the indoor dining area because we want AC and no bugs.
The interior is very cute and fancy. They have these black and white tiled floors, which have a French touch to them. Tables are mostly for 2-4 people and there is a plush booth seating lining one wall. The chairs are not as plush, unfortunately, and there’s strangely a swimsuit shop in the corner (??). Lighting is dim for ambiance – overall, quite romantic and snug.
Food and drinks review
Here is everything we ordered between 2 adults. Please note that prices have been converted from IDR to CAD and rounded up to the nearest dollar.
Whiskey sour ($14)
I am a fan of cocktails and it lowkey sucks because I will pay $20 for a cocktail in Vancouver. Cocktail prices in Bali are much more agreeable with a whiskey sour costing $14 at Gooseberry, and often times even cheaper at other establishments in Bali.
Gooseberry’s whiskey sour uses jim beam, lime, lemon juice, syrup and egg white – nothing unordinary here. It was fruity and strong!
Pan seared French foie gras ($26)
To start, we choose something expensive – the foie gras. Foie gras is something we eat on special occasions but it’s usually with a meat entree of some sort when we order it. It is a small appetizer and served with some house apple chutney and toast, but for $26, you actually get a decent portion of foie gras.
After you slather it on your toast, you get 2-3 bites of a very fatty and rich taste, balanced by the sweetness of the apple chutney. Very delicious and honestly, reasonably priced.
Burrata cheese ($14)
We love burrata and when we saw it was less than $15 for their burrata appetizer, we couldn’t ignore it (Vancouver prices are $20-30).
They give you a cute little ball of burrata cheese (looks like a dumpling) and it is surrounded by heirloom tomatoes, some basil pesto and balsamic caviar. Again, they serve some toast for you so you can eat it with the bread or by itself like a salad. The burrata is creamy and milky – not a strong or sharp cheese and the tomato makes it refreshing.
Wagyu tomahawk ribeye steak ($17/100g)
For our entree, we decide to share a dry-aged cut. They actually have a whole fridge/freezer where you can see and pick what meat you want. The meats are dry-aged for at least 21 days and prepared over wood and charcoal.
Our server originally recommended a wagyu shortloin or prime rib steak, but it wasn’t dried for as many days as the tomahawk one. For reference, I don’t know anything about dry-aged meats, so we mostly relied on the servers to recommend us what to choose, and in the end we went with the tomahawk.
The wagyu tomahawk was pretty big! The bone is there as well for you to gnaw on, but most of the pieces have been sliced for you for easier consumption.
I’ve never tried a wagyu tomahawk before but it is pretty tasty and I am actually not a big steak lover. I liked the fatty parts as it was very tender. Even though it is not cheap at all, I don’t think you can get wagyu tomahawk at $17 per 100g back in Vancouver.
The steak comes with a side of salad and french fries – nice to have as a pairing!
We added an extra side of mac and cheese for $9.
Coconut panna cotta and mango sherbert
For dessert we order the panna cotta and a mango sherbert. The mango shebert is simple, fruity and refreshing – a nice way to end an otherwise rich and fatty meal.
The panna cotta was cute and had a lot of coconut shavings on top so it tasted more coconuty than anything.
Final thoughts
Loewe’s rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
In total, we spent around $300 for our dinner, which is expensive for sure but looking back on everything we ordered, it wasn’t that expensive (if that makes any sense… I guess context is everything). We got 2 cocktails, a wagyu tomahawk steak for 2 people, foie gras, burrata, etc. Again, comparing it to Vancouver prices – impossible to get at $300 total after tax and tip.
Out of everything we tried, I honestly liked everything. I think the wagyu, foie gras and burrata are worth it and I would recommend choosing from their dry-aged cuts and specials menu for some chef recommendations/limited time options. I would definitely opt for a steak or red meat option over their seafood options since they seem to specialize more in dry-aged meats.
We came here to blow some cash and we did. We paid in $1 and $2 (sorry 😂) and a side note is that they do not accept bills that have even the slightest rip on the side so be careful! Other places we went to didn’t seem to care very much but they did.
I would recommend you to visit the Gooseberry Restaurant if you are a meat lover and if you have some money to spend in Bali. Bonus points for neither of us getting diarrhea after eating here.
Sincerely, Loewe