Pink and Undecided: February 2014

Bali Getaway : Culinary & Park Regis Hotel Review

Hellowww!

I'm finally wrapping up my Bali trip posts after being too lazy to finish it up (travel posts are so much work *sigh* especially the crazy amount of photos to resize. I can't imagine the hard works those bloggers that actually EDIT their pictures have to go through! I'm having a headache just thinking about it...) because i want to start blogging about our Hong Kong trip (been asked by G if i've start blogging about HK yet coz she wants to ~~see the pictures~~ read it) :p.

This last post is all about culinary, even though i suck at food blogging but never mind, i don't remember most of the names or the descriptions of each food but you can still drool over the pictures, yes? And this also couldn't come at a better time, just a few days ago Oline actually BBM-ed me asking recommendations for culinary in Bali, now she can just check this entry out, right! (if you're interested in places to visit in Bali, just type "Bali" in the search box on the right bar and you'll be directed to my Bali travel posts, i have plenty!)

Posting this picture up for the main picture because it's super cute, right? And no, he didn't really eat the whole thing himself hahaha, i fed him bits and pieces of the pork ribs! This was taken in Nuri's, read more about it below!

1. Warung Made's

We were unsure on where to go for dinner after Bali Zoo, so we decided to just go to Kuta and see what we can find there. Almost went to Mama's (honestly i'm not a huge fan of that place's food, though. Went there once with #Undecided years ago when Baby Boy was really a baby and it was okay but nothing special for me. Quite pricey too, but then again so are most of every restaurants in Bali :p) but we couldn't find anywhere to park so stick to the first plan :

Now i'm confused. It it Made's Warung or Warung Made's?

It's a vintage style restaurant (apparently been open since 1969! Wow! That's before even my eldest brother's born!) that serves simple foods and drinks, both local and Western style.

The ground floor was packed so we ended up sitting on the second floor

I think the food's so so but i like the atmosphere and style!

It was full with local and international tourists. I put on my cardigan inside-out WTF

Baby Boy's carbonara with pork jerky bits. It was quite nice but very rich (but bland. Am i making any sense? I like bland food though #weird) so Baby Boy only finished a bit more than half. Guess who had to finish his food? This is why i don't really order food whenever we travel with him, i just eat his leftover -___-

Made's fried rice. It was nice, hunny and i think they serves better local food than Western ones

I went to Made's a few times before, but i was never really impressed :p. The food are nice but nothing to rave about, but it's super famous! Like, every tourist would know and want to try Made's somehow. It was well known to be very affordable with huge portions when i was much younger, now it's still affordable but nowhere near the word "cheap". Still, i'd recommend this place for the unique and vintage atmosphere! (oh, service's not so good though, most of their employee seemed lazy and disinterested. They had this vacant look and kept on yawning *LOL*. It was really hard to get their attentions too even though they were like a feet away from us!)

2. Cafe at Setia Darma House of Puppet

I think the cafe's called Cafe Wayang but i can't find it anywhere on the internet so i'm not so sure! Anyway, we totally underestimated this cafe when we first saw it, we planned on having some coffee after visiting the museum and thought we'd be served mediocre kopi tubruk like most cafes in local tourist sites but we were pleasantly surprised that they served VERY nice coffee (cappuccino, nonetheless!) and the snacks were very tasty too!

Served in a humble, kopi tubruk-style glass

I'm a coffeaholic so i know a good coffee when i have one! This one's really nice! Made from finest Indonesian coffee (you do KNOW that Indonesian coffees are amongst the best in the world, right? Where do you think Java comes from? This island that i am living in!)

Snacks for Baby Boy, the croquettes contained peas so i had to shell them out zzz. What is it with kids and their hatred of peas? I've always loved peas since i was a kid! He only finished one so the other one's mine, very yum!

Tahu Gejrot, very nice too!

The museum's located down there on the background

A must visit if you ever go to Setia Darma!

