A restaurant with four hundred reviews and 4.4 stars is a safe dinner. A restaurant with eleven reviews and 4.9 is either a mistake or the best meal of your trip.
There are around sixty places near me rated 4.6 and up, seen by almost nobody, where the bill tops out at about Rp 125,000. Twenty-six of them sit at 4.9 or better. That is not a compromise list. For a lot of my clients it's the food they remember.
Price is the more useful filter
Everyone screens on rating. Almost nobody screens on price band, which is odd, because in Bali price correlates with who the room is built for far more strongly than rating does. Under Rp 125,000 you are, almost by definition, eating somewhere built for people who live here.
What to order, and what to skip
- Order whatever is written on the wall rather than what's in the laminated book. The wall is what they're proud of.
- One dish, done all day, beats a menu of forty. The best nasi campur near me is made by a woman who has cooked nothing else since 2009.
- Go at the hour locals go: before one for lunch, before seven for dinner. Later, the good things have run out, which is the point.
- Bring cash. This is still the half of the island where a card is a conversation.
I put these into itineraries deliberately, usually the day after something expensive. The contrast is most of the pleasure.
What I'd do with this
If you're thinking about something like this, here is what I'd do with it — the part you'd feel immediately, and the part that takes a bit longer.
This week
- Send me your dates and the rough shape of it. You get an honest yes or no from me, usually the same day.
- I'd hold the two or three things that disappear first: the villa, the boat, the table worth having.
- I'd plan one day properly, so you can see how I work before you hand me the whole trip.
Over a season
- I'd build the journey around how you actually travel, rather than a template with your name on it.
- I'd be the only number you need while you're here, including for the thing that goes wrong at midnight.
- I'd keep a file of what worked, so your next trip starts further along than this one did.
I read every enquiry myself, and I answer it myself. Anggun