Tuesday, July 26, 2011

KAYUMANIS

A few people had mentioned Kayumanis as a good place for dinner in sleepy Sanur and we never got around to trying it because I didn't know exactly where it was then a couple of months ago, while dropping off some dry cleaning, we cut through a tiny side street and there it was.  We stopped by for dinner on a Saturday evening but they were already fully-booked so I made a dinner reservation for the following week.

We arrived early for our eight o'clock booking and were surprised to see that even on a Monday, there were no free tables.  Kayumanis is an open-air restaurant with an open kitchen situated right by the entrance.  The guest house has five rooms for rent through the garden and towards the back while the front area is taken up by the cafe.

The small menu has both Western and Asian dishes along with juices and beer but no wines.  (We found out later on that they have allow you to bring your own bottle of wine ( B.Y.O.B.) and waive the corkage charge.  As soon as we ordered, they brought us warm bread with a cheese spread.  We were quite hungry and finished this quickly and had to ask for some more which they brought along with some amuses bouches - a bite of tuna on a slice of eggplant topped with the traditional Balinese sambal metah (chopped shallots, cilantro and chili).  To start, A chose the Caesar Salad (35,000 IDR, around US$4) while I had the Vietnamese summer rolls (40,000 IDR, around US$4.50).  The Caesar salad was good but wasn't actually a Caesar salad - it was more of a mixed salad with shredded chicken and oddly, cilantro and nuts.  My Vietnamese rice paper rolls were fresh and filled with julienned vegetables, glass noodles and prawns and came with a spicy sweet chili sauce.  For our main course, we both had the beef Stroganoff (85,000 IDR, around US$10) - a generous portion of beef fillet in a mushroom and tomato sauce with a scoop of chunky mashed potatoes.  The meat was tender and the sauce delicious (I wish they had served it with pasta or rice instead of mashed potatoes which would have been good to sop up the sauce).  Dessert was an apple spring roll for A an a coconut delight for me, a halved young coconut filled with coconut ice cream.  All in all, a good simple meal at very reasonable prices and with the B.Y.O.B. policy (a first I've heard of in Bali) it's a great little place to have a meal with a good bottle of wine.
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Kayumanis Cafe and Home Stay
Jalan Tandakan 6,
Shindu, Sanur
Bali
Telephone: +62 361 289 410

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