Telephone: 9398 8555
Trading Hours:
Lunch: Sun 11am-3pm
Dinner: Tue-Sun 6pm-9pm
Closed Monday
Website: http://jimbaran.com.au/2006/index.php
Indonesian food, is reminiscent of Malaysian and most other South-East Asian cuisine. Jimbaran adds a touch of class and is a great introduction to this exotic cuisine full of pungent herbs & spices.
Being part of a larger group I got to sample some 10-or so dishes (sorry about the photos, taken with phone camera as I didn't want to look like a tourist and scare people with an SLR - lighting also was not the greatest):
53. Gado Gado - steamed vegetables (mostly soya bean sprouts) with peanut sauce. Certainly a nice lighter salad-esque option for the warmer seasons where heavy meat dishes aren't appropriate (although the peanut sauce is quite rich).
36. Beef Redang Curry - "Traditional beef curry slowly cooked in coconut milk and chilli until a thick mild curry is formed". Sensational flavour (could go on eating this curry sauce and rice forever), beef is stewed like beef brisket - not too soft, and not overcooked - perfect for even the pickiest steak eater.
37. Jimbaran Seafood Curry - "Light seafood curry without coconut milk cooked with Indonesian herbs". Another fragrant curry, with that hint of lemongrass to give it that unique touch. There's calamari, prawns and fish fillets in there...
25. Sate (satay, kebab stick) - Indonesian style on a hot charcoal grill - this one is the lamb skewers - complimented with a soy/chilli dipping sauce.
67. Sambal Goreng Udang - Stir-fried prawn with satar in chilli sauce. Although I don't know what the name means, or what satar is, this is a blissful stirfy full of flavours - the way stirfries should be! The herbs & marinate stuck beautifully to the prawns...
25. Sate (satay, kebab stick) - This is the chicken version, complimented with peanut sauce. I have to say, the dipping sauce plate is poorly designed - you get sauce on the first piece of meat closest to the end if you get lazy like me and just shove the stick in the sauce... but in saying this, the meat is tastefully grilled in a sweet marinate, giving it a distinctly smoky flavour. A favourite among all... i.e. make sure you order enough so everyone can have one each, and maybe seconds!
69. Kangkung Cah Trasi / Taoco - Morning glory (a type of Asian green) stir fried with belacan or preserved soya bean. We chose the belacan (whatever that is) - a truly unique dish which makes you actually want to eat your vegetables.
17. Nasi Goreng (seafood) - Indonesian Fried Rice. One of my friends fantasizes about this dish and starts frothing at the mouth. Maybe he talked it up and I was unable to make the correlation BUT I always love South-East Asian renditions of fried rice because they are not afraid to lop on the chilli, herbs, spices and shrimp paste which gives it a nice pungent tang!
17. Nasi Goreng (chicken) - Indonesian Fried Rice. I preferred the chicken version over the seafood, white & red meat seem to give the Nasi Goreng a stronger flavour than the seafood.
We catered for a seafood vegetarian, and a sell-out non-deep-fried food eater such as myself - and everybody enjoyed it so it was a win-win.
I am definitely a fan of this restaurant - the head waiter came around to ask us how the meal went and made us feel welcome to revisit (even though we were probably the youngest and loudest crowd there causing a racket).
The servings are quite small, so don't feel shy of ordering more mains to share - they are all modest quantities to ensure no wastage.
Thumbs up!!!
