Seafood dinner along the Senggigi beach at Lombok island - Indonesia.

Traveling almost about 1 hour 30 minutes (approx. 60km) from Sade Village, passed by Mataram City (Capitol of Lombok)...we finally reached the Senggigi beach of Lombok. All of us agree to have our seafood dinner at Warung Menega (S8.52497 E116.06554) before check in to the resort.

Warung Menega of Senggigi beach, Lombok

The first scene that caught our attention was the smoky roof of the kitchen...

Everyone was curious about what happening in the kitchen...then, we discovered the grilling method is using charcoal and coir which resulted the smoky environment...

Let's have a tour in the kitchen before the dining area...

The seafood prepared for grilling...

The kitchen of Warung Menega, Lombok

The 'warung' (common word as a restaurant) had a simple setting, where you have a options of indoor dining area or the outdoor area on the beach. For us, we definitely choose the beach area...

The outdoor dining area...

As usual, everyone was busy photographing the surrounding of the restaurant before the foods serve on table...

Next to the restaurant, there were many fishing boats parking around...felt excited because we will going to experience the boat ride tomorrow for island hoping, looking forward about it...

Fishing boats parking next to the restaurant...

The seafood served on table pretty fast, most of us had the same package which were the fish, prawns, clams and squids. Some of us chose only fish and some don't take prawns... flexible package.
But all of us had one plate of kang-kong (water spinach) with the local recipe sambal chili, and unlimited rice...

Kangkong with sambal

The seafood offered by Warung Menaga, Senggigi beach of Lombok

The fish...

The squids...

I like the local sambal very much! It was aromatic and hot!
Believe all the seafood grilled with the same sauce and recipe, the prawns, fish and squids were finger-linking good! And the clams taste the best among all...
All the seafood were perfectly succulent, sweet and spicy. Impressed by the local recipes. But the magical part was the yummy sauces...dark sweet soy sauce, garlic, local sambal and chili with onions. Every sauce provided different taste with the seafood, I love the chili onions and the sambal very much!

The different types of sauces which made the perfect taste of the seafood

It was a total different experience having our dinner here, while enjoying the seafood in our hands and watching the beautiful sunset...

The dining area was full...

The outdoor dining area was full after the night fall...

The cloudy sunset of Senggigi beach of Lombok

Beside the seafood delights and the sunset, I like to concentrate on those fishing boats back to the shores...

Time to go home...

We were satisfied with the seafood dinner in Warung Menega. As I look into the menu, prices are reasonable too...I guess I'll be back again on my next visit to Lombok.

Related post for Lombok island trip :-
*  Airasia media FAM trip to Lombok Island - Indonesia on July 2014

Warung Menega Lombok

Jalan Raya Senggigi, Kilometre 6

+62 0 370 692 057.

kembarmenega@yahoo.com

Location map of Warung Menega at Senggigi Beach of Lombok island, Indonesia.

Sade Village, the native Sasak's village at Rembitan area, Lombok - Indonesia

The Sade Village (S8.83926 E116.29181) is located northward 8km from Kuta beach, in the Rembitan area of Lombok, the journey took around 20 minutes. Sade Village is the most frequent visit by tourist everyday, therefore the village guide welcome us and explain the culture along the village tour.

"The Sasak people live mainly on the island of Lombok, Indonesia, numbering around 2.6 million (85% of Lombok's population). They are related to the Balinese in language and race, although the Sasak are predominantly Muslim while the Balinese are Hindu." Source from here.

The entrance of Sasak Village at Sade

The most ancient Sasak village in Lombok is the village of Bayan, situated near the foot of Mount Rinjani, which is the stronghold of the Wektu Telu. Wektu Telu is the distinct feature of religion, a syncretic belief of Islam intertwined with elements of Hinduism, Buddhism, and ancient traditional beliefs, unique to Lombok island.

"A small minority of Sasaks called the Bodha (estimated population: 8,000) are mainly found in the village of Bentek and on the slopes of Gunung Rinjani. They are totally untouched by Islamic influence and worship animistic gods, incorporating some Hindu and Buddhist influences in their rituals and religious vocabulary. This group of Sasak, due in part to the name of their tribe, are recognized as Buddhists by the Indonesian government." Source from here.

Nonetheless, despite differences in religious beliefs, the Sasak live in harmony among themselves.

The Sasak's Village at Sade

There were houses, rice barn (lumbung) and ceremonial hall (beruga) in the village. All the roof are covered by elephant plant (alang-alang), providing coolness in hot weather and warmth during night. The wall are mostly made by bamboo and the interesting part is the floor and some half wall is made by the mixture of clay and buffalo feces.Well, it was not stink at all. Beside that, it also works as a mosquito repellent.

The rice barn (lumbung)

The house in Sade village

The Sasak's house basically divided into 3 sessions : sleeping area, living room and kitchen. Men are restricted at the first session to protect the women in the house, because if the man want to marry the woman, he has to 'kidnap' the women (but with the permission). The tradition has been continue until today...

The house in Sade village

 

The living room...

Men in the village mostly are farmer, while the women stay at home weaving, making handicrafts and souvenirs for the visitors and tourists.

The handicraft, souvenirs for visitors...

The modernization seems powerless to change the village, and they still maintained the authenticity which also supported by the local community and their original language - The Sasak language.

The entrance of their house is designed not higher than adult, so every guest come in have to lower down their head while passing through, it's a way to respect the host.

We enjoyed the tour very much and learn a lot from the culture of indigenous Sasak villagers, they were friendly too...

After visiting the Sade village, it was almost dinner time...and we heading to Senggiri beach for seafood dinner...

