bali: marta's family restaurant

For me, travel is so much about the food! I was really looking forward to getting out and exploring beyond the confines of our resort in Bali. Unfortunately I contracted a painful skin condition before we left Australia so it was a few days in to our trip before I could really relax and enjoy it. As it was, being 35 weeks pregnant, it probably was best that I rested!

Recently the government finished a highway that runs up the East Coast of the island and which has opened it up for tourism and for the ease of locals who work between the towns and cities. You risk certain death walking along the side of the road and the road rules are questionable (apparently you can overtake a police car with oncoming traffic) but it's not unlike other places we've travelled - I'm thinking of Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam.

Just a few hundred metres walk (it's worth it if you arrive alive) from our resort in Manggis was this simple family restaurant. The meals were cooked to order and there was a range of Western dishes coupled with a good selection of local meals. You have to be prepared to wait for your meals but you can walk to the end of the street to the 'beach' while you wait or just relax!

I had to go back a second time for the gado-gado - which is one of my favourite Indonesian dishes. The peanut sauce was spicy and balanced and delicious and at the equivalent of $2.50AUD (Rp10 000 = $1AUD) it was also great value for money. This restaurant is family own and run and when the maître d isn't cooking and taking orders she travels to a nearby town for her second job. 

The suckling pig is a local delicacy. I wasn't too interested in trying it (could also be my very pregnant state) 

but Marta had this on her menu for the equivalent of $10AUD. 

You get the idea! Great food. Great value.

Marta's Family Restaurant
JL Pantai Buitan No. 1
Manggis Karangasem
Bali, Indonesia
08 5333 762 709


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