Balinese Home Cooking – Another One to Skip

I realized when doing research on places to eat in Bali that there are a ton of places, that on the surface, look amazing. I am talking the full spectrum, from Michelin-worthy places, to unique experiences (like a restaurants in a cave, or one focused on Desserts in a tasting menu format), to seemingly highly rated local joints. One of the places which I was excited to try due to the very high ratings from a larger number of reviewers was Balinese Home Cooking. The reviews, plus the name, seemed to be exactly what I was looking for in a local place. I made a reservation for lunch after sightseeing around the island one day, but since the sightseeing ran late, and I still really wanted to try the food, I decided to get the food to go. I ordered chicken sate, tuna sate and nasi campur (rice with various side dishes).

Here is a closer look at the individual dishes and the open kitchen.

All of the food was underwhelming. The sates were tasteless and lacked a grilled flavor. The sides from the Nasi Campur were dry and also tasteless. It could be because it was takeout, but I doubt it; the restaurant was 5 minutes from our hotel and flavor and cooking was the issue, not temperature of the food. The tuna sate was dry and had no flavor. In tomorrow’s post, I will tell you where the best sate I had in Indonesia was. Anyway, I think this is another case of locals making their food less spice and flavor forward for tourists as people at my hotel warned me about. In any case, I would not got back or recommend.