Penelove restaurant and room — Restaurant in East Nusa Tenggara

This comment section is quite controversial though I don’t really know why. It is a great restaurant!

I, like many people here, was approached by Brahman who invited me to come to dinner at his restaurant for a price of 85000 for a fixed menu. Some people find this rude, I found it nice to talk to a local person and never felt forced to commit to anything. I paid upfront so he and his family could buy ingredients.

The food consisted of 4 delicious dishes that were each completely new to me, even after spending several weeks on Flores: A smokey vegetable soup, black rice, peppery fish perfectly steamed in bamboo, and a citrusy banana flower dish. Wonderful spices and flavors. Really a great meal and worth the price.

Brahman is a very smart and friendly person who likes to chat and was very interesting to talk to about all sorts of things. It is clear he and his family take a lot of pride and interest in providing a good experience.

Perhaps the homestay and the restaurant should have different Google accounts for separate reviews as many negative reviews seem to be about the homestay at which I didn’t stay. It is also challenging to compete with restaurants on the road that are easier for tourists to see meaning it is natural to go out and seek customers.

Bottom line: if you want a tasty and a unique meal well worth the price, definitely take Brahman up on the offer! If you don’t, don’t :)

Thank you...

Was a very unfortunate and uncomfortable experience in Moni.

We were approached on the street while taking a walk. He followed us up the hill on his motorbike and stopped us. We were not convinced but given no privacy to discuss going for dinner or not at his “restaurant”. Unfortunately we felt forced to say yes (he showed us reviews, tried convinced us so many were fake and just his competitors trying to harm his reputation) and he then proceeded to demand 100’000 for groceries. In a shocked state we just obeyed, he left happy and then we instantly phoned him after the emotions settled to cancel. We were also advised to do this as he is cheating tourists. He didn’t pick up, we tried 8 times before deciding to drive there to cancel.

Unfortunately, even though he had the chance to give our money back as we were not eating there, he did not. He was unpleasant to talk with and had no remorse.

The only unpleasant experience we had on our road trip across...

I hate to write bad reviews but this place is bad. The room was dirty, no running water unless you asked. I ordered chicken for dinner and they charged me a high amount and then brought some kind of bird that was not chicken. They insisted it was chicken but last time I looked chickens had bigger bones than the size of a toothpick. I paid 150,000 for dinner and it was not good. The guy that stands on the street to get you to come to the restaurant cheats you. He said I could use his Hotspot for wifi and then charged me 50,000 and I got to use it for a max of 10 minutes. His battery was dead then he had 3 or 4 hours to charge and it was still at 1%. I know he was using the data I paid for. I ended up paying 400,000 for a dirty room, lunch which was just vegetables, dinner which was some kind of small bird with zero meat, I didn't even eat it and internet that I couldn't use. Avoid this place!!!!! The people posting about it being the best food in Flores are...