Dining by the Jungle – Kepitu Restaurant at The Kayon Resort

Before coming to Bali for our honeymoon, I brushed up on the best restaurants in the island, particularly in Ubud, which was where we were going to spend the first leg of our trip. And as much as I would have wanted to visit all these intriguing restaurants, all those plans went out the window.

That’s because we ate ALL of our meals at the Kepitu Restaurant, which is set in the Kayon Resort, our home in Ubud for 4 days and 3 nights.

If you could have a laid-back lunch while enjoying an astonishing view of the jungle, would you even want to dine elsewhere?

Watch this very short video and tell me that this isn’t the most spectacular place to dine in. You can even hear the birds chirping! Pure bliss!

If you fancy having a romantic dinner, the ambiance at the Kepitu Restaurant will really get you in the mood for love!

Most of our Bali “favorites” in our entire 12-day stay in Bali all came from the Kayon: our favorite drink (the Petanu cooler), our favorite bed, our favorite room, our favorite bathroom, our favorite people, and even our favorite hotel slippers! Hands down, our favorite restaurant from our trip is the Kepitu Restaurant. The food was absolutely delicious, the view was amazing, and the staff were wonderful. It’s no surprise now why we didn’t even bother venturing out of our hotel to eat. If anything, I think people who are NOT staying at the Kayon should be the ones to make a trip to the Kepitu Restaurant if they want to have a really excellent dining experience.

Since Mike and I had so many meals here, I thought I’d organize this post into 3 parts: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Breakfast

For our first breakfast at the hotel, we actually didn’t eat AT the Kepitu Restaurant. We just had the food from the restaurant delivered to our room because we wanted to eat at our gorgeous private terrace. And yes, also because we were THAT lazy.

You were probably expecting a breakfast buffet. I’m also used to having buffet breakfasts whenever I stay in hotels, and that’s one of the things I really look forward to. But after having brekkie at the Kayon, I couldn’t move and I was glad I was wearing a dress that was loose on the gut area. Translation: I was SO FULL.

I had the American Breakfast, which came with:

• Fresh Fruit Juice Or Fresh Fruit Platter
• Fresh Fruit Salad Yogurt OR Poached Pineapple with Yogurt
• Bread basket with danish, croissant, muffin, and cinnamon raisin toast served with daily homemade jam and butter
• Eggs (cooked according to your preference) or Eggs Benedict
• Bacon, ham, sausage, tomato sautéed mushroom and potato
• Coffee Or Tea (though we usually asked for hot chocolate)

Meanwhile, Mike had the Indonesian Breakfast, which consisted of:

• Fresh Fruit Juice Or Fresh Fruit Platter
• Nasi Goreng Or Mie Goreng
• Pisang Bakar (Fried Bananas)
• Coffee Or Tea / Hot Chocolate

The breakfast may not have been served buffet style, but for once, we were actually happy about that. Sometimes, buffets can actually be wasteful. You can’t even appreciate some of the dishes because there’s just too many and you only end up eating only either a little of everything, or a lot of a few things. And based on experience, some of the buffet food I had were already too cold or dry to eat after being exposed for too long. The à la carte breakfasts from the Kepitu Restaurant are always served hot and fresh because they’re only prepared upon request.

I also wanted to point out that maybe one of the reasons why the food at the Kepitu Restaurant always tastes so fresh is because many of the ingredients used in the dishes are grown in the property itself, just like this jackfruit hanging from the tree just outside our terrace:

On our second day at the hotel, we actually managed to get out of our comfy bed and get our lazy asses to the restaurant for breakfast. The previous day, when we called about breakfast, the person on the other end of the line only offered a choice of American, Continental, and Indonesian breakfasts. We were surprised to find out that you can also have what they call the “Experience Breakfast,” the “Kayon Breakfast,” and the “Healthy Breakfast” which I didn’t bother getting because… healthy? Really? Who was I fooling? I came to Bali to pig out! (I later on realized, however, that all meals served at the Kepitu Restaurant were healthy).

