Saturday, May 24
After a long day of car travel, we eventually made our way to a well-reviewed schnitzel restaurant for dinner. Warung Schnitzel had a 4-10p happy hour on several cocktails, so after we re-hydrated with a large bottle of water we enjoyed a glass of white wine (for me) and a mojito for Eric. Dinner was quite tasty- Eric chose the pork tenderloin with ginger, and I had the stir-fry pork. We overheard the British ladies beside us gushing about their meal, so apparently everyone was pleased with their selections. Also, the servers here were among the most friendly we had on Bali. The 2nd floor area could use a ceiling fan or two as the air was rather humid and still that evening but the service and atmosphere was good. We were sad to pass on the delicious-sounding desserts like fried cheesecake!
Eric with our bottle of water (first one free!) and our appetizer
Sunday, May 25
We didn’t know how busy the restaurants would be at this time of year (turns out not so busy) so we had our hotel make reservations each night we stayed. Our dinner on Sunday was at Lemak on Monkey Forest Road and they conveniently picked us up at the hotel so we didn’t need to walk the 20 minutes to the restaurant. It was beginning to sprinkle when we arrived, so we opted to sit on the upstairs verandah which was a little more protected from the rain. This turned out to be a good decision as the skies opened up about 20 minutes later with a deluge or rain.
As we perused the menus we noticed the BOGO daquiris highlighted so I ordered the passionfruit and Eric had the lime, plus we split a bottle of sparkling water. On the food side I got the ceviche appetizer to start and while it wasn’t what I expected, it still tasted good. For my main I had the lamb canneloni in smoky tomato sauce — delicious — while Eric really enjoyed his coconut crusted chicken.
For dessert (in additional to all the sorbet in the drinks!) we decided to split the mini gelato and nut cookie dessert to end the night. The atmosphere was very relaxed and the service was great, even cool towels and crispy crackers with sambal to start.
Monday, May 26
I had spent most of the day at my cooking class, so I wasn’t very hungry by the time dinner-time rolled around. We opted for close-by Kebun Bistro just up the road from our hotel with a prosciutto and pesto pizza for me and croque monsieur tapa for Eric which wound up being basically a ham and cheese quesadilla. I also ordered a lime mint juice which came with simple syrup so I could make it as sweet as I liked. Eric had a pineapple juice drink. This restaurant was quite busy this night, and each time we passed it, so reservations were handy for getting a better outside table.
Tuesday, May 27
After a full day of biking/exploring, we stayed even closer for dinner — at our hotel’s Petani Restaurant. I was a bit tired of wine and juice at this point, so I just ordered a sparking water and Eric had a ginger ale. My smoked duck appetizer with cucumber salad was more than enough food as an appetizer and in hindsight I should have just stuck with that as my main, tortellini with salmon and spinach, was pretty disconnected with the watery tomato sauce. Eric like his Beef Rendang (beef in coconut curry) and I was reminded that I need to learn how to make this as soon as we get home. :)
Wednesday, May 28
Another restaurant we discovered while walking around and our last meal in Ubud, Vanilla Pod, was a very nice experience. They are a new restaurant and didn’t offer pickup so we had to walk the 15-20 minutes there – making us sweaty (yet again) for dinner. However, the food more than made up for it. I tried the three course dinner (young jackfruit soup, beef rendang and a coconut-filled crepe) and Eric got the Parmesan flan with beets as a starter and a balinese chicken dish for his main course. The small glass of red Balinese wine that came with my meal was surprisingly drinkable.
For (a second) dessert, we walked back to the resort and had two chocolate shakes in the lobby area, mine with banana added.