Pica South American Kitchen | Ubud — Restaurant in Pulau Bali

IG: eatgosee I had high hopes for Pica because the ratings are high, it’s very well covered in travel and restaurant guides in Ubud and - I love Peruvian / Latin American food. The fear was that often restaurants in popular tourist attractions fall victim to their own success and lean back on the Lonely Planet Guide listing because the punters will come which leads to standards slipping.

Pica excelled. But first, MAKE A RESERVATION. It’s easily done online. There are probably only 20-25 covers at any given time. Groups bigger than 4 will want to be flexible on waiting times. We were lucky because it was just 2 of us.

The atmosphere is simple: eggshell walls, light woods and an open kitchen gives the illusion of space where I’ve seen bigger London studio flats. Still it does not feel cramped or tight. That said, tables are narrow. It faces out onto the busy street so you people watch.

The food is very good. A short and focused menu with a slight lean towards seafood. We ordered CEVICHE CLASSICO and the CAUSA DEL MAR.

The CEVICHE is light with its signature mellow acidic taste, the mahi mahi is fresh, not rubbery at all, the red onion and coriander accentuates the dish with aromatics and spice. It’s a refreshing starter. 4/5

CAUSA DEL MAR is a trio of seafood on a bed of soft mixed purée. A mahi escabeche picks up in spice but is mellowed with soft potato purée, red onion & criolla sauce. The octopus is a bit sized collection of grilled octopus tentacle with sweet potato. The shrimp is creamier with a soft mashed potato base and aromatic vegetables. It’s an accomplished dish showing off the range of ability in the kitchen. My only feedback is I don’t think the sweet potato works with the octopus but it’s not a deal killer. 4/5

The PORK BELLY is brilliant and is probably the best belly of pork I’ve ever had. The meat is soft, delicious, slow-cooked and the crust of crunchy crackling fat gives both melty sweet pork meat & crisp textures. There are further crackling croutons around the plate like hunting for eggs at Easter. The potato purée base and selection of baby vegetables make it a substantial main course. The fresh green apple brings freshness to the dish as a classic compliment to the pork. The whole dish is rich but tastes clean without any overwhelming fatty after taste. It refrains from pools of gravy that often plagues “pub” belly of pork. You will struggle to find a better pork belly elsewhere, anywhere. 5/5

The wine list is surprisingly good and short. The cocktails are STRONG especially the ginger mint julep!

I hope to come back here during my time in...

What a surprise Pica was! I’d read a few reviews, but didn’t really know what to expect. Surprise number one was the understated, simple, open-fronted decor…as we walked along the street looking for it we walked straight past without even noticing it! I guess I was expecting something fancier. But the simplicity works just fine.

Surprise number two was the service; understated like the decor, it was thoughtful, welcoming, very efficient, and knowledgable. Clearly some good training going on by the owners.

Surprise number three — and best of all — was the food. I was expecting it to be good, but it was seriously exceptional. The creativity, ingredients, flavours, presentation and style were of a standard comparable to many award-winning restaurants around the world. A big hat-tip to the chef. We shared a fish ceviche and the baby scallops (ceviche clasico and conchitas a la parmesana) for starters: both were superb (I particularly liked the presentation of the ceviche which is generally served with the fish thinly sliced, but here was diced instead). We both fancied the pork belly (cerdo con manzana) so ordered two of those and didn’t regret it — outstanding! My partner was full by then, but I couldn’t resist the tres leches dessert and was glad I couldn’t as it was a sheer delight. All of this washed down with an enjoyable bottle of Austrian Gruner Veltliner chosen from a well curated wine list.

We ate both expensively and cheaply over our ten days in Bali, and had some super lunches and dinners in different styles, but this for me was the best and most memorable experience of them all. I even thought for a moment about going back for dinner the next night but managed to resist the...

What an absolutely terrible restaurant. A group had dinner there last night with a disgustingly rude chef/owner. We had ordered in advance informing Monica that one of our party has severe nuts allergies and we didn’t eat chicken. One of the dishes (which we specifically asked about) had nuts in it causing one of us to have to rush home to to get medication. When asked about this the chef/owner first said he didn’t know who Monica was (turns out it’s his wife and co-owner) and hadn’t heard about the just allergies. When we showed him the correspondence with Monica about the booking, pre ordering all the food detailing the allergies and dietary requirements he said he hadn’t heard anything about the this and quote ‘didn’t care about allergies’. The next course to come out was chicken, which we specifically requested we didn’t want. Some of the party left out of disgust, others stayed; over the course of the next hour as we observed the chef/owner we noticed he drank 3 beers and shouted at his Balinese chefs to do everything. As we went to pay we asked the chef/owner again about the nuts in the food and why he hadn't apologised for his mistake. He said that although he had been informed of the requests/allergies by Monica before tonight at the time of preparing the food (getting other to prepare the food that is) he had forgotten and therefore didn’t see why he should apologise. I asked him how he can consider himself a chef/owner and he said ‘man just pay and get out of my restaurant, I have bookings every night I don’t care about you’. In case you’re reading this and wondering how the food actually is: for that price you can and we have eaten much better food...