Ginger & Jamu — Restaurant in Nusa Penida Subdistrict

Visited twice. never again. the food is mostly bland and tasteless. only gado-gado out of 6 dishes was good enough. ridiculous dish 'Tagine'. do you know how marrocan tagine looks like?? so this one is not the one for sure! hard to find differences from 'Hello Dahl-ing' meal, which is twice less expensive (but also absolutely tasteless. but at least costing 65k, bot 110k!) tastless and almost alcohol-free cocktails (maybe this is related to those they serve at 'happy hours'). 'raw vegan' desserts, containing Oreo and Lotus cookies is nonsense. Staff doesn't know the ingridients of the dishes (at least those desserts), or are unable to talk about it in English (probably both is true). they have SUP-boards for rent, 100k/unit for 1 hour. but lol: they don't have fins (that's a nightmare if there is wind) they don't have leashes they are deflated. asked the staff for a pump, they don't have it. suggeted me obtaining a pump and inflating those for a discount for SUP rent - there was a concilium of 3-4 staff members to discuss this. and they generously agreed to give them for 50k each after I made a work for them (for the SUPs they wouldn't be able to give for rent at all without me finding the pump and inflating it). normal place would give them for this 1 hour as a compliment after this (especially taking into account we've spent 2mln in this eatery).

the location and exterior is nice. the menu design and variety of dishes as well. but that's definitely not enough to charge western-high prices for such level of...

Food - I heard a lady leaving rave about the food but we had the satay burger, a prawn pasta and a kids pasta and the kids loved theirs but our pasta was quite bland and my chicken satay burger was 80% bun and veg with some chewy chicken in there somewhere. The chips were nicely seasoned. I got a Maca smoothie and like a lot of the smoothies on Lembongan it was heavy on the crushed ice which made it watery. Taste was fine and, to be fair, they didn't just load it with sugar so plus points for that. I wonder if their veg/vegan menu is maybe what they're best at. Kudos for having plenty of these options.

Service - when paying they add 5% service fee and 10% GST so this was one of the more expensive meals we've had. Which would have been fine if it was also one of our best meals. The 5% service fees sounds like a compulsory tip to me, in which case just pay your staff 5% better and add it to the cost of the meal rather than sneak and extra way to up the price on the customer. I hope the 5% is reaching the staff. The staff were nice and played with our son which is common. Nothing out of the ordinary though. Just the usual Bali warmth! Not a bad thing!

Atmosphere - on the beach, very clean well kept and colourful place with a nice little shop and some great art prints, jewellery and tees for sale. Really nicely done.

Overall, probably won't go back. Will try Ohana's next door and a few others for comparison and update this...

Stumbled upon this brand new place, which explains why there aren't yet rave reviews like there should be..! The food is absolutely stunning and feels so healthy. I have been struggling to find good, clean food and natural vegetarian protein rather than oestrogen-riddled tofu and tempeh. I found it here! A group of us - some healthy and some young and reckless with their diet - arrived here and all of us were satisfied with the varied menu that caters to all. From the Mexican food to the smoothies and drinks, and the heathy bowls that I ate. I could eat here for lunch and dinner every day and not get bored. In fact I'm coming back for dinner because I just couldn't decided between the chickpeas and the sweet potato quinoa, so I can have both today now.

Having an Ayurvedic background, it was wonderful to see the health conscious food combinations and dosha balancing drinks. Something I haven't seen much of in SE Asia and is much needed. While I waited for my meal, I had a lovely 10 min chat with the co-owner. After we were full and booked a table for dinner, we looked out onto the ocean as the dining area is a peaceful beachfront place, decorated in a clean and homely style.

Tonight there is meant to be a jam session with the yoga students upstairs, so entertainment too!

Go here. It's worth every penny and minute...