Optimiz Prime — Restaurant in West Nusa Tenggara

TLDR: 5/5, would recommend to anybody anytime. Please go visit and experience for yourself Let me tell you a story: There once were 7 young friends. A group of dreamers and anime enthusiasts, with their hearts full of hopes and wishes. Wishing for a better future and working in a business of their own. A business they can pour their hearts into. One day they decided to try to make their dreames come true. A reality created by their own hands. Although they knew of the risks they wanted to do it anyway. They decided to open a restaurant on their home island.

In an quiet sidearm, away from the main street they found a space. On first glance not optimal to attract a lot of customers, but still doable. They build the restaurant with their own hands in a couple of weeks. Investing money, time, blood, sweat and tears. Only buying some furniture, because they had to. They built solid structures out of wooden organic materials, creating a cozy, good looking restaurant. The furniture extends the wooden theme and the moody, warm lights with their simple but effective decorations, are bringing everything together. The relaxing, dreamy music, coming from some speakers relaxes even the most tense and emotional customers. You can see and feel the love and thought they put into it. It feels like home. A home I would love to visit often.

The menu they created is delicious but not random. It is authentic to and true to their culture and themselves. Not making it too serious, but playful. They integrated some elements of their favorite animes and childhood movies into the restaurant. From the name of the restaurant, to the dishes of some names, or just some simple images or texts in the menu. You can find snippets from transformers, one piece, naruto and more. For oeople of the same generation, just browsing through the menu is fun and you can find little references everywhere.

The food coming out of the kitchen, is spectacular. It tastes wonderfully and the presentation is stunning. From the choice of the plates, to the plating of the dishes, it is just beautiful and exciting. Just looking at the food is a delight. Although the group running all of this is very young, the food they put out is sophisticated and can hold its own against the best food in indonesia.

Lets talk about the service. The boys running the service are charming and sweet. They will gladly help you with the menu, give recommendations or tell you the story behind a dish. Always smiling, always happy. They are attentive and quick, but leave room for the customers to enjoy their stay. They will give you a piece of themselves, but only if you want to have it.

I don't know how a group of friends this young can amount so much chemistry and success in the skills and output they bring, but they do. They complement each other well. I have no doubt that in some years, (I hope many many many years in the future) when they are old and grey, they will look back at this time, thinking that these were their best and happiest days of their lives. Working each day with their friends on an gorgous island they call home. Creating wonderfull experiences for their customers day after day and making them happy.

Dear Optimiz Prime Team. I wish you all the best. Stay just the way you are. I will follow your path from afar.

Best regards from...

It's just not worth the wait. Firstly, it would have been nice if they have informed us about the long waiting time in advance.

After an hour and 20 min of waiting, we received the rice roll starter which was amazing (or maybe we were just too hungry because of the wait?). Then shorty arrived the mains. Their signature tofu tek dish, that was totally tasteless - we've never tasted such bland tofu and diluted peanut sauce during our travels in Indonesia. The eggplant raos was better, or at least it had some flavour to it. At this point we still had hopes for the traditional dessert but it was disappointingly bad. The service was ok, although they didn't really seem to care nor hurry at all. The prices are average for the area.

Edit in response to their comment: we were definitely not informed about the waiting time. We also visited other restaurants during peak dinner time on the island and never had to wait this long for our order, so I guess it's not impossible to prepare the food...

I’m a vegetarian (no eggs, meat and fish) and sensitive to energies, and this place won me over; peaceful, calming and romantic atmosphere (even if you come by yourself like me ;)), very polite staff, local low prices, and food… food is made with love and cooking as a meditation. You can feel that from every bite. People who cook love to do this and are doing it with their whole hearts, and their food is not only tasty for the tongue,but also very nourishing on all levels. They don’t accept contactless payment, so make sure to bring cash or credit card. Mendol Tempe was just amazing, rice rolls and their home made sauce as well, greenery salad also very interesting twist and inspiration… Also they make nice decorations out of lime for their fresh juices; really nice touch. I will stay longer on this island only to feed myself here every day and try all vegan options 😊 Evening atmosphere is really really so nice. I am so...