ubud – Page 2 – Cooking Masterclass

The Elephant Review, Ubud

The Elephant is located on Jalan Raya Sanggingan, in front of Hotel Taman Indrakila, Ubud, Bali, Indonesia. It is a vegetarian restaurant, but don’t let that put you off, as the menu is very interesting. The place has a really nice feel to it, with an outlook to die for, literally if you lean over too far… its long way down.

The ain options are salad bowls, with an amazing array of different combinations of delicious sounding salad mixes. It was a difficult decision to make. It wasn’t disappointing either, coming in a very good serve size with a scrumptious dressing. The image below was not the salad, but the pasta dish we also ordered, of which we can’t really remember much about it, except that it tasted great! Sorry.

The view..much better during the day time, as you can see more, but this evening shot gives you an idea of the scenery. You oversea the champuan ridge, which is a lovely walk through the greenery just outside of Ubud town.

Hujan Locale Restaurant Review

We ate here for a special lunch date (sans kids) and thoroughly enjoyed it. It is the sister restaurant of the reputable Mam San and Sarong in Seminyak, and the menu here certainly delivers a taste of what the food is like at these more well established eateries. Hujan means rain in Indonesian. So Local Rain is where we ate.

The drinks list is very interesting, and this beetroot concoction was rather tasty, non-alcoholic, however there were also drinks of this variety available.

The Bucket of Thai fish balls didn’t disappoint, with a decent serving, delicious taste, lovely dipping sauce, and served with some crispy fried herb leaves.

Salt and Pepper squid, nicely seasoned on a bed of iceberg lettuce. Very tender.

Chicken laap, is a Laon dish of minced meat with an amazing depth of flavour, served in a bowl with lettuce leaves, I think designed to be small cups to wrap the meat in, which is what we did. This dish rarely disappoints, and Hujan have done it justice.

The (dry) Rendang curry with a fried egg, was a very interesting choice. I am a huge rendang fan, and will order it when I think the restaurant will do a good job (it can often be average in Bali!). This was explained to be a dry curry, and not the usual rich sauce that the dish usually comes like. So I though I would try it regardless. well it was dry but very oily – if that’s possible – it was possibly twice cooked, braised, then shredded and deep fried, which created the oiliness. The egg didn’t add much to the dish for me and I’m not sure why it was there, as the meal itself would have been good without it. The taste of the curry was good, even though the texture was a little different.

This restaurant experience was great, and lived up to my expectation, even though they possibly have to sort out some ‘teething’ problems as all new restaurants do. I am excited to come back and try some more delicacies from the extensive and yummy sounding menu.

OPEN 12NOON – 3PM
AND 6PM – 11PM

JALAN SRI WEDARI 5,
UBUD, BALI
0361 849 3092
WWW.HUJANLOCALE.COM

Taco Casa Ubud

Taco Casa is the best Mexican restaurant in Ubud, possibly even in Bali (only in comparison to a few others), but there are limited options here for Mexican and this is a great restaurant!

It is located on Jalan Pengosekan, right on the bend going into town. There is a small amount of parking out the front, otherwise there is a laneway with ample parking across the road and 20m further from town.

The restaurant is efficiently run, with loads of attentive and friendly staff, and a great system in the kitchen that works well, as you always get your food in a timely manner. On top of all that the food is delicious.

Above is the salad bowl, which has an amazing mix of delicious Mexican ingredients, like avocado, beans, lettuce, tomatoes, corn, capsicum, your choice of meat, and a fabulous dressing, served in a crunchy crispy baked tortilla – which you can eat. There is another salad worth mentioning, the Fiesta, which has similar ingredients, (slightly different) and comes in a regular bowl with a few corn chips in it. That one is my favourite. Below is delight for the kids, MYO taco’s. Choose your ingredients off the list, then they all come separate for you to make yourself, the kids love it and they can choose what goes in them, so much fun! The shells and corn chips are all home made, and are really rustic and good.

The other favourite dish (Rob’s) is the burrito. A giant soft flour tortilla encasing some meat (of your choice), rice, beans, cheese, guacamole, lettuce, tomato, and maybe some other bits, with sauce. Spicy or not! Yummbo!

The kids other popular meal is the quesadilla, or the flat bread toasted sandwich I like to call it. several different fillings, served with guacamole, salsa, and sour cream. Always gobbled up quickly.

This place is a really fresh tasty Mexican restaurant, not the typical cheesy oily mass produced fare you sometimes get with Mexican. And all at a reasonable price. Gotta love it. I’m salivating thinking about it now!

Asian Prophecy Cafe Review

Asian Prophecy is a cafe on the busy Jalan Raya Pengosekan, on the opposite corner to the gas/petrol station.

They serve illy coffee, which is usually a good option, served very hot this time, just how I like it. I also could not resist a donut, as you could tell by the photo. Unfortunately it was not baked today, something you can’t tell by looking and you can’t always expect in Bali.

I have been here before, and has a good meal too, they make some good wraps and burgers.

The modern indoor and outdoor eating area is OK as long as you ignore the road noise.