I tried the Kayon Breakfast, which comes with:

• Loloh Kayumanis – Traditional Kayumanis Leaf Juice
• Fresh Fruit Platter – Sliced Seasonal Fruits
• Sela Mekukus – a platter Of Soft Sweet Potato, Pepes Ayam, Jukut Pakis And Sambal Kukus*
• Bubuh Injin – Black Sticky Rice Pudding Served With Coconut Cream And Sliced Banana
• Coffee Or Tea / Hot Chocolate

Mike was curious about the Experience Breakfast, so he ordered that. The Experience Breakfast has:

• Jamu Kunyit – Rice and turmeric herbs infused lemon grass, lime juice and honey. Served with single soft boiled egg kampoeng
• Salak Rebus (Poached Karangasem snack fruit, fresh jack fruit and young coconut)
• Topot Ayam (Wrapped rice in Banana leaf, Balinese chicken sauce and stir fried glass noodle)
• Bubuh Sumsum – (Fine Balinese Rice Pudding In Brown Sugar Sauce And Grated Coconut)
• Coffee Or Tea / Hot Chocolate

Let’s go back to that Jamu Kunyit (see bottom right frame of the above photo, the one with the juice and the egg). The staff at the Kepitu told us that you have the option of blending the egg with the juice, but if it’s your first time to try it, you can just take the juice and the egg separately. Well, the juice tasted like… turmeric! And if you’ve had turmeric before, you’d know that it’s got a very strong, bitter, pungent, and rough taste. It’s like drinking a mix of fruits and curry! Mike, taken aback by the acridity of the drink, said “Whoa! Now I know why it’s called an EXPERIENCE Breakfast!” Others might like it, but we’re not really fans of turmeric to begin with. Mike probably just ordered it for the EXPERIENCE. Well, he got it!

And finally, here is a photo of our last breakfast (*sob*) on our last day (*sob*) at the resort.

Lunch

So… what’s for lunch?

For starters, how about a cold, thirst-quenching glass of the Petanu Cooler, the Kayon Resort’s signature drink, made with mint, ginger, lime, honey? This was our favorite drink during our entire Bali trip!

In my previous blog post, I mentioned that we were given a glass of the Petanu Cooler as a welcome drink upon check in at the hotel. However, the welcome drink was tiny — maybe two or three times smaller than the full size when you order it at the restaurant. Since we were hooked on this stuff on our first sip, we made sure to order the bigger version for lunch.

When we got married, I incorporated in my wedding vows a line from the cartoon ‘Madeline,’ which goes: “We love our bread, we love our butter, but most of all, we love each other!”

When we had our first meal at the Kepitu Restaurant, and they served us their complimentary bread basket with dips and spreads, that line suddenly changed to “We love THEIR bread, we love THEIR butter…” I know, you’re probably thinking, “What’s the big deal? It’s just bread and butter (and other spreads)!” No, no, no, no! It’s not JUST bread and butter.

First of all, it’s FREE bread and butter. Second, it’s FREE-FLOWING bread and butter — they just keep refilling the bread basket if you ask for more. And third, their breads are soft, fluffy, and tasty, their spreads are dripping with goodness, and their butter is a standout! I don’t know what secret herbs they put in that butter, but it’s so addictive! There was a point after our trip ended and we already made it back to Manila, and Mike was bugging me to e-mail the hotel to ask for the recipe of the butter. “Of course they won’t give away their recipe!” I argued. He insisted, “Just tell them that you only want to try to make it at home!” I don’t want to. I might be tempted to eat too much of it until I get fat as hell!

We really wanted to ask for more bread but we didn’t want to be too full so we could try the other dishes from their lunch menu. After munching on the breads, we had the:

• Mie Goreng Kayon (IDR 95K) – stir fried noodles with chicken and prawn, vegetables, and sate, garnished with pickles, shrimp crackers, and fried egg on top
• Pad Thai (IDR 95K) – stir fry rice noodles with prawn, shallots, tofu, coriander, spring onions, basil, bean sprouts, and crispy garlic

Try their appetizers too! I had these for starters:

• Asparagus Salad (IDR 60K) – Blanched green asparagus, smoked salmon, cherry tomatoes, quail eggs, and honey cherry dressing
• Thai Fish Ball Soup (IDR 50K) – Hot sour fish ball soup with carambola, red chili, lemongrass, galangal, cilantro root, mushroom, and shallot

While eating my Thai Fish Ball Soup, I discovered this really cute star-shaped fruit floating around in my food. Curious, I asked the waitress what it is and she said, “it’s a star fruit.” So it was literally a STAR fruit! She saw that I was so fascinated by it that she even went through all the trouble of going in the chef’s kitchen to ask for a sample of a star fruit so she can show me what it looks like. How sweet of her! She even told me that I could have it!

