Cafe Teras: A Country Cottage!

Food: Japanese - Price: moderate
It is not what you expect to find in Bali; a perfect country cottage. Even with immaculate gardens and white picket fences. Furthermore it is actually a restaurant, the downstairs part anyway. Eat on the garden terrace or inside in the air-conditioned colonial-style rooms. Café Teras is a Japanese restaurant, and is run by the wife of the Japanese golf professional at the nearby Golf Club [with the Peter Thompson designed Handara Kosaido golf course]. It makes a very pleasant stopping point half way between Lovina and the South, or a worthy target on that day trip to the beautiful Bedugul.

If you just want a snack or an appetizer, there is a small but varied number of choices. The Special Spring Rolls are like none you have seen before. In fact they are not even rolls, but pastry triangles stuffed with a curried mix of pork and vegetables. Light and tasty! The Mixed Omelette is stuffed with bacon and vegetables and comes with a salad. Okonomiyaki is described as a Japanese Pizza. In reality it is actually an omelette but in the flat round shape of a pizza, stuffed with squid and vegetables.

The variety of sandwiches, all served with a side salad, include The Lempuna [roast pork with tomato, lettuce and cheese], The Teras [bacon, lettuce, egg and cucumber], a Tuna or a Chicken [with pesto sauce]. The Burger is a shock, hand minced combination of pork and beef rather than the usual pre-prepared slab from a wholesaler. Taste the difference! With French fries, of course.

The soups are good, and as it is often much cooler up in Bedugul than wherever you have come from, they can almost be called winter soups. Mushroom is a cream soup with onions, whilst the Vegetable is more of a consommé. Hot Chilli Soup is full of onion, tomato, squid, paprika and chilli. Guaranteed to warm you up! The Corn & Egg soup is a little bit like its Chinese cousin, but it is the Miso Soup that most regular customers come to Café Teras to enjoy. Perfect!

The Pastas comprise the usual with the unexpected. Napolitana [tomato sauce], Bolognaise [minced beef, onions and mushrooms] and the Basil Spaghetti [basil, nuts, garlic and olive oil] are more or less standard. Shiitake Cream Pasta combines those wonderful Japanese mushrooms with onion and bacon. A Macaroni Gratin is the real winter deal; combining macaroni with bacon and onion, covering with cheese and baking in the oven.

Feeling Healthy? There are always a range of salads on the menu and often a special or two as well. There is a Chicken [with roasted chicken, French beans, broccoli and lettuce], Cheese [tossed with celery, corn lettuce and herbs], Mushroom [roasted mushrooms with lettuce, herbs and cheese] or Tomato [tomato and cucumber]. For something different there is a Poached Egg Salad, with lettuce, onion, carrot and tomato. All salads come with your choice of dressing; Onion, Miso, Yoghurt or Italian.

Japanese Mains include a boneless Chicken Curry, a Ginger Pork [fried pork and onion with a ginger soy sauce], Chicken or Pork Cutlets. Omurice is a bowl of fried rice topped with a small thin plain omelette. The Potato Croquette is a flat round plate sized serve of mashed potato mixed with minced meat and onion.

Both Beef and Tuna can be had Teriyaki style, with that tangy sauce. There is a Salmon Steak and Grilled Fillet of Snapper. The Grilled Chicken is unusual as only leg meat is used and it comes with your choice of Japanese [teriyaki] or Italian [pesto] sauces. The Hamburg Steak is similar to the French Hache, a large mound of hand minced beef that has been combined with onions and herbs then grilled. Beef Steaks can be either local [tenderloin] or imported [rib] and can be had with black pepper, garlic or butter sauces.

A couple of Indonesian standards for those who want to be different include the normal Nasi, Mie Goreng, and Cap Cay. The Ayam Goreng is pieces of chicken on the bone and the Bakso Soup comprises fish balls and vegetables [noodles are an extra you can request].

The wine list may be small, but then it is a Japanese café, so drink Sake [Japanese rice wine]. Here they sell it both hot [the way I like it] or cold.

It may not be haute cuisine, but it is simple fresh healthy food served with a smile, in one of Bali?s nicest locations. Café Teras is definitely worth a stop, or even a visit.

Address: Jln. Raya Denpasar-Singaraja, Lempuna, Bedugul
Tel:  (0362) 29.312
Credit card: none
Open: 07.00 - 22.00 daily
Wine: small list