Mozaic, Bali

Apart from babi guling, I was also absolutely determined to have dinner at Mozaic, which had been given many superlatives such as "the best restaurant in Bali" and "one of only two restaurants in Asia to be a member of les grandes tables du Monde" (the other restaurant is Bangkok's Le Normandie, which i had blogged about previously). I was so dead-set on eating there that I emailed a few times before the trip, and called a few times after arriving in Bali, to ensure that our reservations would remain.

So our second day in Bali ended up as a day of absolute gluttony, starting with babi guling for lunch, and dinner at Mozaic. Mozaic serves set dinners, at 450,000 Rupiah per person excluding taxes (or approximately SGD72), and you can choose whether you would like a 3 course set dinner or 6 course chef tasting menu for that price. We both decided to choose the 6-course chef tasting menu, and E picked the items shown in the menu in the picture, whereas I decided to be brave and go for the chef's choice.

The night started out on a high note with our amuse-boche being a lovely tiny cold glass of grilled eggplant, zucchini and capsicum, with tomato sorbet. This was so absolutely refreshing, sweet and savoury at the same time, that I couldn't wait for the rest of the dishes to come. The next few courses for E continued to be excellent, especially the seafood in clam juice-garden herb broth. In my case, there were hits and misses - I suppose from the chef trying out new combinations some of which didn't quite work. For instance, I had slipper lobster in asparagus emulsion with black truffle shavings, which tasted good, but I felt that the ethereal fragrance of the truffles was overwhelmed by the asparagus. I also didn't quite take to my first main course of baked quail with foie gras and toasted candlenut in filo pastry, more because I don't have a strong liking for gamey meat. My second main course of honey soy marinated suckling pig was actually very good, unfortunately, I was a trifled "pigged out" having just had a big meal of piggy babi guling for lunch.

If I had the opportunity to do so, I would go back again to Mozaic in a shot, but perhaps choose from the main menu this time round, and sit in the pretty garden grotto to soak in the magical ambience of fairytale land. First photo above is taken from Mozaic's website at http://www.mozaic-bali.com/