Bali Asli Restaurant

We have been in Bali for 17 days and Bali Asli has provided us with the most amazing experiences by far! We started our trip with them. The owner, penelope was very response via email before we left home and very helpful in getting everything booked. She even recommended we stay at jasri bay hideaway which also ended up being our favorite place that we stayed during our entire trip to Bali. We did three days of adventures with Bali Asli. They had Made Artawan pick us up (he ended up driving us many times during our stay and showing us many other incredible places. He became our friend! (+62 857 3849 5880). We did the street food tour with Ayu. I love her! She was so cute and we had so much fun trying street food with her. She showed us all the best foods and made us feel comfortable. We were very happy to be able to try the street food without getting sick. The next day we did the “holy hike of the East” with mudi. This was incredible. Most tourists don’t make this hike to get to the temple at the top so the experience was incredible and felt very authentic. We literally hiked through a jungle. Mudi pointed out different foods growing in the jungle and showed us how to pray and taught us about the offerings. The next day we did the cooking classes and potion making with Dewa. He was so kind and extremely knowledgeable about all of the different kinds of food. He didn’t just take us to the market but he showed us different foods that we weren’t even purchasing for our meal. He told us where the foods come from, what they are used for, even had us taste and smell some things. Then he led us through cooking an incredible meal, teaching us traditional techniques along the way. While we were actually at Bali Asli for food and drinks, we enjoyed incredible cocktails and mocktails made by surky. And Desi and Gudhi, the managers, we’re so kind, always making sure we had everything that we needed and sending fun facts about Balinese culture our way. The restaurant is gorgeous, the view is incredible, the staff is so kind, fun, and knowledgeable, and the experiences are once in a lifetime. I cannot say enough good things about Bali Asli. It’s absolutely worth traveling outside of the big, crowded, tourist filled cities and into a more serene, traditional...

I have to say how incredible the cooking class was and how everyone, even the non-cooks amongst us, enjoyed it. This is a must do activity!

Dewa seems to have been born for the role of teacher, he approached it with a concise and restrained delivery that masked a deep knowledge that rose to the occasion with every question directed at him. It was a lovely narration that didn't drift into long-windedness and push us to become overwhelmed. The huge upside was that we retained most of what he was telling us. He was animated and seemed to really enjoy what he was doing.

Dewa was assisted by Ayu who was also a delight. You can not half tell she was taught English by Australians. She was incredible in helping my brother, who has Alzheimer's, navigate the various tasks throughout the day. For that, I am eternally grateful. In fact, all of the Bali Asli staff were wonderful.

We started at 8am with the Amlapura market tour was the perfect start to the day. It's a beautiful market that is both clean and organised. We're currently going through this period of incredible humidity, so the market also presented quite a cool respite. Super interesting going through the different sections, daging, sayur, buah, satay, bunga and back.

My sister-in-law, who has taught cooking to senior school students all her working life and who has taken all of the 'name-brand' cooking classes in Bali previously, said this was by far the best she had done. In fact, she went so far as to say it was the best class she had ever done in all of her travels through Asia.

By 2pm we were all done and the last wok was turned off and to now be presented with all of the dishes we'd just prepared, was incredible. The recipes are so delicious in themselves that it was some of the most delicious Balinese food we'd eaten. I for one will embark on making my own Bumbu Bali later this week so that I have it there to add to dishes on a regular basis. It really was great to see how Bumbu Bali is the common thread in...

Great view of the rice fields and mountain when it isn’t hidden behind the clouds, clean and nicely decorated restaurant with beautiful local food.

The price was a lot more expensive than a lot of Indonesian places, but it’s more of an upmarket special place which is still reasonable by foreign prices even though it’s in the middle of countryside and there aren’t many other things around it.

I had the $165,000 rp meal which allowed me to choose from four different Balinese dishes. The starter is a selection of three different types of sambal with peanuts and crackers. I would never have though of eating those crackers and sambal together and not as a accompaniment to other dishes but it works on its own. The ginger and banana flower sambal was delicious and unique.

I also had a spicy snake fruit drink which was included in the price and a ginger margarita cocktail made with arak (local coconut liquor).

For the main my four choices were chicken curry, steamed spices mushrooms in banana leaves, pork sate, and coconut and bamboo shoot salad. The pork date serving was small but well cooked and tender. The chicken curry was fragrant and delicately spiced. Both of the vegetable dishes made good sides. For the price I think I would have liked a bit more meat with the sate, but that was my only complaint.

Worth a visit if you are...