Teras Bali
To let you know why this posts were written the way it was, I have to back-track about a week ago… Uncle G had come over for dinner one night (*see photos on the ‘Made With Love’ page) and the conversation started when we were watching the Travel & Living Channel on Foxtel and it eventually moved onto him saying he’s going to the Sydney Writers Festival and one of the speakers that will be there is Anthony Bourdain!!
Ok he’s just like one of my favourite TV food guy. I started watching Tony on ‘A Cooks Tour’ and fell in love with his show. I love the way he presents everything, very real and honest and he would travel to exotic places and the things he would have to eat, never once will he say “Eww, yuck, no way I’m eating that”. He’s always polite and eat what he’s given compared to Andrew Zimmern, as the host of Bizzare Foods you’d think he would just eat most stuff, given the name of his show, but no, he whines quite a bit which is sometimes annoying…
Ok, back to Bourdain. When I found out Uncle G was seeing him I was first surprised that he’s actually in Sydney and secondly JEALOUS! I so wanted to go but he informed me that the tickets were all sold out, of course they were (*super sad face). So all I could do was ask Uncle G to kindly take my ‘Kitchen Confidential’ book and ask for Tony’s autograph…
Later that night, MrErk sends me an invite titled ‘Surprise’ with not much question asked, I replied ‘Attending’ it was for the following Saturday afternoon. MrErk is a very sweet guy overall and we give each other little surprises every now and then.
Moving forward to Saturday, he said we we’ll be having lunch near where the surprise would be, which is around The Rocks area. By now I have guessed where we were going so I asked him if it was true and he replied those sweet words, “Yes, we’re going to see Bourdain”… (*super big grin on my face and more on this in “Anthony Bourdain ~ Medium Raw”)
As planned, we parked near Walsh Bay and had lunch around The Rocks before making our way to the Sydney Writers Festival at the Sydney Theatre which started at 2.30pm. After walking around we decided to lunch at Teras Bali. Being already May, firstly it was a surprisingly warm day and we first sat outside the restaurant and after about 10mins I was complaining how hot it was and that I’m going to get a really bad sunburn. So we asked the waiter if we could move inside. Within minutes we were sitting comfortably inside out of the sun.
http://www.terasbali.com.au/home.html
Located at Shop 2. 17 Hickson Road (Pier 6-7) Walsh Bay NSW 2000
(*OMG, we’re sitting next to Steven Spielberg!!)
The service was great. We had ordered within minutes of sitting outside, so we just waited patiently when we were inside for our orders to arrive. Our drinks arrived and it was pretty and very num num especially for a hot day like that day…
Left: Es Cincau = $6.50 / Right: Loving Lychee cocktail = $15
Lamb Chops w Mashed Potatoes, Lettuces, Creamy Cucumber, Corn & Carrot salad and BBQ sauce = $22.50
First of all, what kind of Balinese restaurant serves lamb chops on their menu. MrErk tells me that the lamb was over-cooked but the salad was very nice.
Rendang Sapi (slow cooked braised beef rendang with deep fried eggplant) served with Rice & Prawn crackers and Preserved Vegetables = $16.50
It wasn’t the best rendang I’ve had and there seems to be something missing in terms of the spices that I just can’t pinpoint. It’s like the flavours are there but just the bare minimum, it was spicy but that was about it not very aromatic at all. The preserved vegetable was probably the only thing they got it right out of this dish.
It was coming close to 2.30pm so once we finished eating we quickly paid and left to go across to the Sydney Theatre. It was super packed inside!!
Cleanliness ~ No complaints from moi
Customer Service ~ Attentive, Friendly, Great service
Decor/Atmosphere ~ The usual ‘Balinese’ influence decor, simple and cozy setting
Food ~ It’s not authentic Balinese when you have lamb chops on the menu. To be truthfully honest there’s better ‘cheap eats’ joint that serves tastier food than Teras Bali so thank god for their great service and drinks
Pricing ~ Starters from $7.50 / Meat Selection from $14 / Seafood from $15.50 / Wok Selection from $17 / Satay & Skewers from $17 / BBQ Menu from $26.50 / ‘The Rice Table’ (made to share) 2 Menu to choose from $70-$80 per set