Warung Schnitzel Ubud Review

Warung Schnitzel is located on Jalan Sriwedari, only 20 meters north off Jalan Raya Ubud. It was a place we had passed may times before, but were reluctant to visit as eating schnitzels in Bali just did not seem right. When we finally decided to go, for a birthday celebration, we were very impressed.

The restaurant spans over three levels. So lots of stairs if you choose the top level, but worth it for the air space, comfy seats and the view.

The dining experience included a free snack of battered and deep fried leaves, not sure the variety but they were very nice, even the kids ate some of the ‘green stuff’.

Of course their specialty schnitzels are pretty good, and not the typical poor quality western dish that we see in Bali. One schnitzel fed the 3 kids quite well, it was served with mash potato, and it was pretty good mash too.

This was a delicious beef stir fry with capsicum, and from memory, ginger. Really good choice, even though it was a tad small.

Being a birthday celebration, we ordered some yummy desserts. This cheesecake with ice-cream and passion fruit coulis was so creamy and delicious. I would go back there just for the dessert!

Warung Bali Balo Review

Warung Bali Balo is located on the busy Jl Raya Nyuh Kuning. There is a small amount of parking to the side of the entrance for a bike or car.

It is a cosy place, nestled into the front of a family compound. Budhi has good English and his mum (I think) does the cooking. The set up is actually quite thoughtful, even though it seems basic, there is some very nice art work on the walls.

There is the usual array of drinks, nothing out of the ordinary. We had some mango juice and a fresh coconut.

I wasn’t feeling that hungry, but the serves were substantial, and in the end I was totally full. We ordered steamed greens which came with a satay sauce. Although you can order a number of sauces with any of your meals, from satay, sambal, tomato, sweet chili, fresh spicy…

The pork sates were tender and the sauce was yummy.

A slight difference with lilit sate being served with the fried rice. Rob really enjoyed this rice dish, it was better than average.

Ikan pepes, minced fish cooked in banana leaf, was a very decent serve, and also very tasty.

Cassava Rice (Tipat), which is plain rice cooked with small cubes of cassava, just for something different.

The food and service was all good, large serves for a very reasonable price. The setting is nice, although a bit noisy next to the busy road, but we’ll definitely come back again!

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.

9 Warung Review

Located in Lodtunduh, on Jalan Lotonduh a couple of kms out of Ubud town. It is on the sharp corner just after you go through the big dip in the road. There is a good off-road parking spot just after you get round the corner. It is a very busy road so go slow and be sure to turn into the parking, or it’s hard to get back. Admittedly, we walked there from our villa while staying in Lodtunduh, which was rather convenient.

This place is ridiculously cheap, it is a vegetarian buffet (not sure its all you can eat though) more like a campur, where you cam try a little of everything available. It included some very interesting home style cooking food.

The staff are very friendly, and the decor (some of which is for sale) is very colourful and artistic.

This is a must visit for vegetarians. If you like the food, you can also do cooking classes with the lady owner.

ARMA Thai Restaurant Review

ARMA Thai is located at the enormous ARMA Resort and Spa on Jl Pengosekan. The entry to the Thai restaurant is off the side street…? There is a sprawling dining area, which begins indoors, and then branches to an outdoor area, and the extends further to small romantic tables near the creek running through. The ambiance was lovely.

There are many drinks on offer, and to add the pleasure there was a free appetizer, of spiced pumpkin soup to enjoy while having your drink.

One of our entree’s was rolled eggplant. This was delicious and nicely spicy, with some fancy rolled carrot to garnish.

For mains we ordered a stir fried chicken dish, and a red curry. The chicken was battered, and the curry was amazing!

Mingle, Ubud

A well ranked restaurant in the Ubud area, so we thought we would check it out. It’s on Jalan Dewi Sita.

We started with a tasting plate, a great way to sample a few different Balinese dishes. IT included spring rolls, satay sticks, bregedel (corn and potato fritters), served with a tasty chili sauce.

Clare’s choice was a caesar salad with chicken, to get some western variety that we miss. It was a very good quality caesar, and I am usually very fussy with them.

The pesto pasta was very nice. It is surprising that many restaurants in Ubud struggle to do such a simple dish like pasta. The garlic bread did not match the quality of the pasta, again that is something that has rarely been mastered by the Balinese chefs.

Mingle is a very nice place for a drink and to watch the busy street below. There are two levels to dine at, and we chose upstairs to avoid the noise of the street. The atmosphere was really relaxing and the staff were very friendly.

This restaurant experience was great, and lived up to my expectation, even though they possibly have to sort out some ‘teething’ problems as all new restaurants do. I am excited to come back and try some more delicacies from the extensive and yummy sounding menu.

OPEN 12NOON – 3PM AND 6PM – 11PM

JALAN SRI WEDARI 5, UBUD, BALI 0361 849 3092 WWW.HUJANLOCALE.COM

OPEN 12NOON – 3PM
AND 6PM – 11PM

JALAN SRI WEDARI 5,
UBUD, BALI
0361 849 3092
WWW.HUJANLOCALE.COM