Dinner

While lunch at the Kepitu Restaurant is a satisfying experience, dinners at the restaurant are really something else!

For our dinners, Mike and I always chose a spot at the outside area by the floating pool, next to the Kumbakarna statue, unless it was raining. We loved this spot because it felt like we were in a world of our own. There’s also quite nothing like feasting on delicious meals as you look up at the stars while being surrounded by flora and fauna. Sounds perfect? It is, especially when you’re dining with the person you’re smitten with!

At night time, the place comes alive and becomes even more spell-binding (and sexy!) with the dim lights, the rose petals scattered on various corners, and the burning candles. Being here will surely get you in the mood for luuuuuurve!

Before coming to Bali, while checking out hotel deals at hotel booking sites, I saw this little blurb on the Booking.com site that highlighted the food at the Kayon Resort:

It was on our first night in Bali and the Kayon, and our first experience at the Kepitu Restaurant, that we confirmed that the hype is real!

Just like during lunch time, guests are also given complimentary and unlimited (two adjectives that I love seeing in one sentence) breads and spreads, including our favorite butter! We didn’t even need to order main courses anymore because we were already getting full with these! But of course, we still did because we were excited to sample the dishes that all past customers keep raving about.

Their drinks are also God’s gift to a thirsty soul!

When one of the restaurant supervisors, Ngakan, set a plate of amuse bouche on our table, we said, “oh, we didn’t order this.” Then he said that this is actually complimentary. Kayon Resort, you are always so full of (pleasant) surprises! Also, the amuse bouche was yummy!

For our first dinner, these were our orders:

• Salmon All Di Pomodoro (IDR 165K) – Grilled marinated salmon, prawn, scallop, tomato sauce, mozzarella, parmesan cheese, and grilled asparagus
• Balinese Chicken Curry (IDR 105K) – Chicken meat in Balinese curry sauce, potato, cinnamon, cardamom, and kemangi leaf served with fragrant steam rice
• Melt Chocolate Cake (IDR 55K) – Melted chocolate in chocolate cake served with chocolate ganache and berries

I had one bite of our main courses and I knew that eating at the Kepitu Restaurant would be our daily and nightly ritual for the period of our stay at the resort. I wish I could wax poetic about how sensational our food were but I was too busy relishing the fireworks of flavors sparking in my mouth.

The chocolate cake was tiny though. We wished that it was just a bit bigger!

While we were having discussions during dinner, we kept hearing a funny sound that seemed to be coming from a frog. It seemed like it was joining in in our discussion! Mike sensed that it was hiding from one of the plant pots behind us, so he followed the sound and found the little Kermit there! He peered at him and went closer to take his photo, and after a few seconds,  Ngakan approached us and asked if everything was okay. When we told him that we found a frog, he said in an alarmed tone “Be careful, sir!!!” Apparently, this frog’s defense mechanism is to squirt out a poisonous liquid, and then aims it at its attacker. Mike’s face was so close to it that the frog could’ve spewed out poison in his eyes! But maybe the frog sensed that Mike was a pal and wouldn’t hurt him. He probably knows: “this guy just wants my photo. He’s cool.”

This is how much we spent on our first dinner:

Here are more food photos from our second dinner at the Kepitu Restaurant.

Starting off with the breads and amuse bouche, we later had the:

• Prawn Salad (IDR 55K) – Pan fried prawns, julienned chili, long bean, and kemangi leaf served with lemongrass dressing and coconut oil
• Crispy Duck (125K) – Deep fried special crispy duck with vegetable urab and steamed fragrant rice

We were also given free sorbet, which was a nice palate cleanser.

Kadek, one of the restaurant supervisors, attended to us on our second dinner. He was a very friendly guy. Upon finding out that we’re from the Philippines, he talked to us about balut, one of the commonly sold street food in the Philippines… and also one of the most disgusting food in the world), among other things. We asked him if he could reserve the table by the floating pool for us for the next night since it was going to be our last dinner at the restaurant. Our request was granted (because the Kayon is just so good at spoiling their honeymoon guests!) and for our last dinner on our last night, we were lucky enough to have had the opportunity to enjoy a romantic time at the best spot in the restaurant.

