Continued from PART 1…
After a great night sleep, we woke up around 7AM to catch the breakfast at Copper Kitchen & Bar. This restaurant is located on the most top part of the hotel, a spacious restaurant area divided into 2 wings, with the Copper Bar in between. Outside the restaurant, there is also rooftop area with beautiful balcony setting but it’s not recommended to sit there when the sun shines so brightly, unless you want to be live-grilled, LOL!
Copper serves a la carte breakfast menu, which you can choose up to 2 selections (from usual menu) or 1 set menu (per person). I like this concept because the food are cooked when we order, and it can assure the freshness, compared to buffet stations. By the way, the ingredients used are mostly products that they grow themselves in the private farm called Bisma Garden, located around a kilometer away from the hotel. We eventually had opportunity to visit the field, but more about that later. 😉
Avocado Toast
My first choice was this menu called Avocado Toast, which we can choose between white or brown toast, topped with mashed avocado, salmon, and egg of our choice (mine was sunny side up). This menu somehow gave me a healthy vibe, and I kinda like it for a breakfast. Taste was a little too bland, but perhaps because they let us to improvise more by ourselves, like adding salt and pepper according to our liking.
Granola with Yogurt, Milk and Honey
Who can resist a bowl of granola for breakfast? I certainly can not! The granola was fresh, crunchy, and the strawberries just made it even better. With milk and honey (Mr. K can have all the yogurt for himself), I was one happy girl munching on my granola.
Hearty Breakfast
Bakery Basket, Assortment Of Croissant, Danish Pastry, Pain Au Chocolate, Brioche, And Muffin Served With A Selection Of Jams, English Butter, And Fresh Fruits
Mr. K decided to go for a fancy feast, yes, the set menu that consists of so many things. We all love breakfasts in hotels, don’t we? Especially when we can have one like a King. XD
Started with crunchy cornflakes cereal bowl, the breakfast set couldn’t be more promising.
Waffle, why not? Too bad they ran out of maple syrup that time and in the end, they brought us homemade “honey”, which didn’t taste like regular honey, but more like fruity liquid with similar consistency like honey. It wasn’t bad but we missed the maple syrup..
After breakfast, we planned to join one of the in-house activities, which is cycling. Later we were informed by the guide that we would need about 1-2 hours for that and since we had another plan somewhere else, we didn’t proceed with the cycling.
Coffee Tasting Session at The Library Cafe
Just across the lobby area, we can see the stairs leading to Copper Kitchen & Bar, and going further, we will notice this small shop with glass door and windows. This place is actually a café called The Library Cafe, where we can also relax and enjoy some coffee.
The café is small, minimally decorated, simple, warm and less pretentious. There are only few tables available, some high stools around the counter, and that’s all. Hotel guests come to enjoy coffee, bring their laptops or just read the books. Absolutely great ambiance from such a tiny corner.
Interestingly, The Library Cafe serves coffee supplied from the infamous Seniman Coffee Ubud, including the making process and everything. We were lucky to be the first guest ever to experience this Coffee Tasting Session in this cafe, but according to our barista that day, there will be more workshop-alike events in this hotel regarding coffee, and of course the coffee masters from Seniman Coffee will participate as well as the mentor or something.
Our session was started with history about coffee introduced by the barista of the day, Pius Hadimure Ebang. Although Pius admitted that his background is not really related to coffee (he is a bartender with 9+ years experience), he managed to share some knowledge about coffee, and that is more than enough for me.
So, at first, he made 2 kinds of espresso, although they are from same beans, the end results are very different. According to Pius, the left one is the good, decently-made espresso, while the right one is not. Apparently, the left one has this “tiger skin” appearance on the surface, and when we spooned it, we could tell that the texture was somehow thicker than the right one. So now if I visit another coffee shop, I think I can see whether my espresso is properly made or not! XD
On the simpler note, we were offered to make our own coffee and we chose the basic cappuccino. The process looks simple but needs focus and full attention to make a good one. You can see the process in the video if you’re interested! 😉
Private Romantic Dinner
Highlight of the day would be this privately set up candlelit dinner at Copper’s sunset pergola. We were worried that this event had to be cancelled because the sky had been gloomy since noon, but in the end, the rain didn’t come and we could go with this as planned before, yay!
While Copper’s rooftop balcony area already looks stunning during daytime, it looks even better when it’s dark. The whole area is completely dark and the fairy lights hung around just make everything looks magical. A coffee table and 2 chairs are put before the pergola, so the couple can have a “warming-up” before the actual dinner. If you ask me, my heart fluttered the moment I stepped outside the Copper and walked towards the set-up pergola.
GORGEOUS!!!
