First things first: what is a warung?
Wikipedia defines “warung” (or waroeng) as a type of small family-owned business — often a casual shop, a modest restaurant, or a small café found in Indonesia.” However, today, a warung can refer to “a modest Indonesian restaurant or a place that sells things Indonesian.”
Warung Rumpi’s is a homey and colorful eatery conveniently located just across our villa in Seminyak. This was actually not our first choice for dinner. We had intended on eating at the restaurant just next to it. Unfortunately, that one was closing already. Not wanting to venture further down the road (we just wanted to eat already!), we hopped over to Warung Rumpi’s wherein a male server welcomed us with open arms. Not literally. Okay, he welcomed us with a wide and inviting smile.
Warung Rumpi’s stayed true to Wikipedia’s definition of a warung. Casual? Check! Modest? Yes! It’s the kind of place you take your date to if you aren’t quite sure yet if you really are on a date or if you are just “chilling” as “pals.” There is nothing pretentious about this warung — just some vintage artworks hanging on the wall, wooden furniture with colorful cushions, nothing but wall fans to ventilate the place, and a random white dog named Billy roaming around the area. (I’m not sure if this is the asshole dog I was referring to in my blog post about our villa, the one that was about to bite me. But the one at the warung didn’t attack us so it could be a different one).
One thing that really stood out for us was the friendliness of the servers. They chatted us up without being too intrusive, and they even complimented us and called us a “good-looking couple.” (I’m going to rate them 5 stars for that! Just kidding!). When they found out that it was our honeymoon, they beamed and greeted us in the most sincere way. A few days later, we bumped into him at the nearby Mini Mart and he still remembered us!
Here are just a few more shots of the warung.
Warung Rumpi’s is a good place to kick back with a cheap and cold bottle of Bintang. Beware: some restaurants would jack up the price for a Bintang, so if it’s anything more than IDR 25,000 for a small bottle of Bintang, skedaddle out of there! Warung Rumpi’s sells it for IDR 25,000 and even throws in free salted peanuts for you to munch on! awesome! And that beer jacket that says “Coldest Bali”? They weren’t kidding about that. Mike and I love Bintang, and we love it even more when it’s ice cold!
For dinner, I had the Beef Rendang (IDR 55K / PHP 196 / USD 4) while Mike had the Chicken Curry (IDR 35K / PHP 125 / USD 3). Yay for cheap eats!
I love Beef Rendang and since I was in Bali, I was thrilled to finally taste authentic Beef Rendang. Sadly, Warung Rumpi’s version was a bit of a letdown. The dish came with a side of kreopok (prawn crackers), spicy watercress, a small serving of cucumber and tomato salad (which I didn’t touch because I hate cucumber), and fried tofu. The plate looks full with all the side dishes around it but I wish there was more beef. The reason why I ordered Beef Rendang was primarily for the beef, so to get a few small pieces of beef was just not what I expected. The texture of the beef was also not the finest. It was a little gummy and hence, hard to chew. Despite these areas for improvement, the beef tasted nice and I do appreciate that they added some side dishes for variety.
I don’t really remember much about the Chicken Curry, to be honest. And if I don’t remember much about it, then it didn’t really leave a mark. I don’t remember it being bad, but I also don’t remember it being like “wow, that is so great, I forgot my name for a little while there!”
We’ve only tried two dishes so we can’t make a solid judgment about the food here. Maybe we didn’t order the best ones in the menu, or maybe the quality wasn’t that excellent anymore since we ate there so late at night (around 10:00 PM). I heard that the breakfast food they serve is quite nice, but we didn’t get the chance to try it.
But what I do remember is how relaxed and at home we felt while hanging out here, how wonderful and attentive the staff were to us, and how time just seemed to pass while we were enjoying each other’s company while bonding over their cold beer.
I’d come back for that!
Warung Rumpi’s
Address: Jalan Pangkungsari, Seminyak, Kerobokan, Bali, Indonesia
Phone: 0361-8753241, 0821-33499849
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The food looked nice, too bad it didn’t taste amazing.
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Maybe we didn’t order the best thing on the menu. Or maybe we came at a bad time. 🙂 But it wasn’t awful. Just ok 🙂
Shame about the food but the place looks like a great place to get together with a small group of friends and just relax 🙂
Yup! The ambiance is one of the best things about this place. No need to get all dressed up, just relax, then have some beers and a good meal.
Looks so cool! Sorry it wasnt as good as you hoped!
The company was good, so it was all right 🙂
considering I’m a bit claustrophobic, I like airy open places more than closed dark ones, although the food looks pretty good.
shame it didn’t taste as it looks. have fun lovely 🙂
It’s actually feels more airy during the day. 🙂 At night, it IS a little dark and it feels more intimate. 🙂 I heard their breakfast food is really good! Unfortunately, we didn’t get to try that.
This place looks really cozy and the important thing is that you enjoyed yourselves!
That is definitely the most important thing! 🙂
Sounds like a cute place, sometimes the nicest places are the particularly modest ones.. Shame your food wasn’t that amazing, but there’s probably many more great restaurants you’re going to try.
Kelly Knows It | A life & style blog
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That’s right! We’ve been surprised so many times by restaurants that don’t look that great on the outside, but we ended up going back again and again because of the food. 🙂