M Bali Tour

THE BALI RESTAURANT GUIDE TO LEGIAN and KUTA

(incl. Tuban, Legian, Seminyak, Kerobokan, etc)

M Bali Tour - Let's start with Balinese and Indonesian food:

Both KETUPAT restaurants, Jalan Legian Raya 109 (hidden behind Jonathan Gallery) and Jalan Dewi Sri in Kuta, serve a large variety of Indonesian specialties in pleasant surroundings. You can sit either in the open-air restaurants or in several cozy alcoves scattered around the swimming pools. The menu includes some traditional Balinese food and many dishes from all parts of the archipelago. In addition to the usual pork, beef, and chicken 'Sate' you find here barbecued skewers with goat meat, prawns, tuna, squid, and even 'Sate Lilit' with minced mutton, crab or duck meat. Seafood lovers can choose from different preparations of lobster, crabs, prawns, calamari and all kinds of fresh fish. Vegetarians will enjoy salads and main courses with beans, potatoes, spinach, bean sprouts, young fern leaves, etc. The menu features photographs and explanations of each dish. Expect to pay about 60,000 to 250,000 Rupiah per person which is not cheap for Bali. But don't forget, this is Indonesian 'haute cuisine' (although here rather boring as spiced for tourists), quite well presented and served in surroundings which will please most visitors.

MADE'S WARUNG on Jalan Pantai in central Kuta near the Bemo Corner has been an institution in Kuta since the early 70's. This has been THE place to see and be seen for nearly 30 years. In the early days, MADE'S was the only 'after-hours' place in Kuta: they kept selling toilet paper, mosquito curls, snack food and drinks until 8:00 p.m. when everybody else closed around 7:00 p.m. Today you con choose from many local dishes including Sate and Nasi Campur as well as many international specialties such as Sashimi, steaks, noodle dishes etc. The owners Peter and Made opened in August 1996 a new, quite similar but larger and more comfortable MADE'S WARUNG in Seminyak/Basangkasa on the way to the Oberoi Hotel on Seminyak.

POPPIES restaurant on Poppies Line 1, nearby has also been well-established for over 25 years. In a beautiful garden setting you can choose from a number of Asian and Western dishes including, soups, curries, lobster and steaks. It's very pleasant for a leisurely lunch in the shade of large trees, but in the evenings the place tends to become crowded with tourist groups. The food was never outstanding, and recently the prices have been increased considerably.

TJ'S Mexican Restaurant, also on Poppies Line 1, has become an institution over the years and is well-known for tasty Mexican food, good music, excellent margaritas and strawberry daiquiris, and to meet regulars around the far corner of the long bar. Pleasant garden setting, good service, great salads and affordable prices.

KORI Restaurant, hidden away in nearby Poppies II Lane, offers comfortable open-air seating in pleasant surroundings. Service is attentive and the menu lists specialties from many countries such as Indonesian Satays, Thai beef salad, Thom Yam, and Green Chicken Curry, Singapore Chilli Crab, Australian beef steaks, tuna steaks, beef burgers, pork chops, Caesar salad, and Italian pasta. Good food, nice presentation, large portions and a good, reasonably priced wine list.

SUSHI TEI - Only opened in late 2007 is the modern, fully air-conditioned SUSHI TEI located at Sunset Road No. 99 in Kuta. When you sit at the bar you can watch the skills of the chefs in the open kitchen and help yourself to creative Japanese delicacies from the conveyor belt in front of you. This is Bali's first and currently only "Sushi Train". There are many different Sushi Rolls filled with combinations of eel, crab meat, tuna, salmon, prawns, mango etc., various kinds of Sashimi and Sushi including sword fish, scallops, smoked bonito, octopus, life lobster and sea urchin. The beautifully designed menu shows photographs of many specialties including grilled meats, various Tempura preparations, Japanese soups, noodles and rice dishes, many salads and a choice of desserts such as Green Tea ice cream, Black Sesame ice cream, peach sherbet, chocolate wafers, etc. The photographs are very tempting, the actual dishes, however, are often rather disappointing and not as fresh as expected. A meal for two should be between 400,000 and 650,000 Rupiah.

The Japanese BLUEFIN restaurant in Jalan Kartika Plaza opposite the KUTA PARADISO hotel serves excellent fusion cuisine in modern surroundings. The large menu lists many creative and delicious sushi rolls, foie gras and all traditional Japanese dishes. Specialties include Chilli Ayo, a combination of baked scallops, shrimps and squid topped with a chilli mayonaise and fish roe, Dobin Mushi, a clear mushroom-seafood soup, and there are Sushi Rolls filled with crab salad, eel, shrimps, squid, salmon, tuna, lobster, avocado, cucumber and even liver pate and cream cheese! Main courses include steak, seafood combination plates, lobster etc. In addition to Western deserts there are Red Bean and Green Tea Ice Creams. BLUEFIN has immediately become one of our regular places.