These were our food that night:

• Complimentary amuse bouche (it was a plate of salad, chicken, and corn soup, which I wish I could have had more of!)
• Ikan Rica Rica (IDR 105K) – Pan seared fish with rica rica paste, served with sayur urab and steamed fragrant rice
• Kalio Udang (IDR 135K) – Grilled and cooked prawn in kalio paste and coconut cream, quail eggs, and lemon basil

FYI, rica rica is a kind of hot and spicy mixture, sayur urab is a salad dish of steamed vegetables, kalio is a type of halfway cooked rendang, while “udang” means “shrimp” in Indonesian.

To drink to our honeymoon and our unforgettable 3 nights at the Kayon, we got two cocktails, both priced at IDR 90K: the Baileys Comet (just because the name was cute) and another one that had “Chocolate” in its name. Sorry, I forgot what it’s called but it’s really good! Between the two, we liked the chocolate cocktail more. The Baileys Comet was also good but it tasted more like banana smoothie while we could taste the Baileys more in the chocolate drink.

This was our bill for that night:

Though we were sad that that was our last dinner at the Kepitu Restaurant, we couldn’t have been happier with the food and the service!

We sure had the best dinners at the Kepitu Restaurant! The only improvement I could think of in terms of the ambiance would be to add a little more light at night. They do provide a small light that you can clip on the table but it would be nice if it could be a bit brighter. After all, the food are always so aesthetically appealing that it would be a shame to not see them in all of their beauty.

When we checked out the following day and were asked for our guest comments and feedback, one of the questions in the form we had to fill out was: “What was your favorite meal at the hotel?” Mike and I said at the same time “Everything!” I know that’s not very helpful or specific and maybe we did like some food more than the others, but because we got to try so many dishes from the Kepitu Restaurant, and most of them were scrumptious, we couldn’t point out our favorites at the time. The point is: the Kepitu Restaurant’s food is superb!

For meals that are extremely tasty,  they are also surprisingly light and healthy! The dishes are served using fresh and natural local ingredients. The food at the restaurant always left us feeling full and satisfied, but we never had that “oh no, what did I just eat?!” kind of guilt because we know that everything we put in our bodies were light, clean, and good for us. They even offer gluten-free options for the health-conscious.

If you’re wondering how we were able to afford eating at the hotel for every single meal, let me tell you: it’s not because we’re stinking rich but because the food at the restaurant are actually very affordable! At first, I thought, “there’s no way we can afford eating hotel food every single day!” but when we checked the prices, they were surprisingly very reasonable for a 4-star hotel! In fact, we sometimes felt like we got more than what we paid for, considering the complimentary items they served us, the beautiful ambiance, and the 5-star service of the staff.

And speaking of the staff, they helped make our meals more special. We were always greeted with a smile and they always made sure that we had everything we need. They really aim to please! In my previous blog post, I mentioned that the staff end their sentences with “please” (e.g., “Here is your bill please” or “Enjoy your dinner please”), which I thought was really endearing! I told Mike, “They’re so cute! I want to turn them into little people and carry them around in my bag!”

Having breakfast, lunch, or dinner at the Kepitu Restaurant is a full sensory experience. Your eyes will be relaxed as you dine amidst nature and delight in the artistic plating of the food. Your ears will be filled with the sound of the Balinese musical instruments and chimes playing in the background. Your taste buds will be teased with every flavorsome bite of the food. Dining at the Kepitu Restaurant was really one of the activities we always looked forward to. If you’re in Bali, particularly in Ubud, and are not staying at the Kayon Resort, at least go there for the food. I promise, you’ll be in for a truly unique fine dining feast.

The Kepitu Restaurant
Address: The Kayon Resort, Banjar Kepitu, Desa Kendran, Tegallalang, Ubud
Phone: +62 361 479 2553
Fax: +62 361 479 2552
E-mail: info@thekayonresort.com, reservation@thekayonresort.com
Website: www.thekayonresort.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thekayon
Managed by: Pramana Hotels and Resorts

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

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