ARMA Cafe Review

The ambiance of the ARMA café is very nice. It is the most causal of the eateries at the ARMA museum and hotel complex, situated road side on the bend in Jalan Raya Pengosekan.

 

The standout menu item for Rob was the Balinese Pizza – combining Balinese flavours and of course pizza. The toppings included mozzarella cheese, shredded chicken, lemongrass, chili, kafir lime leaf, which sounded great. In reality it was a very average pizza. It did not fit the description at all, turning up with very little chicken and a heap of finely cooked vegetables, with very little of what we would call Balinese flavour, hardly any spiciness.

Another dish which sounded great, but more closely matched our expectation was the lawar dish, a type of Balinese salad usually served on special occasions. This dish, Lawar Pakis Dan Papaya, was described with ‘fern and paw paw’. It came with minced chicken and grilled grated coconut, mixed with Balinese spices, and served with a large cracker. There was no sign of the paw paw? But the dish tasted lovely.

Bregedel jagung Dan kentang (corn and potato patties), these were also very average, lacking in any flavour at all. Even the kids didn’t like them!

Chicken wings; we asked for these not spicy as they were for our daughter Olive, but they were almost the spiciest dish we got! Olive was a trooper and ate them all up.

Clare’s main choice was Nasi campur bumbu desa, this dish came with saté ayam and saté lillit, vegetables, chicken with a coconut curry sauce, grilled tuna with Balinese sauce of matah, and rice. A very nice balanced and tasty meal. The best of the lot.

The restaurant is in a great location, has a very nice ambiance, but unfortunately the food was not up to scratch.