Hotel Balai

Really delicious, with a local feel. I loved it.

The bathrooms could use work: old fittings, some damage, and they’re dark. The furnishings also feel dated, and the location is average at best. Still, the food is good and reasonably priced, with sandwiches and cooked fish, seafood, and beef dishes. They serve draft and bottled beer, bottled wine, and mixed drinks, and you can watch soccer on the TVs. The service is friendly, and they take cash and cards. I’m not sure I’d go back, though the choice is yours.

We ordered Crab Cake 8k, Grilled Hake 9k, and Mixed Salad 3.5k. The restaurant has a pleasant, organized, rustic family atmosphere, but the food was disappointing, not tasty, and showed several basic kitchen mistakes. The Crab Cake came in a little clay dish and was barely half a serving. It was also frozen rather than fresh, and the cheese on top was burnt. The hake should be easy to clean, yet it still had scales and bones, and my companion bit his mouth more than once. The puree wasn’t creamy, maybe they forgot the milk or butter. The tomato in the salad was too green, and there was an ungrated piece of carrot with its skin on. Our server was new and forgot a few things, but that wasn’t a serious issue, nobody is born knowing. My low rating is for the food and issues above. I hope they improve, and I’d suggest changing the cooks since that’s the most important thing in a restaurant.

The bathroom was the low point, it didn’t seem to be in very good shape. The food and drinks were both very good, though, and we had a great experience.