After writing so many posts about Bali, you would probably think that how about the FOOD?!?!! Hey… be patient, I know food is your main concern, so it is for me.

Here you go… mouth-watering dishes from various special restaurants that I have been in Bali.

Made’s Warung

We wasn’t sure where to get authentic Balinese food in Kuta area so we asked around and was told by local people that we should try Made’s Warung and It was only about 10 mins walk from Hard Rock Hotel.

Made’s Warung was established in 1969 and has grown from a traditional roadside warung into a cosmopolitan restaurant serving wide variety of authentic Balinese food.

It was almost full house when we reached there at 8:30 p.m. and customers were still streaming in nonstop. We found ourselves a seat at the second floor and started ordering food. I was so tempted to order seafood, especially grilled seafood, but thinking that I could probably get the same luscious of seafood here in my own country (Malaysia), I decided to go for Balinese food instead.

We ordered curry crab, chicken in papaya soup and pork sate. The only drawback about traveling with only your partner is that you can’t order much regardless how big eater you and your partner are. So next time better travel with a big group of friends :-).

The photos quality isn’t good taken in dark especially when I couldn’t wait to swallow the food and lost my patient to take the pictures. I love the curry crab in pot. The pork sate was a bit too hard though, but the taste was fabulous. The chicken in papaya soup wasn’t that impressive though, but my boyfriend liked it. I couldn’t tell which part of it tasted like papaya.

The only thing that I want to highlight here is the CHILI SAMBAL!! It was so aromatic and flaming spicy.

So those who love spicy food and chili, never forget to try the chili sambal in Made’s Warung.

And also don’t forget to visit its website at http://www.madeswarung.com/.

Poppies Restaurant @ Kuta

Poppies Restaurant is located at Poppies Lane 1 - south end of Jalan Legian, Kuta, close to Bemo Corner. It was well-established since 1973 serving fresh seafood, exquisit
e Indonesian and international cuisine.

As usual, we focused on Indonesian dishes and there was one of the dishes called “Rijsttafel (Rice Table)” aroused our curiosity. So we ordered Rijsttafel, just right for 2 persons.

Here it came the Rijsttafel, 9 small dishes consist of pork, beef, lamb, chicken, squid, vegetable and potato, all cooked differently, with chili sambal and sauces in the middle.

Besides, we were served with sate (chicken, pork and beef) also. Yummy…

So this is the full set of Rijsttafel, came with one bowl of white rice and one bowl of fried rice. The portion wasn’t big, but just right as lunch for 2 persons. The food was quite delicious and I was very satisfied enjoying leisurely lunch here in a beautiful garden.

I would strongly recommend you to try Rijsttafel as we could hardly find this dish elsewhere except Bali (or Indonesia, maybe).

There is another restaurant same group as Poppies called Kopi Pot which we didn’t get a chance to visit. But heard that its location was perfect and it rivals Poppies Restaurant in beauty and atmosphere.

Don’t forget to visit Poppies Website at http://www.poppiesbali.com/uk/uk-bali-home.html

Before leaving the place, we checked out Poppies Cottage that was just few miles away from Poppies Restaurant.

Poppies Cottage is using the garden design concept also. In a secluded corner of the garden is the swimming pool and jacuzzi area, set amongst natural rocks and cascades.

The steps lead up to a peaceful reading room, and to the intimate pool bar, a cool escape for drinks or lunch.

Each individual cottage are in Balinese style, with its private garden and breakfast terrace. Adjoining every room is a hidden garden area that conceals a bathroom.

Crispy Duck

If you did the research about specialty in Bali, crispy duck should sound familiar to you. Yes, my Absolute Favourite food in Bali! Not sure why I love it so much, it was so crispy that you can eat its bones. And again, it was served with chili sambal. Well, I have to admit that almost every food that comes with chili sambal whitted my appetite :-p

We had crispy duck in a normal food court at Kuta beach. I didn’t expect the food there to be outstanding but this crispy duck really make me miss the food there so much. One of the MUST-TRY specialty in Bali. Don’t forget!

Babi Guling

The most common specialty in Bali. Almost well-known to everyone. If you don’t know about it, no worries, now you know.

As mentioned in my previous post, Babi Guling is a whole baby pig prepared over an open, corn husk fire. It is flavored with chopped spices that include shallots, garlic, ginger, turmeric, galangal, pepper coriander, candlenuts, chilies, lemon grass and lots of whole cassava leaves. The pig is then slowly grilled and the meat is then cut into small pieces for serving.

The Babi Guling that we ordered came with a couple of side dishes. The crispy pig skin was my favourite even though it was oily. One of the must try food in Bali. It’s so common in Bali that you can just get it anywhere along the street. So just ask around and local
people there should be able to show you where to get nice babi guling.

Anyway, compared to Crispy Duck, I still prefer Crispy Duck :-p . Miss it so much

Ozone Cafe @ Padang Bai

We didn’t really know what good restaurants were there in Padang Bai so we just walked around and chose the restaurant based on our instincts.

Our instincts told us to dine in Ozone Cafe.
Why?
For the sake of its menu.

Are you kidding?
No joke, read it yourself, the menu was like a thesis and it was freaking interesting.
Well, I took only one picture of the main page of the menu, I didn’t want to be seen as a freak to take the pictures of every page of the menu.

When I said the menu was like a thesis, I didn’t mean to exaggerate it. It has the introduction section, detailed dishes description section, conclusion section and acknowledgment section. All were written in long and hilariously funny!

I don’t remember what exactly we ordered, we were only interested in the menu :-p. Well, we definitely ordered Balinese food again, with fish and pork I think. The food wasn’t impressive but the prices were cheap and it was a good place to hangout at night with some relaxing background music and cosy ambiance.

Jimbaran Beach

I have written about my dinner at Jimbaran Beach in my previous post but I will post it again here.

The dining spots in Jimbaran Beach are famous for serving delicious seafood with local recipes. Along the beach there are many opportunities to dine out. Many of the local peoples have opened up various cafes for passersby and tourists. This is very popular because of the enormous selection of seafood that they offer. Most of the tourists there love the romantic mood for the evening with fancy candles and musicians playing soothing music while having the dinner.

(I didn’t take any picture at Jimbaran beach. But to show you how romantic it is, I found this photo from google)

We were told by the driver that all restaurants at Jimbaran beach are now owned by one boss. It happened 2 months ago that all the prices in each restaurants have been adjusted to a single standard price. We were also told that they used to have different price lists for the customers from different countries. So we thought it was a good change that we do not need to worry about being ripped off but we were absolutely wrong. It was a complete rip-off to dine there. We ordered 1kg of King Sea Prawn that costed Rp 350k and 0.9kg Snapper that costed Rp 85k. After added the drinks and 15% government tax, the total bill was Rp 529k! The most expensive meal we had in Bali!

We were recommended by our friends that the food at Jimbaran beach was good and cheap but it wasn’t true at all. Firstly, the food there was obviously overpriced. Secondly, the food there wasn’t fresh at all, especially the snapper. We thought it should be fresh enough to steam it but it wasn’t fresh and smelled quite strong that we lost our appetite to eat it. It could be the restaurant that we choosed didn’t serve good quality of food.

Anyway, unless you don’t mind paying for the ambiance, which is undeniable romantic and relaxing, otherwise the food was utterly overpriced.