Friday, July 24, 2009

Mie Goreng from the Banyan Tree

Mie Goreng

This was a quick plate of mie goreng that we grabbed on the way out today. It was a bit of salty spicy grease bomb, but that's the way it's supposed to be, right? Actually, we were pretty happy with the food at the Banyan Tree, and I'm not quite sure why a number of online reviews bashed it. Sure, we were a bit concerned that an isolated resort like this would capitalize on its captive audience with mediocre food, but we were impressed by most of what we ate, be it the champagne breakfasts with daily egg specials to poolside service and private dinners.

And they weren't skimpy on quantity either: our first night at the resort's Mediterranean restaurant was so generous (not to mention surprisingly good, if too dark to take a picture) that we had to refuse some of the courses toward the end. Granted, the food prices were unnecessarily lofty, but when one is paying these sorts of once-in-a-lifetime room rates, nitpicking on food prices is a bit pointless.

The disappointing thing for me wasn't the food, but rather the TV in our villa. Now, of course one isn't supposed to spend time inside watching TV at a place like this, but it did rain from time to time, and a decently sized flat panel screen and proper sound system would have been expected of a place this expensive. That tiny little old school CRT was sorely in need of an upgrade.

3 comments:

Pete said...

OMG, sitting here in foggy, cold San Francisco, and reading & seeing your photos - it's like heaven out there in Bintan!

Anonymous said...

the way the mie curl kinda seems like instant noodles....Indomie perhaps?

Genie said...

Wow! That looks like a lot of food. Was that intended for just 1 person? Did you see anyone else eat the entire setting?