Pelangi Bali Bistrol (Review)

A few days ago for arisan we checked out the restaurant Pelangi Bali Bistro near Sunset Road. We've heard about the woes of the place, but Wid and I have never been to the restaurant. To tell the truth, we were expecting terrible food, but we were pleasantly surprised. Apparently, the original restaurant concept was European-style food, but for various reasons, they could not attract customers so they added Indonesian dishes to the menu. The restaurant seems to be suffering an identity crisis, but the food itself is actually good so it's something else that's driving the customers away.

Almost everyone got the beef strips in brown sauce with slices of herbed potato. It had some sort of German name, but its name escapes me right now. The beef used was imported beef, and the dish tasted exactly what it was supposed to be. The only complaint was the portion was too small, but at 50,000 rp per plate for imported beef, it was not too bad. I had the pork chop with fetticcini in mushroom sauce. The pork was tender (a smidge dry but still tasted good). The mushroom sauce was rich and creamy, full of flavor, and the pasta was cooked al dente. I thought my dish was quite generous in portion because I was very full in the end. The pork ribs cost around 42,000 rp. Other people got ribs and rump steak, but they didn't seem so keen on those dishes. The Indonesian dishes were quite good, according to others; I think they usually pick selections from the Indonesian part of the menu in previous visits to the place. I think the Indo dishes are much cheaper than the western dishes (6000 rp and up).

For dessert Wid and I tried the brownie sundae for 18,000 rp. The brownie seemed a bit stale because it was quite dry, but it actually tasted like a brownie, unlike the poor excuses of brownies that I've seen here so far.

Wid commented that if the atmophere was better, they could attract more people because the food is much better than some of the restaurants we tried recently (the ones I ranted about in a previous post).