Ayodya Restaurant is located in Sanur, and they offer Javanese and Balinese Dance performance and Royal style dinner; it’s different type of restaurant. In the restaurant, Javanese Dance and Balinese Dance are performed from 20:00 to 21:00 every day, so you can enjoy dinner with the dance for whole one hour. The popular dinner, Ristafel is the reproduction of the dinner of Islam Royalty in Java, and the dishes are served by women who wear the formal costume of court lady. They walk on line to bring dishes and serve them one by one on the plate while you listen to Gamelan music. This is the popular restaurant to feel the royal atmosphere by this unique performance.
To the Ayodya restaurant
7:30 pm, I come to Ayodya Restaurant! It locates along by-pass in Sanur area, and it takes about 30 min. by car from our office in Jimbaran.
Enter the parking from by-pass, I can see the big one-roof building over there! The orange lighting creates the exotic atmosphere.
Inside of the restaurant is really broad! Maybe, 200 guests can have seats. There is the big stage on the center, and tables are organized to enclose it.
5 AC rooms are in window side. It is more expensive than the table seat, but you can enjoy the dance through window in cool AC room. Rooms can be combined.
Gamelan performers play Gamelan music during dinner time. The special metal sound is good.
The concept of Ayodya Restaurant is reproduction of Javanese royal style. As the concept, all staffs wear the formal costume of court ladies!
This time, I tried Dinner Restafel with gorgeous serving performance. First, appetizer is served; Soto Ayam (left) and Otak-Otak (right). Soto Ayam is one of my favorite dishes! It’s Indonesian chicken soup. It has lots of chicken and cabbage and not salty. Otak-Otak is made by smashed fish meat, and I eat it with chili sauce. They are tasty.
Finish eating appetizer, and after a while, the light of the room was turned off… I thought, “What??”… Then, the royal style serving is started! With Gamelan music, 8 ladies walk on line from the dark. They have a tray on their left hand. They come up on the stage and round one time…
They come into our AC room!! I didn’t expect such a showy performance!
It appeals strongly, 8 beautiful (?) ladies on line. Take picture!
Each 8 ladies hold different dishes, come closer to the table and dish up one by one. I feel little bit hesitate toward their politeness!!
Nasi Kuning on the center, there are 8 kinds of dishes. It’s too cute to eat! You can free to have another helping of rice.
At the end, they call, “Selamat makan! (Enjoy your food)” I was little bit surprised their performance, but it’s really new for me! This serving performance is only for Dinner Restafel. Set menu is served as normal way, so please keep in mind.
Then, around 8:00 pm, Indonesian dance performance starts. 4 dances are performed every day. On each table, there are information of the dance and its explains about dances.
The dancers’ level is really good than I expected. To be honest, it is the best performance in other dance appreciation restaurants that I have been in! Javanese Dance has different brilliance than Balinese Dance. The first performance, GAMBYONG; I was touched by the dancers’ beautiful movement.
Dance performance goes; GAMBYONG → PUJUANG → LEGONG KRATON CONDONG → GOLEK. Usually, those 4 dances are performed every day. One girl who danced LEGONG Dance was really good. She did perfect performance that she can dance in Ubud Dance Troupe. Thumb-up!!
Dance performance is total 1 hour, so I could enjoy dinner with dance in enough time. After the main dish, they serve dessert, Bubur Candil (sugar cane rice-flour dumpling with coconut) and drink. Bubur is also one of my favorite sweets that I really miss it sometimes. This one is not too sweet, plain taste.
They serve drink, ginger tea or coffee, however, it is not served until the dessert time. I got thirsty and I ordered Aqua （Rp.25,000） and ice tea （Rp.20,000） while I ate the main dish.
【Drink Menu】
Soft Drink Rp.20,000 – Rp.25,000
Bintang Beer (big) Rp.45,000
Bintang Beer (small) Rp.30,000
Whisky / Bourbon / Rum / Gin Rp.60,000 -
Wine bottle （red・white） Rp.180,000 -
At the end, happy surprise for me; dances come to AC room!! When all guests finish easting, they take pictures on the stage, but today, other guests are still eating, so they visit all rooms. When I see them closer, they are all slim, short, and small faces! I was so happy to take pictures with brilliant dancers.
Recommend Points of Ayodya Restaurant
- Among dance appreciation restaurants, the dance level is really high!
- By the serving performance of ladies, feel like a royalty!
- Light taste Indonesian dish is delicious!
I have tried all dance appreciation restaurants that HIRO-chan offers, but I think the best dance performance is this Ayodya Restaurant! Especially I was moved by LEGONG KRATON CONDONG, great performance. The stage is center of the restaurant and tables are organized around it, so it’s good positioning to see dance from all angles. There are AC room seats and table seats, about AC room, seeing dance through window, but it’s nice air conditioning. Table seats surround on the stage, so recommended for who want to see the dance closer.
Moreover, the serving performance by ladies of wearing Javanese court ladies’ costume is really appeal strongly. 8 ladies give serving; I felt luxurious and little bit hesitate… Dishes are all good, and they are served appetizer → main dish → dessert, so I became really full. This serving performance is only for Restafel Set. For regular set menus, staffs serve in the normal way as well as other restaurants. The restaurant locates in Sanur area, it’s recommended to visit there on the way back from Ubud, or visit after Safari Park! Reported by Aiko
※This report was written based on the information when the time of visiting. Course menu and schedule might be changed without notice. In addition, the report contains individual opinion and impression, however, these are not applied for all people. Please read it just for your reference. Thank you.