In Reply to: restaurant top picks posted by giddosyd on Wednesday, 9. February 2005 at 09:24 Bali Time:
As with anywhere in the world, it all depends on what your tastes are. For me, the best restaurants are those fine dining experiences where there is attention to detail. That includes decor, fancy dishes with the freshest produce and thoughtful service. For many of my friends, the best restaurants are those places where the food is great (and perhaps a quite a lot less fussy), the service attentive and nothing else matters.
On this forum, you'll get many saying indo national is the best because the food is great and the prices are better. Alternatively, you'll get many saying Mozaic in Ubud is the best. These two restaurants are completely different styles and cannot be compared, but they rate highly on separate people's scales and do a very good job of catering to different people's needs.
The best restaurant for me in Bali is Lamak in Ubud. You can either sit in the air conditioned portion in booth-like seats and have a great intimate dinner or you can sit outside in the balmy evening air and take in a little bit more of the atmosphere. When we visited, we chose the air conditioned portion because we were the only patrons in there and thus, the service was brilliant. We basically had one staff member waiting on us and they were always in the shadows waiting for us ask for something, but the rest of the time they let us be and never whisked our plates away as we were finishing our last mouthful. I love this place.
Ary's Warung in Ubud is also fantastic. We've been here a few times, but only once since the refurbishment. The food is brilliant and I really do recommend the degustation menu. The price of this was 200,000rp per head! Unbelievable value for money. With two glasses of wine, 260,0000rp. The atmosphere is great and we have never had the noise issues that others have mentioned in the past. Service quite good. http://aryswarung.dekco.com/
TeraZo in Ubud is quite brilliant as is Mozaic. TeraZo a little bit more laid back than the others, but great food (great chef) and atmosphere nonetheless. Mozaic is the fanciest place I have been to in Bali and is on the more expensive side. Not entirely sure if it's my cup of tea, but definitely worth popping in to check out if nothing else.
In the Kuta area, La Lucciola was very good. La Lucciola was much larger than many restaurants we visited, but was still able to handle the numbers quite well. Nothing brilliant here, but definitely in the category of very good definitely capable of handling a very special birthday night.
My pick for these types of restaurants is definitely Ubud. But then again, everyone has a different point of view and I accept that.
If you're not so worried about the complete dining experience and more interested in good tasting food at good prices, I think TJs is pretty fantastic. But I wouldn't go there for a special birthday night whereas others might.
In between all that, you have Kori which for me a cross between fine dining and laid back eating. The food is brilliant, the atmosphere good and really not a lot to complain about. Again, I'd choose somewhere else for an intimate birthday dinner.
So in summary, you need to decide if you like being fussed over or whether you think it's all hype and a waste of money. You'll then easily be able to decide the place for you.