M Bali Tour

THE BALI RESTAURANT GUIDE TO SANUR

Madeftu Bali Tour - How times change! 30 years ago ALL

major restaurants and hotels in Bali were located in Sanur. For good international food you had to go to the BALI BEACH HOTEL (opened in the late 60ies as the BALI INTER-CONTINENTAL), the BALI HYATT and then also the SANUR BEACH HOTEL. For an excellent Risjttafel and the unforgettable "Arack Bumbu Bali" cocktail you went to TANJUNG SARI, and for good Italian food you visited the TRATTORIA DA MARCO, operated by the Italian consul.

Today, Sanur is home to many small, reasonably priced and friendly retaurants serving tasty local and a mix of various international cuisines, but the old tourist hot-spot offers no culinary highlights compared with Seminyak, Ubud or Nusa Dua.

A very popular eatery in Sanur is MASSIMO IL

RISTORANTE, Jalan Danau Tamblingan 206, run by the Italian Chef Massimo Sacco who lives for many years in Bali. In addition to traditional Italian dishes he features a good selection of specialties from Lecce, his home town near the Southern tip of Italy. Pasta comes in unusual shapes and sizes with sauces which combine tomato, garlic and chilli, and there are Fettuccine, Linguini, Bucatini, Rechitelle, Farfalle, Penne, Tortellini, Ravioli, Rigatoni as well as perfectly prepared Gnocchi and Risottos. Many tasty fish and meat dishes (we loved the Saltimbocca alla Romana) and a wide variety of different pizzas (classic, thick Sicilian pan pizza, PIADINA with topping after baked, PUCCIA from Lecce, baked or fried CALZONE PAZZO, double-deck VULCANO, ROSSA, BIANCO or DOLCI with cream and nougat or Amaretto; other desserts and home-made ice creams make the choice really difficult. Wines from Italy, Spain, France, Australia and Chile start around 300,000 Rupiah per bottle. Service is friendly but can be slow. Tables in the open-air dining room are well spaced, and there is an air-conditioned section, too. A nice dinner for two will be around 300,000 to 350,000 Rupiah++ plus drinks.

CharMING, Jalan Danau Tamblingan 97, and the much longer established RESTO MING, Jalan Danau Tamblingan 105, are both operated by the French-trained Mr. Ming and feature similar menus with French and Asian Fusion cuisine. Start your dinner with hot Foie Gras, Escargots or smoked salmon or a tasty lobster bisque. Continue with roasted duck breast, Boeuf a la Bourgignonne, Steak au Poivre or Entrecote de Boeuf with Sauce Bearnaise, rack of lamb, pork ribs or pork chops in a Dijon mustard sauce. Most meats are imported from Australia. There are also Jumbo sea scallops St. Jacques, large river prawns, sole a la Lyonnaise and other seafood dishes (the Lobster Mornay, however, was not what we expected). Service is friendly and attentive, the setting in the garden or open-air restaurant very pleasant, and a nice dinner for two is around 500,000 Rupiah++ plus drinks.

CAFE BATU JIMBAR, Jalan Danau Tamblingan,

is a casual sidewalk cafe and popular with regular visitors to Sanur and expatriates who meet here for breakfast, lunch or dinner under large trees. You can choose from a number of fresh fruit juices, healthy salads and light dishes; the vegetables and herbs are grown at the owner's farm near Bedugul. Next door to the restaurant is a bottle shop which carries a choice of imported wines.

MEZZANINE is the name of the open-air restaurant right at the entrance of the PURI SANTRIAN resort in the South of Sanur. You sit comfortably either in the front garden or the indoor area and enjoy a wide choice of Western, Japanese, Chinese and Thai cuisine i.e. you can choose pasta dishes, burgers, steaks, sushi and sashimi, prawns, scallops, fish and Australian beef from the Teppanyaki grill, shark fin soup, stir-fried abalone or scallops with kalian and XO sauce and Singapore crab. Normally we avoid eateries which offer such a mixture of very different cuisines but the MEZZANINE handles this surprisingly well. Our favourites are the Thai specialties starting with a very tasty Tom Yam Goong (the famous prawn soup with lemon grass, chilli and coriander), spicy fish cakes with a sweet chilli/coriander sauce, the Thai beef salad, a red duck curry with grapefruit and basil leaves and a green beef curry with sweet basil, eggplant and chilli. On the Thai menu you find also stir-fried lamb, deep-fried river prawns with garlic, salmon, seabass, fried noodles and fried rice. All dishes are prepared with a delicious mixture of lemon grass, chilli, garlic, kaffir lime leaves, basil, coriander and the wonderful Thai fish sauce Nam Pla. Talk to Thai Chef Supachai to make sure you get the real thing and not tourist food! Service is attentive and prices very resonable; only Australian steaks and lobster are over 100,000 Rupiah, and you will have an enjoyable meal for two for about 250,000 to 300,000 Rupiah without drinks.

The Sanur branch of the Japanese restaurant RYOSHI, Jalan Danau Tamblingan 150, offers the same menu as the their restaurants in Seminyak and Ubud including Sashimi and Sushi, a nice Tuna Carpaccio, Tempura, fried pork, beef and chicken liver etc. at reasonable prices. You can have a good meal here for about 100,000 to 150,000 Rupiah per person; the service is friendly but not very professional.