Kintamani Indonesian Restaurant

I'm a bit of a stickler for service. Good food is always the end objective but I always feel service makes or breaks a dinning experience. (Shun the Bund everybody! Yes, I'm still in grrrr mode)

That said, I have to say I was very impressed with the service we got at Kintamani Restaurant at Furama Hotel (Havelock branch yeah, opposite Riverview).

It was our helper's birthday and being Indonesian and all, she was game for Singapore's version of Indonesian food. I got a recommendation from a Malay friend and decided on Kintamani.

When I called to make reservations, the person who answered my call took some pains in ensuring I won't get lost while extolling the virtues of their dinner buffet. At $39.90++ he said it was a real bargain. Normally I would have done the 'yeah right!' but he sounded earnest...well, guess he deserved the benefit of the doubt.

We arrived at 730pm...the wife, helper, 4year old mongster and 5-month old mongter junior.

The first thing that struck me was there was this table next to us where a 50-something chinese couple were seated with their 20-something daughter. The mother in the trio looked like the typical mak nenek type - big, loud and full of life...the fun type you don't mind meeting/teasing as a friend's mum. They had ordered LoHei (YES, lohei in an Indonesian restaurant!) but the mum being superstitious wanted 8 people to LoHei. So she asked the waiters and waitresses to join her family (3 + 5). Which they did. And boy were they boisterous as they tossed up the LoHei...knowing exactly what to say in Mandarin. Malay staff tossing about LoHei with Mandarin to boot. Impressed.

The family got on with eating after that and it was our turn for service TLC.

We didn't want to do the buffet and went a la carte.

We let the birthday girl decide on the dishes and she ordered a feast. Grilled fish, chicken padang (in spicy yellow gravy), satay lilit (minced seafood in lemongrass stick), mixed vegetables and spicy-sour sliced beef. All to be washed down with fruit juice.

While waiting for the food, we had to entertain my precocious daughter and what was great was that the staff were fairly involved in each and every table at the restaurant. One of the ladies came over, spoke to my 4yr old and promised her ice cream if she would be a good girl and finished her dinner fast etc My usually defiant daughter seemed to get the message :)

The food duly arrived and the satay was excellent. Especially with the sauce they served up with it. I waited for the wife and helper to take a stick each and gobbled up the remainders. Heheh! It was yummy.

The chicken curry was spot on as well...the light touch of spice a perfect accompaniment to the yellow rice. The vegetables...aiyah, mixed vegetables by definition is a I-cannot-be-bothered-to-decide dish...so it was okay. The fish was good and quite substantial for three of us. The lil bits of chilli padi sprinkled over the fish made for oomph in every bite. The beef...so-so. Felt like there was too much of tomato sauce/ketchup whathaveyou.

We were happy with dinner and ordered teh tarik to round off the indulgent meal. Which was machine prepared...lost points there.

The lady who had promised my daughter ice cream came by and asked us permission to bring my daughter over to the ice cream fridge...and lo and behold, she returned with ice cream AND fruits which my daughter wolfed down gleefully. More fruits than even ice cream as the lady encouraged her by staying on her side.

We got to talking with the staff and found them very relaxed and fairly chatty. And they were doing that with every table. One elderly gentlemen was seen to be struggling and the lady told him to sit down and relax and she'd get him all he wanted from the buffet. And she did...checking on his likes and dislikes along the way.

Another Japanese lady came in for a quick supper and looked like she was popping pills. She was served warm water without asking and again, a friendly chat to help her ease into the restaurant and meal.

The crew then rolled out a birthday cake for our helper and after singing her the customary Happy Birthday in English...they sang it again in Bahasa Indonesia. My helper was beaming!

And all too soon, it was time to leave. But just as we were about to, the lady who had been waiting on us came over and gave us a nice selection of dessert from the buffet table saying how she had seen me eyeing it when I scanned the buffet spread earlier. Not bad right?

I'm sure I'll return to Kintamani with my Indonesian clients...and chances are they probably will say the food back home is wayyy better.

But having eaten at Jakarta on many many occasions, I dare say even my clients would be impressed with the service standards at Kintamani.

Three cheers to good service! Hip, hip hooray! (x 3)

This is going to sound controversial: this is one of the better Indonesian food buffets which is also value for money BUT the entire group of us there will not be returning.

