Ivy's Travel: Bali Food Diary

A compile post of all foods we've tried during this Bali trip.

Sardine Bali

I have heard plenty good things about Sardine. Their excellent rice field views, the delicate food taste and the fine dining service within affordable price range. This trip I decided a visit to Sardine is on my must list. 

BABA's at Huu Bar Bali

I started my December with a short Bali getaway with my bestie. A little story behind this Bali trip, my bestie had been on my nerve (in a good way) for quite a while about going on a trip just us two. She had been wanting to go to Korea, Seoul particularly, the city was actually our her first destination plan for our little bestie trip, but me, being (ehem) a good wife felt terrible about leaving my man that long, so instead, we made an impromptu change of plan and booked our tickets to a shorter length of trip and Bali is the chosen one.

Ivy's Travel: The Best Local Food in Bali

When it comes to Bali, people mostly comes for two things. The beach and the food. Though the cafe and restaurant scene in Bali impress me so much, I still feel their local food is the best one. Mostly their common local food is Nasi babi guling (suckling pig rice) or Nasi Ayam (chicken rice). 

Hotel Reviews: Sheraton Kuta Bali Resort

Sheraton Kuta undeniably ranked as one of my most enjoyable stay so far. I travel, and during those travels, I love trying out different kind of hotels. To be honest, I used to not, and more often will choose the kind of hotel I've known and stayed before, until I decided to be not so boring. LOL

Hotel Reviews: Novotel Nusa Dua Bali

Novotel Nusa Dua is a good choice for relaxation. Located on the quite side of the island, the hotel features 175 rooms of deluxe and suite with view of garden, pool, and golf course. Aside from the pool lagoon, they also offer private beach club with only five minutes away from the hotel.

Mamasan Bali

Last week, I went for a short trip to Bali with hubs. The purpose is mainly to attend one of hubby's customer's wedding, so the trip was really short and since the week before we have decided to make it a relax trip instead of a food trip as usual. ;) The reason of why we wanted it to be more of a relax trip was because lately hubs and I have had a super hectic days, so we mainly want to have our three days in Bali to be scheduled free.We mostly ate inside the hotel, hence no food review will be posted except this one.

Cafe Bali

On our last day in Bali, our flights were not until 4pm so we still have plenty times in the morning. We woke up late and I was thinking to have late breakfast at Rumours steak in Seminyak area. When we reached there it was almost 11am and they haven't opened yet, so was Trattoria. Turns out they were all just opened at 12 noon. So we walked along and spotted this cute cafe named Cafe Bali. They have board hanging outside the cafe with menu written on it. 

Entering inside, I loved the design, the ambiance, the smells. It was decorated like this cute restaurant in dutch colonial era, with white colors, they have these big windows from white wood, all tables were also from white wood, antique mirrors on the wall, just like Pastis but more conservative look. They put roses potpourri on each tables. Loved it so much!

Looking at the menu turns out they served breakfast, lunch and dinner. They opened every day from 7.30am - 11pm. As it was already noon, we were not looking for breakfast meals so we chose Caesar salad (45k) for the appetizer, Tender steak (75k) and Chicken supreme (55k) for the main course. I loved it when I came to restaurant where they will asked us whether we want the appetizer to be served first or all in once together. I always thought that if I ordered appetizer, then by right it should come first before any other meals, but most of the restaurants didn't really bother about this unless fancy one. Cafe Bali was not fancy type but they surely gave a good service, it's a shame that we were rushing our time, so we asked them to just bring all in once. 

The Caesar Salad came along with our main course. It was very fresh, served with generous grilled chicken breast. At first, I saw this big white round thing that I thought was cheese, and got shocked as it was very big for cheese size and I never like cheese. Turns out it was soft boiled egg. Hehe. 

The Tender beef steak was served with mashed potato and black pepper sauce. It was ok, the meat was indeed tender. My chicken supreme was basically a grilled chicken breast served with plain fettuccine and baby beans. I liked the chicken, it has the burn sensation flavor, but I didn't like the fettuccine, It was to dry.  

 

After we finished our lunch, I looked at the time and we still have some minutes to spare. So I ordered Fresh strawberry tartlets (32k) for dessert. It was yummy. The strawberry was sour but fresh, and I loved the thick crust below. It came in 2 pcs, and I only left 2 bites for my husband to try. =).

