“Share good food with good people, aye,” said Richie over the phone. Richie had been telling me to stop by at his place down South ever since it had its’ soft opening back in September and I hadn’t had the right day off to do so until yesterday. Finally, after two months of postponing, I made my way to Sama Bar & Kitchen!
Located on the side of Jalan Pantai Batu Mejan, Sama Bar & Kitchen is a newcomer in Canggu area that serves funky fusion dishes with warm tropical atmosphere. When we, me and Nona, arrived at the restaurant, we were welcomed with a set of sand and navy blue colored bean bags that were calling out our names from he small yard right in the middle of the restaurant. Surrounding the yard was a numerous hut-like seatings along with posters sticked on the walls that had pictures of something out of the ordinary. Sofas and individual comfy chairs were also available at Sama Bar & Kitchen for those of you who prefer to leisure around with a glass of cocktail instead of indulging on something heavy. The decoration was rather adorable and unique. What caught my attention the most were the cracker tins, or kaleng kerupuk as we Indonesian call it, that had a set of lightings inside. With a good knowledge on how to take splendid angles, your Instagram feed will definitely be decorated with aesthetic pictures that made your followers jealous.
It was past seven in the evening when we arrived at the restaurant. We had a rather long drive from Tuban and we were famished. Since the restaurant was still having its’ soft opening, there wasn’t many options of food and beverage that we can chose from the menu. Nona settled with a plate of Fish & Chips and a bottle of sparkling water, while I had me the Polpo Potato Pesto and hot tea. As much as I remembered, I do ordered my tea with no sugar, yet, unfortunately, the staff did the other way around. I didn’t make a big fuss about it because, maybe, the sugar would come in handy for my drive back to Tuban later on.
Last night was a slow night for Sama Bar & Kitchen, which was great for me because I’m not a big fan of crowded dinning place with riotous guests. Me and Nona got to spend our night chatting with each other with ease without having to shout at each other because of the loud noise coming from the speakers, that were in fact placed very close to where we were seated. We opted for the bean bags to soothe our backs and, while we waited for our food to be served, we played for a bit with the restaurant’s newly adopted baby, Stroopwafle - a couple months old mixed puppy who was crazy about the pompoms on my sandals.
We waited for a decent amount of time for our dinner to be served on our table. Nona’s Fish & Chips were humongous she was in shock when it was brought out to our table. “This is so big,” she said, which then I replied with a, “Hey, relax, you got me!”. Her meal consisted of four big pieces of breaded fish fillet, with a handful of well-fried french fries, a slab of sesame coleslaw, a cup of mayonnaise, and a cup of lemongrass tartar sauce for some good dipping action. The sight of the dish really made me excited although it wasn’t mine to begin with.
Nona offered me to try her dish and I obliged. Both of us agreed that the fish fillet was delicious and not the slightest bit fishy. It was deep-fried to perfection as it had the amazingly golden-brown crispy and savory batter and a tender, flavorful, and flaky meat on the inside. The fish went really well with the lemongrass tartar sauce, as it had this savory and sour flavor to it, with a subtle kick of spiciness from what we expected to be mustard. Although I know the fish was the main star, the french fries played its’ supporting role very well. I love how they were fried well, resulting in a crispy texture on the outside, yet chewy texture on the inside. I don’t like my fries soggy and Sama Bar & Kitchen’s managed to serve the fries according to my liking. I have no complaint towards Nona’s dish. I even want more of it if I could!
Now, about my dish.. I had the Polpo Potato Pesto, which was very unique and confusing because the dish consisted of food combination that I was not familiar with. Later on, it came to my knowledge that the name of the dish I ordered was in Italian and the word “polpo” itself stands for octopus. So, if I know my Italian well, it wouldn’t take me all night to figure out the oh-so-obvious dish name.
Immediately, when the staff served my dish, my attention was caught by the thick and purple octopus tentacle resting on a bed of thinly cut potatoes that had a thin slab of wasabi mayonnaise on top of each slices. The dish was sprinkled with a mix of roughly chopped almonds and what smelt like parmesan cheese. It also had some frozen sliced strawberries on the side, a dollop of pesto sauce on top of the tentacle, and a mint leaf to finish it all up. My Polpo Potato Pesto looked out of this world, but because of that reason as well I was intrigued to try the dish. I took a bite of everything and I was pleased with the flavor, yet still confuse with the whole being of the dish.
The texture combination was very confusing, yet, somehow, it worked out just fine. Applause for the chef for being able to cook the octopus tentacle properly because, from what I know, tentacles are very challenging to cook with - a minute too early, the tentacle would still be raw, yet a little too late could make it as thick as a car tire. The chef managed to cook this tentacle until it was tender, but it still had this slight chewy texture that was just plain enjoyable for me as I love my food to have a wide spectrum of texture.
As for the flavor, like I said before, it pleased me just fine. The creamy and savory wasabi mayonnaise worked well when combined with the nicely grilled potato slices and it wasn’t spicy although it had wasabi in it. I was contemplating hard on whether or not the strawberry was necessary to the dish, because its’ frozen and icy texture, as well as its’ sweet and sour flavor, didn’t do any justice to the dish. If the reason for the strawberry to exists is so that it could be a neutralizer, it certainly wasn’t necessary. It certainly didn’t ruin the flavor wheel, but it also didn’t do anything to enhance anything that was on the plate. I guess the strawberry is a moo point? But, then again, I’m no food expert.
After we finished our meal, we had to take a minute for our food to go down properly. Well, Nona did, as her meal was already a lot to begin with, unlike mine which had just the right amount of portion. We also made friend with one of Sama Bar & Kitchen’s managers, Eiren, who happen to be Stroopwafle’s dog mom. Eiren explained a bit on how she wanted to do a food tasting event at the restaurant sometime in the future, as well as sharing some insight on business marketing and a bit about Stroopwafle who was, at that time, running around like kids after they consumed too much sugar. She mentioned about how Sama Bar & Kitchen is only a few days away to its’ grand opening day and that the full course menu is going to be launched any time soon. “Be sure to be around when we launched the new menu. We’re planning on doing it, maybe, on the weekend. Or, maybe, Friday night,” she said.
Soon, we had to bid goodbye to Eiren, Stroopwafle, and Sama Bar & Kitchen as we had another appointment at Seminyak - Nona’s brother was in town and we were invited to spend the remaining of the night chilling at JA’AN. We went away with a full stomach and a takeaway box filled with Nona’s leftover Fish & Chips. Overall, my dinning experience at Sama Bar & Kitchen was delightful! The service can be improved though because the staff, although friendly and well mannered, took a while to explain to us which dishes that were out of stock that night, as well as explaining to us about where we could park our vehicle.
Sama Bar & Kitchen
Jl. Pantai Batu Mejan, No. 72
Canggu, Bali
Opening Hours:
MON - SUN: Lunch hour until passed midnight
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