Locavore Ubud Review and exploring Bali’s street food. Elected the 20th best restaurant in the world serving Modern Cuisine with Local Produce in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia. Not forgetting the Martabak-Manis one of the guiltiest pleasure, sinful but heavenly delicious.

I’m usually timely writing my blog posts, but this lunch at Locavore was around November 2017. Hard to believe how time passes so quickly. I am always curious exploring the most creative restaurants around the world and seeking the best street food delights.

LOCAVORE UBUD REVIEW

Locavore serves modern European cuisine with an Indonesian fare. They are all about local products. Most of their ingredients are sourced from within the country. Even the restaurant’s plates, silverware, and glasses are made in nearby workshops. The restaurant is popular, so making reservations at least two weeks in advance is definitely recommended. Locavore is lead by the three-man team. Eelke Plasmeijer, Ray Adriansyah, and Adi Karmayasa. Since then Locavore achieved success and gained multiple awards, including best restaurant in Indonesia for consecutive years.

LOCAVORE UBUD REVIEW FOOD MENU

The restaurant offers two set menu’s, a meat-based ‘omnivorous’ and a vegetarian ‘herbivore’ menu both in 5 or 7 courses with drinks pairing. The restaurant is constantly innovating and their menu changes every season. So I’m not sure whenever you decide to visit you ‘ll find every dish I posted in the blog.

AS WE WALKED INTO LOCAVORE

As we walked into the restaurant, we saw guests sitting in front of an open kitchen full of chefs looking very busy and focused with a beautiful long wooden table in the middle. Plenty of circular tables in front of an elevated dining area with hanging lights and mirrors. The style is clean and modern with a laid-back, tropical influence.

LOCAVORE UBUD REVIEW MENU CULINARY EXPERIENCE

I and my wife choose the two set menu’s, omnivorous and the herbivore.
We received many “snacks”, mostly amuse-bouche before we were served the dishes from the set menus. Beautiful! I personally recommend come hungry and have patience because the entire experience will take plus or minus 2 to 3 hours. As I remember There were 5 amuse-bouche, a 7-course tasting menu, and the desserts. Each plate is brought out by the server or the chef then explained in the best way to eat each dish. I’ll post most of the dishes pictures and my thoughts with a short description of every dishes.

Miang Kham

Welcome, amuse bouche influenced by the Thai snack “Miang Kham”. This mini bite begins your culinary journey at locavore. Miang Kham literally translates to “one bite wrap. I guess it was a betel leaf with chilli, peanut and crystals salt on the side. The taste of the snack was slightly bitter and spicy. I enjoyed the Miang Kham it had a strong and intersting taste for my palette.

Black rice blini

Black rice blini with smoked egg cream. An interesting twist from Russian cuisine influence. The bilini is made from black rice topped with a Smoked egg cream and a sprinkle of toasted black rice. That was one of the snack that was very neutral for me.

Fermented sambal

Lightly spicy, on a cassava leaf “chip” topped with a lemon basil leaf. Native to the cuisines of Indonesia, Sambal is a chilli paste made from a mixture of a variety of chilli. Fermentation is a preservation method. A tiny small snack that really didn’t impress me.

Tempura cumin leaves

With smoked eggplant topped with sesame seeds.
Cool presentation with a tropical feel, simple, clean, curious to see what was it at the beginning but nothing that I will remember or come back for.

One of Locavore signature dishes

A wonderful quenelle of bloody mary tomato sorbet served with hot celery infused sea salt tomato consomme. Personally, I didn’t find anything interesting flavorwise about the dish, it needs a kick something was missing…

Into the sawah

The course is called “Into The Sawah”, consisting of a 64 degrees duck yolk, snails & garlic, fern tips and wildflowers served on a bed Balinese Rice. The texture of the yolk was thick and sticky similar to a custard. The combination of the egg with the rice was a good idea but nothing really impressive.

Steak tartare

From classic French inspiration, but adapted into a Balinese dish. Locally sourced raw beef with pickled Chinese cabbage, local herbs, mushroom sauce and a very light cracker. Interesting dish, very poetic but nothing that i will remember as taste.

The cucumber curry

A play on cucumbers and dill served on a dill flavoured bed of Tapioca pearls. Cool ideas, like the curry flavour, but I m not really sure about the taste. Cool presentation and precise decoration but not something that I will come back for. Don’t really remember the last dessert as there was so many dishes, pre-dessert then pre-dessert then dessert.

LOCAVORE UBUD REVIEW FINAL VERDICT

Locavore, Informal casual cool unpretentious atmosphere serving interesting and creative dishes is surely a restaurant to visit. However, only for those who are patient and enjoy discovering new flavours and textures with a wide selection of snacks and dishes. However, not traditional or authentic. Every dish that been served were beautifully presented.

DID I ENJOY THE EXPERIENCE AT LOCAVORE?

Personally, I can say I enjoyed the experience but all the dishes that I tried wasn’t something that I ‘ll be back for. There are dishes around the world that have left a mark in me and will definitely travel again to try them. The waiter coming and explaining every dish on the tables especially when there is a big selection of dishes, I do understand this is part of the experience but sometimes I do prefer to enjoy my meal with a moderate description of most of the dishes but not all of them.

Lastly, sitting on the table for 2 to 3 hours having all those dishes is truly a lot, maybe reducing a bit the snack and the pre-dessert dessert and dessert would be better. Travelling to Naples, Japan or exploring Balinese authentic food was much more interesting for me. Locavore Ubud review is finished and it’s time to discover more Bali and see what it has to offer.

HIKING CAMPUHAN RIDGE

After the lunch we decided to go for a walk somewhere refreshing, so we were told by the local to go to Campuhan Ridge Walk so we did. What to expect? A beautiful paved walk along the Campuhan ridge showcasing the natural side to Ubud with wonderful peaceful scenery of jungle. Along the way, there are rice fields further along the walk near Karsa cafe. Don’t forget to take some water, you will not get the opportunity until you reach the end. The walk will take around 2 hours plus or minus. You ll suelry enjoy it

THE BEST STREET FOOD DELIGHTS MARTABAK MANIS

I and Aziza discovered the Martabak Manis while searching and exploring the area at night. Apparently, the Martabak shops are commonly cooked by street vendors in the evening. Martabak Manis is a simple dish that is very popular in Bali available in both sweet and savoury variety very similar to french crepes.

I decided to try the sweet version. The Martabk Manis had a very thick, pillowed, soft texture with a filling of chocolate, banana, cheese and condensed milk sandwiched. The filling was incorporated while the pastry is still being fried in the large flat iron pan.

Such a wonderful and delicious dessert. It made me wonder how every country have similar dishes while using the same ingredient, but with a different cooking method. Such as crepes and pancakes. So many similarities.