I just really loved the ambiance and the design. Even the washroom was very beautiful. I will surely come back. =)

Cafe Bali

Jl. Laksmana, Seminyak

Bali

Ph. +62361 736484

Rock Bar Ayana Bali

This place was also in my must go place list during visit in Bali. I have seen many reviews in magazine and TVs about the place and the view was simply breathtaking. It was one of Bali's most glamorous sunset and after dark destination.

From Samaya, we went straight to Ayana. Luckily we knew that Rock Bar has certain dress code so we had prepared the wardrobe. Well, it didn't necessary must be formal, we can still wear shorts, but not beach shorts type and very casual tank was not allowed. In front of us, there was 1 American who cannot get in because he was wearing beach shorts, so the rules was quite strict. When we reached there, the queue was quite long already. According to the reception girl, the queue was meant for the lift to took us down only, not for entering the bar. We waited for almost 30 minutes.

They have privilege for the in house guest. No need to queue and the sections at the bar were divided between the in house guest and visitors only, just like Samaya. While we were queuing, there was a guy standing there to checked our bag and make sure there were no food & beverages from outside. 


The view was beautiful. Sitting on natural rocks, 14 meters above the Indian ocean. They didn't served any heavy meals. Only finger food & drinks. The beverage selections were plenty, from cocktail, mocktail and beers. The price were quite expensive though for drinks and finger food only. We ordered Calamari Fritti (80k), Orient spices fried chicken wings (60k), Long island ice tea (140k) and Toblerone (140k). The finger foods were nicely presented but weren't nicely cooked, our calamari was chewy and wasn't crunchy at all, looks like they fried many at once and just put it in a basket and having it served cold, not fresh and hot.

Long Island Tea (vodka, dry gin, light rum, tequilla, triple second, lime juice, coke)

Toblerone (Baileys, kahlua, creme de cacao brown, frangelico, cream)

To me, it was good to know the place but considering the long queue and the price that so not worth the meals, it will took me double consideration to come back. 


Rock Bar 
Ayana Resort & Spa Bali
Jl. Karang mas Sejahtera, Jimbaran 
Ph. +62361 702222
Opening hours: 4pm to 1 am 
Dress code: Smart attire, no singlets or board shorts 
http://www.ayanaresort.com/rockbarbali/wp/

Ryoshi Bali

Yesterday, on our way to Potato Head, we went trough Seminyak street and I saw many boutiques and little cafes along the street. Today, I asked our driver to dropped us at the corner of the main street so we can just walked around. After spotting some boutiques, I saw a Japanese restaurant with very Japanese concept. I was curious and suddenly craving about sushi, so we went in for our lunch.

When we stepped inside the restaurant, the place was very authentic Japanese look. It was built with wood design, the main entrance was with sliding door, and mostly tatami seating type. Very casual, very nice. As we ate, I could see we were the only Asian, the rest was mostly European & American. The place was getting more and more crowded while we were eating. Besides the one at Seminyak, they also had branches at Kuta, Sanur, Ubud and Mall Bali Galleria.

We ordered Inari Zushi (32k). It was tofu skin stuffed with sushi rice topped with various topping from omellete, chicken teriyaki and prawn. I was surprised to see the sushi size, it was double from the usual regular sushi. I didn't quite like it as it was simply to big like you were eating big chunk of rice. Then came Spider Maki (45k), Gyoza chicken grilled dumpling (28k) and Salmon sashimi. Luckily we didn't ordered to many at once, as the spider maki also came in big size, I didn't really enjoyed  it as they put sesame at the sushi, it tasted weird and bitter when you ate the sesame. The gyoza was nice, but the dumpling skin was too thick.

 

Overall, I loved the ambiance but not so much on the food. Although they do have many selections that we could try on next visit. 

Ryoshi

Jl. Seminayak 17

Seminyak - Bali

Ph. +62361 731152

Potato Head Beach Club Bali

Bali was very jammed almost every day when we were there. Our local driver said that it was a typical thing in Bali nowadays since Bali was one of the most popular tourist destination. After we finished playing jet ski & flying fish at Benoa, we quickly went to Potato Head hoping we can reach there before sunset. 

