Sunday afternoon Ika, Jevon and I went down to Glory Restaurant on Jl. Legian in Legian, for some authentic Balinese food. The funny thing about Bali is that there are not many Balinese restaurants. There are a ton of roadside snack place out in the country, selling the cold mixture of rice, peanut sauce, sprouts and chili’s, but in the tourist scene it all Padang food from Sumatra, nasi goreng and Javanese cooking.
One of the best places to enjoy authentic Balinese food, other than a Balinese person’s house, is Glory Restaurant. Glory has been open since the 70’s and manager Putu, has a tremendous amount of knowledge and experience in Balinese cuisine.
Ika is from Java, and there are differences in her type of food for sure. In Central Java food is usually sweet, and often deep fried. With Balinese food they love to use pork and the traditional dish, lawar contains pork blood and pork fat. Ika enjoyed her Balinese food, minus the pork. Some of the dishes I tried were Urutan (pork sausage), Timbungan (spicy minced pork, roasted in a bamboo tube), Jukut Bayam (spiced mountain greens), Tum (spiced forcemeat steamed in banana leaf), Jukut Urab (steamed vegetables and shaved coconut), Jagung goreng (fried corn), Ikan Cekalan (Salted fish).
In this era of being trendy, one can grab parts of any cuisine, dribble taco sauce on something, and say its ‘authentic food’. Here at Glory Restaurant, you have a traditional Balinese food selection, prepared and cooked by Balinese chefs. These guys are fussy, and will take dishes away if they feel they have been out too long. Aside from the Balinese buffet, which is every Sunday, Glory is a great family restaurant, plenty of room, good food and expert cocktails.
Glory - Bar & Restaurant
Jalan Legian Kaja No. 445, Legian - Bali
Tel (62.361) 751091 / Fax (62.361) 753219
Email : info@glorybali.com
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The guys at Glory have been wearing these Gecko shirts since the 70’s as well. As far as I am concerned any resturant that has lasted that long in Bali has got to be doing something right.
I have had many a wonderful meal (and cocktail) at this resturant.
Sad thing is they now know how to measure cocktails - 25 years ago it was a bit of this and a bit of that and they were not little bits. Fantastic
Glory was great in the GOOD OLD GLORY DAYS Wed night was Buffet night. Free jugs of Long Island Teas & Harvey Wallbangers for 2 hrs until 7-30 Also eat as much as you like till 10-30ish. Many a time I and several mates have over the years (from mid-80s) staggered out at 11-0pm and crawled up to the Pink Panther (now that was a real BALI ICON) The first price I remember paying was Rupiah 4000. I think when they finally stopped those nights the price had crept up to 25000 rupiah. Still dirt cheap Oh for the memories. Do any more Bloggers recall those halycon days. Would like to hear and remonise
Frank - nothing like a Glory Ride home as well.
Not to mention the wonderful 2 or 3 piece band that could sing nothing in tune but did their damndest.
Always had to order a couple of jugs at 7.20 to keep you going through the rest of the night. They were wonderful days - I think my brother-in-law ate 45 satay sticks one night, wouldn’t let the staff clean them away cos he wanted to count them at the end of the night. I will be popping in there in October for the Sunday buffet.
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