What to eat in Lombok?

If you have been reading my first post on Lombok trip, I believe you are wondering where is the food review. This tamchiak girl never failed on introducing nice food when travelling. Yes, you are right. Here is the post! I'm going to review on the food I had during the trip and which are good and bad.

If you missed out the Lombok 4 days 3 nights Itinerary post, you can check it out HERE.

LOMBOK LAND:

Rumah Makan Cahaya

Jl. Raya BIL, Bandara Internasional Lombok, Praya, Lombok, Indonesia

Tel: +62 878-6520-4131

This is one of the place that you must visit and it is just opposite the airport right at the round about. You can ask the driver to drop you here when you reach Lombok from airport or before you leave Lombok to airport. You will not miss this place. During our meal, we see lots of locals and air cabin crew will drop by here. Lombok is famous for its Ayam Taliwang, and this is the place where you can find cheap and good original Ayam Taliwang. 

To our surprise the drink name Es Jeruk with Coconut turns out to be one of the best drink we had in Lombok. It is a type of orange juice added with coconut juice. However, be careful of the chilli that comes with the rice, it is super spicy and burning!

  

Coconut- Rp. 25K; Es Jeruk with coconut- Rp.15K; 

Nasi Balap Puyung- Rp. 10K; 

Nasi Ayam Kampung + Balap-Rp. 16K

Rumah Makan Bu Suta
Jl. WR. Supratman No. 22, Pancaka, Gomong, Mataram Bar., Selaparang, Kota Mataram, Nusa Tenggara Bar. 83126, Indonesia
Tel: +62 370 626860

The second place that you should not miss out. Please note that this is a non-halal place. This is one of the famous local stall for its pork dishes. It sells everything from pork skin to pork meat and pork intestines. It is so famous that for the past 1 hour when we were there, the crowd never stopped. It is a small shop that fits not more than 20 pax. Most of the local will take away instead of dine in. It is like a mixed rice shop in Malaysia. But you will need to bear with the heat if you are dining in.

The food are prepared in trays. You pick the dishes you want from the counter and they will take from there using their hands. If you are concerned about hygiene, you may want to re-think of visiting here. So far, none of us got food poisoning from this stall.

Based of our analysis, each item is charged Rp. 5000 except rice which is foc. The most ridiculous calculation by them are the drinks. All of us order the same Mandarin Orange Juice but was charged at different prices, ranging from Rp. 5K -8K. We ordered 3 rounds and it never came to the same price. Overall, the food is great, the peanut sauce is the real highlight. It is cheap and good!

This cost Rp. 25K

consists of fried tofu, fried pork meat, pork sausage, fried pork satay and grilled pork meat. 

This cost Rp. 20K

consists of Kangkung, Tempe, Pork skin, Pork sausage and Fried Pork Meat

GILI TRAWANGAN:

Casa Vintage Beach

We had dinner here on our first night in the Lombok. A romantic place for couples as the dining area is exactly on the beach, looking out to the sea. We came around dinner time and the place is decorated with nice and dim lighting.  This place was one of the recommended places online to dine in in Gili Trawangan, some people said it is the best place to eat. In conclusion, we think the food was not bad but the price was high.

Bintang Beer (Big)- Rp. 40K

Casava Wedges- Rp. 49K

It is basically deep fried sweet potatoes. Don't be fooled by the "wedges" word, thinking it is potato wedges. However, the taste was nice.

Oven Baked Yellow Chicken- Rp. 89K

It taste like Indian curry chicken rice, spicy but full of fragrant spices . Actually, we were expecting roast chicken since it was named "oven baked" but we are still fine with curry rice. The size of the chicken is normal, not the tiny ayam taliwang.

Oven Baked Yellow Chicken Wrap- Rp. 79K

Basically it is similar to the ingredients and taste of the oven baked yellow chicken, except they wrapped it in a Tortilla bread. The portion is big. 

French Town Chicken- Rp. 89K

Oven-baked chicken again but this time with roasted veggies and rice. Taste wise is quite similar to the yellow chicken, the spices is stronger.

Jamaica Pot- Rp.79K

Jamaican spiced vegan stew with beans and dumpling. We do not really know what is this but it is more like vegetarian curry with rice and tortilla chips, nevertheless it does taste quite good.

Le Petit Gili Restaurant
On our second night in Gili Trawangan, we headed for some burgers. We found this place rated to be one of the top rated restaurant in Gili Trawangan. It is just beside the night market.They served western food like burgers, paninis, hot dog, burritos and even local food. The taste was not bad, the portion is just average but service is quite fast. This place is not halal as we asked about the ham, it is pork.

Chicken Satay Burger- Rp. 77K

Chicken Panini- Rp 70K

Double Cheese Burger- Rp 95K

Texture is like the pulled pork burger, overall was nice.

Chicken Burrito- Rp. 80K

The Banyan Tree

It is a Vegetarian restaurant that we found when passing by at night. I actually liked the place, nice and cozy. Their menu are quite unique and food was good. It opens from 7am-8pm daily. We came here for breakfast since I don't quite like the guesthouse's breakfast. No regret of coming here though the price is on the high side.

Scrambled tofu-Rp. 48K

add omelette- Rp. 8K

Scrambled tofu mixed with wild mushroom, onion & tomato, served with toast. Tasty scrambled tofu, I think it will be better if it is served with rice! But it was a little on the salty side.

