Restaurants In Bali

The population of Bali is 80% Hindu and 20% others as compared to the majority Muslim population in the whole of Indonesia. Muslim population on the island of Bali is therefore very small. I thought finding reasonable Muslim restaurants would be difficult. However, through the cabbies, I found quite a number of Muslim restaurants available. The saying, “to know more of the place you visit, ask the cabbies” is true then!!

One restaurant that I continue to patronize is the ACC Minang restaurant. It is at the junction of the road from the airport and the Main Kuta street in Tuban. There is a large statue of horses at the intersection. [I notice in my travels that Indonesia has many statues, some really huge, and they are at junctions, major intersections and any place that they fancy. This is apparently true all over the country, Jakarta, Bandong, Palembang and so on. I guess it is a passion amongst previous Indonesian Leaders (Bapak Soekarno especially) to build statues, a symbol of power of sorts perhaps].

ACC Minang restaurant is air-conditioned, clean and provides good food and service. The price they charge is also very reasonable, compared to other restaurants in Bali. They serve traditional Minang food, the preparation of each of them, especially the meats, takes a long time. They are marinated in spices and herbs and then cooked for hours and hours until the meats are tender. These are served with rice and are very tasty. As is the practice in Minang restaurants, you do not have to choose the dishes to be served to you. The various dishes will be served on your table. The waiter will bring the dishes, sometimes in small bowls of ten or fifteen different dishes, in a circus-like balancing act with all the bowls decked on one hand, to your table. I have yet to see any of the waiters spilling or dropping any of the dishes in all my years of patronizing Minang restaurants in my travels. You will only be charged for the dishes that you eat. If you do not fancy any of those dishes laid on your table do not touch them, and you will not be charged. So, if you have kids with you, be careful. It is best that you ask the waiter to leave only those dishes you fancy and take away those that you do not want from your table.

Another restaurant that I frequent is Restaurant Bu Tinuk. It is located further up the street from ACC Minang. The specialty of this restaurant is nasi rawon and nasi pechal. The main dish in nasi rawon is beef soup that contains many different spices and herbal ingredients and is taken with rice (nasi in the Malay language is rice). It is very tasty. Some of the herbs have medicinal properties, but when cooked in meat and its accompanying cholesterol and what nots, I wonder if the medicinal properties are any good in the end. I go for the taste rather than the medicinal properties though. As for nasi pechal, the main dish is a combination of various vegetables and herbal leaves that are preboiled and mixed in a peanut sauce concoction of groundnuts and more herbs and spices. This vegetable mix is normally taken with rice. For me, I can just make do with the pechal only without the rice. There are other types of food that they serve here but I have not tried any of them. Going by the good taste of nasi rawon and nasi pechal, I assume that the other dishes they serve are tasty as well.

There are many other Minang restaurants on the same street as ACC Minang and Bu Tinuk but I have not tried any of them. I was told that these two restaurants are better then the rest and to me that was sufficient for my needs as I was in Bali to relax and eating was just incidental to it.

MKI Ramblings Unlimited,
Petaling Jaya