The DINING CORNER (at the Kayu Manis Resort) in Ubud, Bali is delicious save the duck (3-19-24)

 Our second night in Bali took just down the road to the nearby Kayu Manis Resort and their Indonesian outdoor dining spot, The Dining Corner. On arrival we waited for an escort from the small outdoor reception lobby to the "corner" of the resort (about 4 minutes away) where the restaurant is located around their pool on a balcony literally in the middle of the jungle. We were offered a bug spray, which we quickly used, but really it was not an issue. What was a tad weird were the deep screechy sounds of the small geckos and then the fruit bats flying in the nearby trees looking for food; they were not small. We got some videos(all on FB with the food) and settled in with the menu as we enjoyed their night antics. Will ordered the Bintang local beer which he likes alot and I chose a carafe of white local wine from Bali called Plaga which was akin to an off-dry Riesling and went quite well with the spice in the food, albeit the heat was so oppressive, the wine, beer and even iced water was warm within 5-10 minutes; we were indeed dripping.

The menus here all seem to have burgers and pizzas for the tourist but we found many Asian dishes and settled in on particular Indonesian local dishes to try.

I have always loved Lumpia Goreng, the wonderful spring rolls filled with chicken, and these were indeed delicious and had a wonderful spicy dipping sauce, but I totally burnt my mouth as they came to the table scalding hot from the deep fryer! The Ote-Ote Udang Jagung is a Fried Prawn and Corn Cake that is quite tasty and comes with a sweet chili, sambal, soy dipping sauce.

Next was the Nasi Goreng Mawut, as Nasi Goreng is pretty much the national dish of stri fried rice with egg noodles and here came with some prawns in the mix, cabbage, box (spelled that way) choy and two large grilled prawns on skewers that were superb, as well as rice crackers. The dish was superb, but I am getting over-riced a tad.

We both wanted to try the famous local Crispy Duck or Bebek Goreng with comes with vegetable urab (a kind of mix of beans with spice and other veggies) in a chili lemongrass sauce and chili sambal. Indeed, there were three condiments on the side plate: the traditional red Sambal Olek, the green less spicy Sambal and then a chili/ginger/garlic mix, also not super spicy. We loved them all but sadly the duck was dry and there was not a lot of meat on the two small pieces; we felt cheated.

We left full as we had had two large Indonesian meals that day--the lunch was a delicious single Indonesian platter(check out the FB picture) loaded with everything.

Hoping to discover more good food tonight after a super Indonesian breakfast of spicy broth with chicken, noodles and a poached egg on top--very ramen-like.