Our first outing was to Ku De Ta (Jalan kayu aya no 9 - right next to the Oberoi) which is one of the most well known beach lounges in the area. When we walked in, I immediately noticed how everyone was so polished and dressed up. In Gili, everyone wore flip flops and shorts. At Ku De Ta, everyone was wearing expensive maxi dresses. It's just a much more mature crowd. One of the best things to do is to get to Ku De Ta before sunset so that you can catch the sun going down on the beach while having drinks. When we opened the menu, it was quite a shock. We definitely were in a more touristy area. The fancy cocktails were 110,000 Rp ($12) each which isn't that far off from the prices in NYC. We were starving so we got some appetizers too. The menu was a variety of upscale Asian fusion items such as sushi rolls, spring rolls, skewers, gyoza and dips. I got the fried calamari (95,000 Rp) and Aarti and Deanna got an eggplant sushi roll (95,000 Rp) and the agadashi (85,000 Rp). Someone had told us that the food wasn't great there and overpriced so we were a bit hesitant to order, but we were so hungry it didn't matter. Was it overpriced? Definitely. But the food was actually pretty good and the presentation was really nice. The eggplant sushi was also fresh and delicious and had the cutest soy sauce jar.
I didn't try the silky tofu but Aarti said she really liked it. It was a salt and pepper tofu dish with chili paste and grated daikon on top.
The calamari was nicely done and not greasy. You could really taste the squid in it and you can't go wrong with a lemon aioli!
The cocktails were worth every penny. I got a watermelon vodka drink sprinkled with cinnamon on top and it was refreshing and the perfect sunset watching cocktail.
You'd think after these bites that we wouldn't be hungry but no, we were still on the hunt for dinner after this. We decided to walk to Jalan Lakshmana which is the main drag in Seminyak and it's also known as Eat Street. The street is full of international and more Westernized restaurants (I saw burger places, a few Italian places, Japanese and Greek food). If you are looking for cute, local warungs or cheap, authentic eats, this is not the street for you. We walked the entire length of the street and ended up choosing Chandi (Jalan Laksmana 72) because we had heard good things about it from others and in a couple of our guide books and it looked beautiful from the outside. The menu is touted as fusion South East Asian food and the whole menu looked fabulous. The food ranged from lots of shellfish, fish, and meat dishes to a full vegetarian section (you don't really see a lot of that). I was so overwhelmed and wanted to order everything. We started with Chandi's amazing crunchy tofu squares (32,000 Rp). It was indeed amazing and crunchy. It wasn't overly fried or greasy and the tofu was nice and silky on the inside and served with this mouthwatering peanut and cucumber topping. I could have eaten another order of it.
I ordered a variety of grilled skewers: scallops (50,000 Rp), tofu and corn (18,000 Rp) and tuna (18,000 Rp) and a small organic green salad (30,000 Rp). I was hoping the scallops would be plump and thick but they were actually pretty small and a bit disappointing. The tofu and corn was glazed with a miso like sauce and grilled perfectly and the tuna was actually not what I thought. Instead of being a hunk of tuna on a stick, it was more like mashed up tuna that was molded around a sugar cane. It was all served with a variety of sauces (see below) but honestly you didn't really need any of them to enjoy the food. It was just so unique looking even though it was just grilled stuff on a stick.
Deanna got the veggie version (110,000 Rp) and it was a feast! So many different kinds of gorgeous veggies - tempe, trio of bell peppers, tofu, baby corn, asparagus, beet root, lotus root, infinity bean, star fruit, fennel, zucchini, shallots, scallion, whole garlic, and red onion (phew!). It was all served with watercress and sprout salad, grilled pickled red chili pepper sambal, sweet soy chili sambal, and kemangi sambal. It was amazing to look at.
Aarti got the black and red rice vegetarian nasi goreng (72,000 Rp) - this was cripsy tempe, tofu, turnip, edamame, zucchini, radish, cauliflower, broccoli, carrot, red chili pepper, tarragon and an egg a cheval. I had one bite and the black and red rice tasted a lot like quinoa and the vegetables were amazingly flavorful.
All in all, the service was fantastic, the presentation of the food glamorous and the food was delicious without being pretentious. One of the best meals we had on the whole trip in terms of fancy dining. Everything was top notch. The total bill for all 3 of us was 601,000 Rp.
1 comment:
Yum, I love it and miss it--Waiting anxiously for part 2!!
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