3. Naughty Nuri's

A super well-known grill place for pork ribs! I've been there once with #Undecided and our British friend, D-i'm not a huge fan of ribs (or pork. Pork's just too sweet for me in general) but hunny is. He's never been there but heard a lot about it (my hunny's a total foodie while i'm just a big eater, but not a foodie at all. I like what i like and stick to it, i don't really try new-especially not the weird ones- food) so it was one of his main destinations in this trip!

Actually there are two Naughty Nuri's, the original one's serves a lot nicer ribs (according to #Undecided. I've never been to the original, we went to this same one back then) and also a lot more packed, but we were stuck in a jam for quite a bit (there was a ceremony or something so most of the roads were blocked and we had to go round and round trying to reach Nuri's!) and by the time we found this Nuri's, hunny was frustrated already and didn't want to go on further to find the other one (supposedly one a few metres apart, though!)

They used to serve Mexican food like taco's (i still remember D-who's a half vegetarian, she eats seafood, had a fish taco or something like that back then) but when we went there almost everything that's written on the blackboard up there couldn't be ordered!

Hungry face hahaha

Instantly happy when the ribs arrived!

The ribs are tender *so tender they fell off the bones when poked*, sweet and fragrant. Even a non pork lover like me could appreciate it. Baby Boy's not a fan of meat (he's missing a lot of teeth and has difficulties chewing most meats) but he actually ate half of this portion! It was not super huge actually, i read people's reviews about it being huge enough for two persons? Hmmm... I won't be able to finish this by myself, but most guys i know (including my hunny) totally can!

Ordered the huge sausage for Baby Boy actually, but he enjoyed the ribs so much we ended up eating this. The sausage's very nice as well even though it appeared burnt in this picture hahaha

Since Baby Boy demolished half of his ribs, hunny was not full and hunted for other food. The only other thing that could be ordered was hamburgers. Another patron was having a burger and it looked so yummy (as well as this one on the picture, don't you think?), but it wasn't *LOL*. It was super dry and a bit tasteless. DON'T order burger if you ever visit Nuri's!

It was super huge as well, look at the comparison with my hand! The size would be great if it was tasty, as it wasn't... we totally struggle to finish it!

At least it's nice to cam-whore with!

A very recommended place to try in Bali, it's one of the must-visit eateries there! Price-wise, it's not outrageously expensive (the ribs' IDR 90.000 for one portion), it surely wasn't cheap but it's normal in Bali (which is one of the most expensive place locally).

4. Bubba Gump

I mentioned this a few times already, Bubbagump has a special place in our hearts because we went there for our first (real) honeymoon (we claim to go on honeymoon a dozen more times afterward :p), the food were superb, the place and system unique and we just had some really romantic time there *even though i we are not very romantic people*. So, everytime we're in Bali, Bubba Gump is a must!

Btw, this is the day when i thought i lost my camera-but actually just left it in our hotel room, so all the pictures in Bubba Gump was taken with my fugly Blackberry's camera, please excuse the horrible quality!

Bubba Gump always provide crayons and coloring sheet for the little ones

Hunny kept on taking horrible pictures of me, one after another and i lost my patience, selfie it is!

One more!

The guy who cannot take decent pictures of people if his life depends on it

We always found Bubba Gump's food to be very very yum, and it was still yum but sadly the quality seemed to be declining! The last time we went there (read about it here) the food were a lot nicer than this time :( i don't know what went wrong! I thought it was just me, but hunny actually mentioned it before i did so i know i wasn't imagining things! So sad because it's definitely our fave restaurant in Bali :(...

The popcorn shrimps

Ordered this for Baby Boy (who's very Asian and needs to have rice in every meal) but it was as bit spicy so we ended up sharing this. Ordered white rice for Baby Boy and he ate it with the aforementioned popcorn shrimp. This was the day when he's not feeling well and acts out after keeping us up all night with his non-stop puking, so honestly we were all not in a very good mood that night.

Hunny orders this burger whenever we're in Bubba Gump. He's not a seafood person and he really likes the burger here

Saw the staffs dancing, singing and playing music for the couple on a honeymoon. They did that to us back then and it was really nostalgic seeing this!

