Travel for travelling - Bali - Mamasan Restaurant & J.CO DONUTS and COFFEE & Seminyak Square

Seminyak 23.03.2014

Cattle hanging around in the farm in Seminyak, Bali

Sunset Road divides Seminyak into two contrasting sides. The left hand/west side has a prosperous and bustling with life downtown. You can find the latest fashion, great tasting and gourmet food. It was just like an all day city! The right hand/east side was half-developed residential areas. Although there were quite a number of nice villas and beautiful hotels, they were just right next to fields or farm so that you could see cattle and chickens running around. And more than half of the street had gravel road instead of paved concrete.

Seminyak map - Sunset Poink, Mama San Restaurant and Semiyak Square

After breakfast D went to the gym for weight training, and I stayed in our room listening to music while working. It was so good to just relax without going anywhere, and to relieve the fatigue of the previous few days, and I really enjoyed it ! The specialty of Seminyak Lagoon Hotel was the swimming pool, so we were looking forward to giving it a try after D finished his weight training!

Swimming pool of Seminyak Lagoon All Suites Hotel

We saw the staff cleaning the pool in the morning, so the water was very clean and there was no heavy bleach smell. At that time, we were the only two people swimming in this beautiful and quiet exclusive pool. It was great!

The only mission on that day was to celebrate D's birthday. We both had a fulfilling and leisurely morning, and it was time to reveal the center of Seminyak and find some great food for birthday dinner! We found a massage shop that was US $ 5.50 per hour - incredibly cheap! D decided to give it a try immediately. He took a foot massage for one hour and I chose the full body massage. But you get what you pay for. The girls' massage skills and strength were great, but the room facilities could be better. I'd rather spend a little bit more money to have a better environment, so I could fully relax and enjoy. But still this was very good if you want to save money or have a longer massage!

Mama San restaurant in Seminyak, Bali

Quite a lot of people recommended Mama San restaurant on internet websites, and some of them even said that it is the best restaurant in Bali! That was the reason we decided to have the birthday celebration there. Their decorations were interesting, combining retro and modern in two contrasting styles. The first floor was decorated in retro style, with furnishings that were normal height tables and chairs. The second floor was a modern luxury style, however they furnished it with low tables and low sofas. Because we didn't book in advance and only the sofa area was available on the second floor, we had to put up with that.

Interior view of Mama San restaurant in Seminyak, Bali

We ordered crispy duck again which was called "Crispy duck with pickled mustard green choy sum & green chilli nahm jihm" and a salad called "Chicken & prawn eggmett with coconut caramel mint beansprouts peanuts pickled relish". Their meals all had such long names!

Their crispy duck was really gourmet. They served the fried duck with a special sauce which tasted a little bit sweet and sour. It also had bok choy and sauerkraut instead of the other spicy local dishes we had had, which I prefer. The duck skin was very crispy, even when soaked in the sauce, and the duck meat was tender and juicy. The homemade sauce made it taste especially good. It was super delicious! The meal didn't come with rice, but I suggest you order some!

Moreover, the salad was also very special. The salad was mixed with flossed pork, bean sprouts, chicken, shrimp and mint leaves, then wrapped in the pan fried egg. The dish was a successful combination and tasted very refreshing, not to mention it looked beautiful! We were very satisfied with the food and service, and the atmosphere was very good. But the short tables here were really not suitable for dining, and the light was very dim, with only candlelight, so you could barely see the food . Also smoking was sadly permitted upstairs.

Crispy duck and chicken&Prawn eggmett of Mama San restaurant in Seminyak, Bali

After that we went for a walk along Jl. Kayu Aye to Seminyak Square. There were many clothing and shoe stores with all kind of styles, and most of them were individual designers' own brands. However the prices were quite high. The restaurants there were also dazzling. It was just like a small international village, where they had Italian, Chinese, Indonesia, American and French styles.

Seminyak Square was different from what I expected. In fact, there were less shops than I expected, and on that day there didn't seem to be many visitors either. We only took a look at the supermarket and left.

Jl. Kayu Aye and Seminyak Square

On the way home, we saw a Cafe - J.CO (JCOCCINO) at Sunset Point, so we went to see if they had the birthday cake that D liked They did not sell cakes but donuts and drinks, and we bought a yogurt ice cream and six cute donuts. The ice cream was good, and we were able to choose three kinds of toppings, so D chose the Oreo, orange and a sort of green candy. Although the toppings didn't match each other, they went with the ice cream very well. The green candy was very tasty actually, with a rock melon flavor and a mochi texture. So it was interesting and special! 

The donuts were very delicious, probably because we liked sweet taste very much ... They had a lot of designs and flavors, and each one was so cute! The worker recommended durian flavor, so we got one, however it didn't have a heavy smell of durian and was actually quite yum! My favorite one was tiramisu flavor.

J.CO DONUTS & COFFEE at sunset point in Seminyak, Bali

The streets were very dark in the night, when we walked back to our hotel. They had street lights but they were a bit far away from each other. Under the lights they had a lot of gravel roads, so it was better and safer to have a flashlight. Also that way you could see the road clearly and avoid animal poo. We had encountered a group of cattle in the night hanging around the side of the road, and a group of dogs barking at the intersection like they were just having a party! It was a bit scary, but actually they were all just pretty harmless animals who didn't care about us.