Blueberry pancake-Rp. 46K

Lovely texture and nice pancake, maple syrup is not too sweet as well.

KUTA, LOMBOK:

SEASALT
Jl. Raya Pantai Kuta, Kuta, Lombok, Indonesia
Tel: +62 813-8198-7104

This is a newly opened restaurant, in coincidence we visited the place during their soft opening. It was opened by a Swiss owner, however the chef was not around that day. There weren't any guests during our visit, I guess it was still new. Since we love trying new food, this quickly became our choice for dinner. There aren't a lot of choices in the menu, around 6 types of main dishes since it is only the soft opening. I guess they will extend their menu after the grand opening. Overall the food were nice. Just take note when ordering the seafood grill, we found that the squids that were served on that day weren't fresh. My husband and one of my friend's husband had bad diarrhoea the next day.

The menu is quite special where it shows the steps for you to order. First, you choose your main either, fish, chicken or seafood. Second, you pick one side. Lastly, you can pick one sauce to go with your main. Besides that, you can still add side dishes like chips, bread and salad with additional of Rp 20K.

Additional sides- Rp. 20K

Grilled Citrus Chicken with roasted pumpkin, aubergine, tomato & garlic- Rp 70K

I recommend to not order chicken when in Lombok as all their chicken dishes always come in super small portions. Looking at the above photo, it is only 5 tiny pieces of chicken breast served. Barely enough for appetizer. Taste wise, I like the side - roasted pumpkin the most.

Seafood Grill with roasted pumpkin, aubergine, tomato & garlic and Mint lime dip- Rp. 130K

The seafood grill came with the catch of the day, squid and bonito tuna fillet. The food was ok except for the squid which was not fresh. The portion was not as big as we imagined too.

Catch of the day with salad bowl- Rp. 75K

This is the biggest portion we ordered. The crispy battered catch of the day, basically is what we call the Fish & Chips. I guess this is the "wont go wrong" dish. 

Pan Seared Catch of the day with chips- Rp. 75K

Coconut Pannacotta- Rp. 35K
Strawberry coulis with coconut ice-cream. Very special combination.

Warung Bobby

Jalan Pariwisata Pantai Kuta, Kuta, Pujut, Kuta, Lombok Tengah, Kabupaten Lombok Tengah, Nusa Tenggara Bar. 83573, Indonesia

We had our brunch here before we depart to airport. It is located at the shopping road of the Kuta beach where you can see many stalls selling souvenirs and clothes. We picked this place because it was the only food outlet full of people compared to other outlets. I guess the more people the place has, the better the food is, so we followed the crowd. It advertised Wood Fire Oven Pizza on their signboards, trust me you do not want to try any dish other than their Pizza. And it is true, their Pizza is the nicest food than other local delights.

Watermelon- Rp. 10K

Avocado- Rp. 12K

Maremonti Pizza- Rp 70K

If you ask what is the difference between the three pizzas, we can only say it is the ingredients. The sauce is the same and they all actually taste the same. The pizza crust is the thin type, it smells really good when it was baking. Overall was good and if you are medium eater, you can actually finish one pizza by yourself.

Love Pizza- Rp 70K

Taste is the same, just the shape of the pizza is love.

Chicken Pasto Pizza- Rp. 60K

Tom Yum Kung-Rp. 25K

I was craving for tom yum and spicy food that day, therefore I order a tom yum soup. Regretted as it doesn't taste like tom yum at all but more like the Malay spice soup with chilli. Don't even think of ordering it when you are here.

Mee Goreng Seafood- Rp. 30K

Indonesia is famous for it Ibumie Goreng, so we were thinking it should be nice if we order their Mee Goreng. But it turned out to be quite disappointing. The mee goreng is wet and sweet, quite similar like using tomato sauce to cook the noodles. 

Not sure what is the name but it taste like fried ice-cream. Quite nice but a bit too sweet.
Price: Rp.25K

Places that are not worth the visit:

RM. Nada Alam Nyaman

I wouldn't recommend to come here as the food is just so so and the price is very high. If any driver try to push you on this restaurant, reject them immediately. I saw the guests are mostly tourists that dine in here. Their famous chicken dish is the size of a lady's palm. It comes with different sauces- normal, spicy and honey. However, the chicken was dry and barely had any flesh.

Ayam Taliwang- Rp. 45k; Pelencing Terong (Brinjal)-Rp. 10k; Pelencing Kankung (raw vegetable with peanut sauce)-Rp. 10k; Cap Kangkung (stir fried vegetable)- Rp. 10k; Telur Dadar (Omelette)- Rp. 14k; Tempe Goreng- Rp. 10k; Coconut-Rp. 15k

Ceria Bar Restaurant & Warung

We did not had the chance to pick which restaurant to have our lunch in Gili Air as our guide parked their boat in front of this restaurant. For every boat that parks in front of the restaurant, the guide will have to ensure their guests dine in there. If you already have in mind the restaurant you want to dine in, tell your boat captain and they will bring you there. All boats will stop at Gili Air for lunch. The food was cold and tasteless, price wise is around Rp 40K and above.

Grilled Gurami Fish- Rp. 65K

Seafood Fried Rice - Rp. 45K 

Mixed Rice- Rp. 35K

Fried Chicken Fillet- Rp. 50K

Fish & Chips- Rp.45K