Related post for Lombok island trip :-
*  Airasia media FAM trip to Lombok Island - Indonesia on July 2014

Location map of Sade Village at Rembitan area of Lombok island, Indonesia.

Kuta beach of Lombok island - Indonesia

Less than 5km (10 minutes journey) from Ashtari Restaurant and Lounge, we visited the nearby beach - Kuta beach (S8.89492 E116.28319) of south Lombok island (there's another Kuta beach in Bali which is different).
According to Pak Uji, meaning 'Kuta' is gateway at the south, therefore there's another gateway in Bali too.

But we arrived at Kuta beach in poor timing, it was cloudy and low tide...

Kuta beach of Lombok

Despite the weather, all of us just simply shoot surrounding to satisfied our cameras...:)

The beach is full of volcano rocks, and the major different from the others beaches we visited was the sands...it's not actually 'sands', there were formation of round tiny stones! This was really special!

Along the Kuta bay, the area is full of hotels and resorts, there's also many activities area like cafe, restaurant and shops. I believe the night activities hear must be happening too, but I'm yet to experience it.

Beside taking photos of the beach, one of our tour mate - Noelle who was enjoying playing with the children around and taking nice photos.

Noelle having fun with the kids around

Noticed there were children and women walking along the beach selling souvenirs and hand weaved cloths...I didn't ask for the price...

Women and kid selling hand weaved cloth and souvenirs...

Before we leave the beach, I found this nature beauty standing alone on the volcano rock...it's the only outstanding rock along the beach...

There was nothing much, we left the beach after 30 minutes and continue our journey to the next destination...

Related post for Lombok island trip :-
*  Airasia media FAM trip to Lombok Island - Indonesia on July 2014

Location map of Kuta beach in Lombok island, Indonesia.

Ashtari Restaurant and Lounge at South Lombok Island, Indonesia

After our 'suntan session' from the 2 beaches - Selong Belanak and Mawun beach, we were starving for food...traveling about 7km of winding road from the beach, we finally reached Ashtari Restaurant and Lounge (S8.88255 E116.26417).

Entrance of Ashtari Restaurant in Lombok

While I walked into the restaurant area, noticed one tiny signage nailed on the tree...took a closer look, it stated "Yoga Platform". Oh my goodness! Great! The Yoga activities within the nature! But I didn't manage to take a shot on the platform because it was not ready yet...

The signage to the Yoga platform, Ashtari Lombok

The restaurant is situated on a small hill, everyone of us enjoying the walk from the entrance up to the restaurant...

Ashtari restaurant

The first stunning view attracted all of us was the balcony which overlooking the Kuta town and the beach. It was a spectacular view!

The spectacular view from Ashtari Restaurant overlooking the Kuta town and beach

Let me show you around the restaurant...
By walking into the main dining area, the place is full of bean bags...new concept of a restaurant.

Main dining area...

Beside the bean bags area in the center of the restaurant, there are others different design of dining tables and chairs surrounded...

With the sitting areas above, I believe the balcony is the popular area. And yes! We chose the balcony too!

The balcony dining area of Ashtari Restaurant

The balcony area has the perfect panoramic view of the beautiful surrounding.

The friendly owner is Mr Priss, who born in Paris.

Mr Priss - the owner of the restaurant

Mr Priss was an architect and a designer who had few hobbies in cooking and music. He was a director of a restaurant and club in Paris, and also owner of a restaurants in France. Before he came to Indonesia, he did the architecture and design for the Arabian Palace in Dubai and Saudi Arabia. Mr Priss and his wife suddenly think of change their life style and decided to started a restaurant in Bali called La Plage in Legian area, the restaurant continued to operated for 5 years. Beside the restaurant in Bali, he also managed to designed and constructed 5 villas in Bali island of Indonesia. Now, Mr Priss became one of the partners of Ashtari Restaurant and he been running it now for a year.

Before our food serve on table, everyone was busy taking photo around the restaurant...some just mesmerized by the breathtaking scenery of Ashrati Restaurant...her name is Karen.

Mesmerized by the sunning view around - Karen

At first, we had some starter...

The starter before the main course...

Then followed by the main courses...
Most of us decided to try out their local dishes, so I had the seafood Nasi Goreng Kampung and other tour mates ordered the local seafood mee goreng, some tasted the beef burger...

Seafood nasi goreng kampung

Seafood mee goreng

Beef burger with side dish

Beside the main courses above, it's strongly recommended you ordered the extra local sambal (chili) for those who can take spicy chili, it was hot and marvelous! We all like it very much!

The recommended local sambal which went well with most of the dishes

The foods were really surprised us with the local and original taste! Provided with the different recipe which we had it in our country, and the portion was big enough to satisfied our hunger, delicious!

Dessert came after our meals, I tried the pancakes with Nutella and banana...oh man! Nice and not overly sweet.

The pancakes with Nutella and banana

The restaurant is also a perfect chilled out place for a ice cold beer while watching the sunset...

After we finished our wonderful meals, everyone was relax on the bean bags and enjoyed their drinks...

Because of our schedule, we cannot laying on the bean bags for too long...too bad...
We started our journey to the next destination...

* Strongly recommended restaurant, must visit at least once if you are travel to Lombok island.

Related post for Lombok island trip :-
*  Airasia media FAM trip to Lombok Island - Indonesia on July 2014

Ashtari Restaurant and Lounge

Address : Ashtari Estate, Jalan Raya ke Mawun Prabu, Pujut, Lombok, Indonesia.

Contact:+62-877-6549-7625

Email : contact@ashtarilombok.com / jeanmarc@ashtarilombok.com

Website : http://www.ashtarilombok.com/

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/AshtariLombok

Location map of Ashtari Restaurant and Lounge at Lombok Island