Food Review: Ole-ole Bali @ Sunway Pyramid

Ah, Chinese New Year! The one time of the year I have a free license to eat as much as I can. God bless this holiday.
But, I have to admit I'm a year older. Sigh, my stamina and endurance in stuffing my face is diminishing fast. So after a day of glorious taste sensations, we had a walkabout in Sunway Pyramid to help the food down.
Amazing, 4 hours later and I was still full. But, my more digestion-efficient companions wanted dinner.
So off we went and came across Ole-Ole Bali. Looked interesting so we had a go.

First impression: excellent and friendly service, unique ambiance. No noisy music playing and we could hold a decent conversation without shouting. That's inside looking out. You get to eat sitting on the raised platform is you like. Would be good to take a lie after the meal as well. But we went for table and chairs, thanks. Sigh, another sign I'm getting older.

Hmm, the menu doesn't star many traditional Bali fare. Disappointing, a lot of stuff that seems like cheap American food e.g. burgers, chips, steaks, deep-fried squid. I don't know, are they catering to the drinking crowd?

Anyway, we kept to the traditional dishes and here they are:

Here's the excellent squid salad. Basically, deep fried squid, the usual salad vegetables and a couple of keropok ikan bilis. But it was the sauce that made this. Light and tangy with chilli and hints of lemongrass and fish sauce (I doubt it's fish sauce but that's the closest description I can muster). RM 12.


Then here's the other salad. It's called Tipak Cantuk. Ok, that may be Balinese for Gado Gado because that's essentially what it was. Salad vegetables, eggs, tofu, shrimp, ketupat cubes with the requisite peanut sauce. RM 11.

And the main dish was the Nasi Campur Ole Ole. Sorry for the blurry pic but it was all I could do to hold off my ravenous friends. Kena marah for trying to find the right angle.You get the works with this. The rice was interesting: fragrant like nasi lemak. Ayam berempah, grilled fish, a satay, couple of prawns and some squid. RM 30.

Friends also had the Cucumber Mojito and the Lemongrass Mojito. RM 10 each. Can't comment since I didn't taste them. They said the drinks were quite refreshing. Ok, so is a Kopi O' Ais that costs 9x less.

So, can't say the food was inspiring. No impression of traditional Balinese flavours. Most of the food was grilled and deep-fried. Definitely, can't expect use of traditional herbs and spices.

Conclusion:
A nice, comfortable place to relax and have a filling meal. Food is not bad but not great either. You can definitely get better fare from any open-air medan selera. So you'll be paying mostly for the ambiance. Eat here if you want to. Just watch your cholesterol though: you might get a cardiac arrest from the prices.
I'm definitely not coming back.