Another welcome drink like we had the day before, Rosemary Lemon Ginger Tea in such a lovely presentation. We had a feeling that the dinner would be a blast!
Complimentary Starters
The dinner is inclusive of 2 glasses of House Sparkling Wine, sweet and crisp. Let’s toast for a great night ahead!
The Romantic Dinner package includes five-course meal that is carefully crafted by Chef Shima Drupadi, who recently focuses more into ice creams and sorbets. It’s also available for all guests without having to take the Foodie Frenzy package, with rate of USD 100++ (including 2 glasses of House Sparkling Wine) or USD 210++ including 1 750 ml bottle of Champagne Brut.
First Course – Tomato & Watermelon Tartare
Tomato and watermelon topped with whipped feta, thyme, cilantro, balsamico. Served cold, it was refreshing and light with nice hint of sweetness.
First Course – Tuna Sashimi
Tuna sashimi served with marinated cucumber, apple mint puree, pickled radish, ginger dressing. Love the fresh tuna, and the sweetness from puree and dressing.
Second Course – Steamed Vegetable Dumpling
Dumplings served with hot and sour bouillon, pickled shiitake, Asian herb salad. It was actually quite good but the bouillon was way too salty. The herb salad made me smile, though, more cilantro please.
Second Course – Steamed Crab and Prawn Dumpling
Not vegetarian version of the above. Better flavors for the dumpling, still with the same salty bouillon.
Third Course – Beetroot, Carrot, and Radish Salad
Served with lempuyang goat cheese, candied nuts, and citrus vinaigrette; this dish was our least favorite because of the super smelly goat cheese, and strange flavors as a whole dish. The worst part is that this was the only option for our third course so there was no better substitute whatsoever to make it up.
Intermezzo – Cucumber Sorbet
Before main course, we were given this cucumber sorbet in a very cute presentation, and tasted pretty good. It was smooth and refreshing, one scoop is definitely not enough!
Main – Sake Butter Glazed Salmon
Mr. K chose this as main since he wanted something lighter than red meat. The salmon was accompanied with crunchy wasabi edamame, grilled bokchoy, enoki mushroom, and miso broth.
The salmon was well-cooked, with a part of rawness in the innermost part, keeping the texture soft and juicy. The miso broth was way too salty (again) and our bad, we didn’t try it first before pouring it down the salmon. It was not just “salty” like “salty”, but it was like a great amount of salt was accidentally spilled into the dish or something. By this time, we started wondering whether the chef was okay or not.
Charred Elder’s Rib Eye
Beautiful rib eye served with truffle mash, roasted onion, sauteed broccoli, mustard sauce.
You know, the pergola was set up so prettily and since it was a Romantic Dinner, the lighting was set minimally and we could only see our food with help of lit candles around the table. I loved the steak presentation but when I had my first bite, my face suddenly changed and it was because I got a jackpot of massive rock salts. Yes, I couldn’t see any of that so I was surprised to taste how salty my steak was. If only I could see that they sprinkled rock salts on top of my steak, I would have put them aside and enjoyed my steak more happily. The steak itself was very well-marinated and seasoned, so it was already flavorful even without additional rock salts or gravy. As if the rock salts weren’t enough, the gravy was also salty and I was like, WTH? Unimpressive.
Dessert – Seasonal Fruit Cheesecake
After salty dishes all the way, I prefer something lighter as dessert so I opted for fruity cheesecake. Luckily, the cheesecake came in petite portion with dense cheesy texture. The yogurt sorbet was a little sour and nicely paired with the sweet cheesecake.
Dessert – Valrhona Chocolate Platter
Mr. K took this option of heavenly chocolate platter, including brulee, s’mores, crunchy bar, ice cream.
First of all, isn’t the brulee cute? Notice the cute thing in opened egg shell? The brulee was yummy, with crackling sugar on top and sweetest treat inside. S’mores had grated coconut all around, exotic! The crunchy bar and ice cream? Give me more, please!
The five-course dinner was amazing in term of set up, the atmosphere, and the service. It’s been quite a while since the last time we had an opportunity for a private romantic dinner like this, and we really enjoyed our moment together. We also told the staff about our feeling towards the dishes, and he came back with next course giving us the explanations from kitchen, we really appreciated that! The night got even better when the full moon started appearing, and it couldn’t be more perfect to enjoy a romantic dinner with the loved one under such a beautiful Bali’s night sky.
TO BE CONTINUED….!!
PART 1 | PART 3
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*The Food Escape team are not paid whatsoever for writing this post.
** This review is written based on our visit on 27-30 November 2015.
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BISMA EIGHT
53 Jalan Bisma
Gianyar, Ubud, Bali 80571
Indonesia
Ph.+62 361 4792888
[…] PART 2 | PART 3 […]