Potato head was just opened for few months and quickly became one of the hottest spot in Bali. It was full house when we reached there. The place was beautiful. They had indoor and outdoor and had direct access to Seminyak beach. As the concept was meant to be a beach club, they had an outdoor pool and beds next to the pool. I was aiming for that spot but all was taken. The receptionist offered us if we would like to sit in the garden area, they could give us blanket for us to sit in the grass with minimum spending of IDR 350.000,-. Luckily, before we said yes, we saw 1 table was asking for the bill so we waited to be seated there.

We began to ordered. For the appetizer, we chose fried champignon mushroom (55k) and as for the main course we opted for prime US steak (280k) and Spaghetti tuna aglio olio (75k). The steak was absolutely delicious. It was very juicy and tender that I kept on taking bites from my husband's plate. So good that I regretted choosing spaghetti. My spaghetti was ok too, they were very generous on the tuna. 

 

The view was just very beautiful and I really adore the ambiance. We sat there until later night and noticed that the place was getting even crowded than before. I will surely come back when I visit Bali another time. 

*photo of interior was courtesy of Potato Head FB page.

Potato Head

Jl. Petitenget, Seminyak

+62361 737979

http://ptthead.com/blog/

Taman Gita Terrace

Taman Gita Terrace was the restaurant located at Intercontinental specialized in buffet, but also opened for ala carte. We had our complimentary breakfast buffet while we were staying there. The resort actually had 2 venues for breakfast options. The other one was at Bella Singaraja which was actually a italian restaurant but they make it as continental buffet for breakfast. On our second breakfast, I was actually wanted to ate at Bella, but turns out the place was quite small, so we went back to Taman Gita. 

 

Anyway, about Taman Gita Terrace. It had indoor and outdoor options. The indoor was decorated very modern, still with the Balinese Indonesian typical but fancy one. I like the outdoor as we can enjoy the beautiful garden and the pond while we were having our breakfast. It was beautiful. The buffet came in many selections for Balinese type of food, to Asian, Japanese and western. They also served fresh juice which was only made by request, something that I hardly found at other hotels even 5 stars one, mostly they only served juice in packaging and charged us for the fresh one. 

Taman Gita Terrace

Intercontinental Bali Resort
Jl. Uluwatu 45 

Jimbaran, Bali

Ph. +62361 701888

Swikee Purwodadi

From ULAM, my husband wanted to visit his buyer in Bali. I can't remember where it was, but on our way back from that place, I saw Swikee Purwodadi in the side of the road. I never try it in Jakarta, so we stopped by before went back to hotel. 

We quickly ordered Bahkut sayur asin (16.5k), Kodok masak pedas (23.5k) and Cah sayur hijau (10k). We asked for 1 rice to share as we were still very full from our lunch at ULAM. The Bahkut sayur asin was very very very salty, i guessed the cook mistakenly put in too much salt. I was not really into any kinds of other meat except chicken, beef, lamb, and I didn't took to much pork. But Swikee Purwodadi was quite famous in Jakarta, so I wanted to try the frog. The only frog meat I ever ate was the one at Jun Njan and it was delicious to the last bite. The one in Purwodadi was so so, I let my husband finished them. Hehe 

 

Swikee Purwodadi

Jl. Teuku Umar

Denpasar

ULAM Bali

One of my closest distributors told me that I should paid a visit to ULAM when I went to Bali. It located in Nusa Dua and they offered free pick up for tourist who stayed at Nusa Dua area. The place was quite big, it was designed with rattan and wood. Very Balinese typical restaurant. 

My distributors said their seafood basket was delicious. I picked Special seafood basket (150k). It was a basket of grilled seafood combination, from lobster, prawn, fish, crab and squid, served with rice and chilli. I was surprised to see the portion, it was very large and it has too many items on the plate. I thought that they will put the rice and the dishes in separate plates, I didn't really like to have to many dishes all in once in my plate, gave me nauseous and a sudden full stomach feeling. It was weird but true. Anyway, to me it was ok but not the type of food which will make me go back for the second time. My husband ordered Ulam's special grill fish (45k). We added Crispy duck (65k). I didn't really like the duck as it was kinda wet and not crispy like the one at Bebek Bengil, although this one was bigger size.

Special seafood basket

 

Ulam's special grill fish

 

Crispy duck

Whole young coconut

ULAM

Jl. P. Mengiat No.14

Peminge, Nusa Dua

Ph. +62361 771590