The kitchen at De’ Kesambi starts at half five. By seven the charcoal grill is lit and the smell carries across the pool deck, where the first swimmers are doing slow lengths. Breakfast runs until half ten. Order the bubur injin — black rice cooked overnight, served warm with thin coconut milk and a spoon of palm sugar. It is sweet, but not aggressively so, and it holds you until lunch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Avocados are good this month. The ones coming in from the Bedugul side are dense and slightly nutty, and the kitchen has been serving them halved on grilled sourdough with lime, chilli and a soft egg. Ask for extra lime. The banana pancakes are competent rather than memorable — if you have children with you they will be happy, but there are better things on the page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fruit plate changes with what the supplier brings. In July that has mostly meant pomelo, papaya and small sour pineapple from Tabanan, cut thick, with a wedge of calamansi on the side. The coffee is a single-origin from Kintamani, roasted medium, and the barista will pull it as a long black if you ask. Filter is available before nine, though the kitchen only makes it in small batches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Midday heat sits heavy on the deck, so lunch is deliberately light. The gado-gado is the thing to order — blanched long beans, water spinach, tempeh, a warm peanut sauce loosened with tamarind, and it arrives cool enough to eat quickly. The kitchen makes the sauce fresh each morning and runs out by about two. There is also a green mango salad with dried shrimp that is sharper than most guests expect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dinner is where the charcoal grill earns its place.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Mahi-mahi has been landing well at Kedonganan through the dry season, and the grilled fillet with sambal matah is the best value on the lunch menu at IDR 165K. It comes with steamed rice and nothing else, which is the right choice. The club sandwich is fine. The wood-fired pizzas are new and still inconsistent — the base is good, the toppings are sometimes underseasoned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By five the light drops behind the frangipani and the deck cools. The bar makes a decent arak sour with calamansi and a little palm sugar, though the version with passionfruit is better balanced. Non-drinkers should ask for the iced roselle with lime, which is tart and not oversweetened. Both come in heavy tumblers that sweat quickly, so the staff bring coasters without being asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dinner is where the charcoal grill earns its place. The bebek betutu needs ordering a day ahead — duck packed with turmeric leaf, lemongrass and shallot, wrapped and cooked slowly until the meat gives at the bone. It feeds two comfortably. If you have not ordered ahead, the whole snapper in banana leaf is close, and the skin takes on the smoke properly. Both come with urap and sambal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dessert is short and that suits the kitchen. The pandan panna cotta with palm sugar is the one most tables finish; the coconut sorbet is better on a hot night. Tables nearest the water go first, so book the poolside row by mid-afternoon if you want one. The kitchen takes last orders at half nine, the bar stays open until eleven, and the grill is off on Mondays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A month of dry-season produce, a charcoal grill and a short menu. Here is what is worth ordering at the poolside restaurant, and what to skip.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dining"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandkesambi.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandkesambi.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandkesambi.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandkesambi.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandkesambi.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/grandkesambi.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandkesambi.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandkesambi.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandkesambi.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandkesambi.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}