Another excellent new restaurant in this Tuban-part of Kuta is QUEEN'S of INDIA in Jalan Kartika Plaza next to the entrance of the BALI DYNASTY hotel. This eatery belongs to the QUEEN's Group of Indian restaurants and offers very pleasant surroundings in a modern 2-storey building. The menu features all the favorites which made the QUEEN's TANDOOR in Seminyak so popular such as delicacies from the Tandoor oven, chicken, lamb, seafod and vegetable curries, masallas, pasandas and kormas plus a number of quite unique specialties such as the chicken, mutton, prawn or fish "sizzlers": after being marinated in yoghurt and fresh spices the meat is partly cooked in the Indian Tandoor oven before being finished together with vegetables in a Chinese Wok and served on a sizzling platter. Creative Indian-Chinese fusion cuisine, but these delicacies are both HOT and SPICY; tell the waiter if you don't like spicy food or, even better, don't order a Sizzler! Vegetarians will enjoy the wonderful sauces with a wide range of veggies and the tasty black or yellow Dhal (lentils) cooked in spices, cream and butter and the famous Indian breads; we love the papadums and the Kashmiri Nan. A very enjoyable meal for two is around 250,000 Rupiah++ without drinks. Right now the QUEEN'S of INDIA offers the most pleasant surroundings and most delicious and creative food from the sub-continent in Bali. Enjoy, but bring your own wine.

Bali's best Chinese restaurant is nowadays without doubt FEYLOON, opened in early 2009 at Jalan Raya Kuta opposite the Gelael Supermarket in Kuta. It offers excellent Cantonese cuisine and lots of fresh seafood. The daily 'Dim Sum' (also called 'Yum Cha') at lunch time consists of a variety of small dumplings, steamed buns and other mini delights served in rattan baskets. You will enjoy the steamed dumplings filled with prawns, pork ('Siu Mai' and 'Har Gau') or shark fin ('Yu Chi Gau'), crisp-fried rolls with prawns, and 'Char Siu Bau', rather filling barbecued pork buns. The regular menu includes BBQ pork, many duck preparations and an excellent Szechuan Hot & Sour soup. The large modern dining room is often busy during meal times although the service staff still needs more training, and we find the live music in the evenings kind of disturbing.

The GOLDEN LOTUS inside the Bali Dynasty Resort in Tuban is well-known for a wide range of Chinese dishes and 'Dim Sum' (during lunch on Sundays) which are served in comfortable hotel surroundings. Other recommended Chinese restaurants in the Kuta/Tuban area are FURAMA, Jalan Raya Tuban 52B, PLAZA BALI located between the By-Pass and Jalan Raya Kuta and EMA Restaurant, upper floor at the DFS (Duty Free Shoppers) complex at the circle on Jalan By-Pass. Both serve tasty food including 'Dim Sum' — EMA used to be a favourite of many expat residents and hotel people for Sunday brunch but many of these have discovered and are moving to FEYLOON now.

For German specialties and sausages you can try the open-air MAMA'S restaurant in Kuta which is open around the clock and serves substantial German homecooking at low prices. The wide choice includes hot dogs and many other sausages, Frikadellen (German meat balls) and burgers, spit-roasted chicken, pork roast, Rouladen (German beef rolls), and huge pork knuckles. In addition to local draft beer, imported beers and German schnaps there is also a limited but well-priced wine list. There are tables and a bar downstairs as well as on the upper floor where you also find a large billiards table and life music in the evening. Owner is the German Honorary Consul Reinhold Jantzen. (You like dining with Consuls? Then you should also visit the Swiss Consular Representative Jon Zurcher who entertains guests in his SWISS RESTAURANT at the new Istana Galleria in Kuta.)

Quite good Swiss-German meals at low prices are also served in plain surroundings in the PEPITO KAFE, Jalan Kediri 36A, next to the Pepito Supermarket in Tuban. Roger Jahn, a retired Swiss Guard of the Pope, offers a "Bavarian Breakfast" with Weisswurst, Brezn and a beer at any time of the day for 42,500 Rupiah, a choice of smoked and dried hams with melon, asparagus and toast (38,000 Rupiah), sliced pork leg "Castellan Style" (52,000 Rupiah), various steaks (49,000 to 84,000 Rupiah), and a number of Swiss and German sausages with onion sauce or gravy, French fries and salad for about 42,000 to 48,000 Rupiah. His nice Vol-au-vent (which he calls "Bouchees Royale"), two pastry shells filled with tender beef cubes in a creamy white sauce, is just 44,500 Rupiah. There is only a limited selection of incredibly low priced wines; just give it a try — you might become a regular!