The reason? Each bottle of mineral water bottle which they place on the table actually cost $10 and when we asked for more water, they gave us three bottles without informing us of the cost nor did they ask how many bottles we want. The only time we found out about it? When the bill was presented to us.

Let me put things in perspective - there are dinners and lunch where we had 12 or 17 dollars bottled mineral water, but on every single one of these occasions we knew what we are getting into. Outfront. And they did have one more opportunity to inform us when we asked for more water - but they didn't. And they gave us three bottles although we did not specify any amount.

Best part? Every bottled water are expiring in September this year and were bottled in Sept 2007. Now again this is usually a small thing - but if you are charging such a sum and playing such games with your customer, please at least make the product worth while. And these are plastic bottled mineral water - not even the glass bottled ones.

End result? Great food - superb durian panyet, fantastically fragrant squid curry with ladyfingers, one of the most fragrant and balanced satay sauce - good service, which ultimately leaves an unpleasant aftertaste in all our mouths when the bill came. Everything did not matter before that because the customers felt cheated - and we are usually quite relaxed with our food budget.

Still, forewarned is foreknowledge. Perhaps if you were there with this info in mind and they allow you to refuse the bottled water - the nescafe machine dispense water anyway - then perhaps you can still have a great time: good food IS good food anyway.

Went for the buffet lunch yesterday at this restaurant. This is my time ever trying Indonesian food and I must say that it was a good and eye opening experience!

When you step into the restaurant, you will feel as if you are in a restaurant in Jarkata as it is decorated very authentically Indonesia style with the paintings and hang-on decors like the farmer hats, beads, statues, vases etc. With the background of playing Indonesia traditional music and staff wearing the traditional indonesia costumes, it really add on to the feeling that you are in Indonesia!

The buffet does not come with a wide spread of food but I must say the food served is very authentic and traditional (at least to my perception). Some of the dishes I like most include the various types of Satay (Chicken, Beef and Mutton) of which the chicken satay stood out among all. The satay is sweet and quite different from our local satay sauce. It tastes good but what is lacking is the cucumber and onion, or else, it will be perfect!

The Fried Chicken coated with Honey, Garlic and Sesame is also another must try dish. Very tasty and sweet and can really stimulate your appetite to want to eat more!

Other dishes include Laksa (also quite different from our local style but it tastes ok), mutton and beef curry (surprisingly not spicy but heavy with the marinated power), curry vegetables, beef soup, tau hu, stewed beef etc. In fact, all the dishes not spicy and hot and for those who cannot take too spicy food, you can rest at ease!

The desserts were interesting. The Chendol was refreshing and tasty, especially comes with the jelly and big sized RED BEANS! The Durian Pengat was good too and you can eat and feel the durian flesh though I find it a bit sweet but still within my acceptable level. The various types of Kuehs, Cut Fruits (water melon, sweet rock melon, guava with sour plum powder and longan), Goreng Pisang, Green Bean Soup, Agar Agar were also not bad. There were 4 types of ice cream for you to pick and choose, flavours in coffee, yam, sweet corn and mango (if you add the durian pengat here, its wonderful and great!).

They also provided free flow of hot beverages ranging from coffee (cuppacino, mocha, expresso) to Teh Tarik to Milo Chocolate and English Tea.

Service wise. Good. I was the first customer to walk into the restaurant and the service crew lined up in 2 rows to greet me and my friend and wished us to have a good lunch! They were polite and efficient in clearing the plates and refilling of our ice water. Eventually, the restaurant was almost 80% full house.

Areas for improvement. There are some dishes I would like to have or expect that include BBQ Squid and Sambal Kangkong which they did not provide today which I feel should be included. Besides Laksa, it may be good to also provide mee siam, mee rebus and mee goreng of Indonesian style and also to have other types of Kuehs like Oneh-Oneh, Kueh Lapis etc. The washrooms are also very far away from the restaurant as you need to walk out and use the hotel lobby ones.

In addition, as we are enjoying the 1-for-1 promotions, it actually made our dining experience here 'value for money'!

Generally, my friend and I did enjoy our food here, considering our 1st time experience in tasting Indonesia as interesting and eye-opening experiences and the ambience and environment have and will give you a feeling that you are in Indonesia!