Bubba Gump is... well, pricey. We paid IDR 500.000 for two main courses+1 side dish so it wasn't the cheapest restaurant around. If the quality's still like last time i wouldn't hesitate to recommend this place, but because of this last visit... If you have smaller budgets then maybe you should skip this :).

5. Flapjacks

I'm not much of a dessert person (always stuff myself with main course), i don't even have a huge sweet tooth (i only crave sweets before and during my period) plus i hate waffles and pancakes so i wasn't too interested in Flapjacks whenever we passed them in Bali. But it was hot that day, and yeah-i was having my period so i wanted to have some ice cream.

Sadly, most of the ice cream were spoilt because they have fridge malfunction zzzz. Hunny wanted to get the huge, 6 scoops ice cream something2 but thank God (coz really, who'd finish them???) there were only some flavors available. He'd choke if he have 6 scoops of the same flavor, so we ended up with a parfait.

Which was very nice but super sweet i almost pass out from sugar high after one bite zzz

Ordered chicken wraps because i hadn't had breakfast yet (i told hunny to bring Baby Boy for breakfast in the hotel because i was not in the mood)

The chicken wrap's just fine

Ordered chicken nuggets with fries for Baby Boy, but he's still unwell (this was our last day, our flight's later that night so we went to watch The Hunger Games : Catching Fire after this meal) and only nibbled at them

The food was so so, but then again it specializes on desserts so maybe i shouldn't have high expectation for the food in the first place. Sadly a fridge malfunction for a dessert parlor is BAD, they couldn't serve the only thing they are good at, i personally think they shouldn't open at all that day. Price wise it was okay, not too expensive. Visit only if you have a sweet tooth and make sure their fridge's not broken before entering!

That's all for our culinary adventure in this trip (to read about Babi Guling recommendation, read this or browse through my January 2013's Bali trip posts), not too much because whenever we're too tired we just have KFC, Domino's and Burger King *LOL*!

Here's a brief review on the second hotel we're staying at (our first three nights were spent in Mercure Nusa Dua for free because we won the hotel voucher from the new year grand prize) Park Regis Kuta.

Open concept lobby, that's the reception right there

Baby Boy-always attracted to colorful brochures. Are all kids like that? Because i really loved brochures too when i was little :p

Park Regis' a quite new hotel, modern, simple and quite nice. Nothing too fancy, just your basic room but spacious, clean and comfortable. Price wise it was normal, less than IDR 1.000.000 if you book via Agoda like we did (but i used my rewards and i had a LOT so we only had to pay a few hundred thousands for two nights), it's like a middle rate in Bali (not too cheap but not too expensive either).

They seem to suffer from a lack of employees though, especially at night because when we asked for extra blanket, they took forever to arrive. Also i would suggest them to find better cleaning solutions, Baby Boy threw up a bucket the first night we were there and even though we asked the housekeeping people to clean up TWICE, even sprayed perfumes generously the sickly vomit smell lingered. Even after the room was cleaned up thoroughly (oh, and they left a black trash bin plastic liner ON MY BED WTF) and we left it for half a day, we still had to endure the horrible smell on the second night (i have very sensitive nose so i was really miserable :(...). Other than that everything's okay. Services could be improved on, obvi (too slow!).

There are dish cupboards and even sink to wash your dishes in the room, that's unique *LOL*

Room was basic but spacious and clean

Bathroom was also very spacious and clean

Shower! I always prefer showers than bath tubs :D!

It was big enough so hunny didn't have to struggle when washing Baby Boy there

And when i see mirrors... Well, selfies happens...

Nice lighting there in the bathroom

Not so shabby either outside!

One more hahaha. Last picture of me looking well-rested and fresh because the next two days i looked like a total zombie

Oops. I decided to collect cute headbands now, bought this in Bali Zoo hehehe. Very heavy though!

Here are some extra pictures from our second to last day in Kuta Beach, Baby Boy claimed he didn't like beaches (because it's dirty. OMG!!!) -___-. But he seemed to enjoy Tanah Lot a lot though!