Five years ago, I visited the nearby provincial capital, Nanning and had an interesting meal in a restaurant called Ubud. I reviewed very it favourably here.
So when I heard of an identically named restaurant here in town, I had to check it out. The menu contains similar dishes but there the similarity ends. I suspect they have just copied the name and some of the menu - either that or their standards have slipped dramatically.
My partner and I had:
This was described on the menu in both Chinese and English as "Avocado Salad Vegetables". There may have been an avocado in the neighbourhood sometime, but there was certainly none in the salad. It was 90% lettuce and cabbage decorated with a few bits of chopped carrot and halved cherry tomatoes. All dressed with Kewpie mayonnaise. In desperate need of seasoning. I'm sure there wasn't a grain of salt in there.
Then:
"Chicken Curry with Coconut". Vaguely Thai. Vaguely SE Asian. Vaguely chicken. It was 98% sweet curried potato. Garnished with a few scraps of chicken. Total rip-off dish.
Their menu states that the images provided are "for reference only". Unfortunately, they refer to totally different dishes! This wasn't even the same colour as the "reference".
And bizarrely, it came with two slices of stale bread spread with - well I hate to think what it was spread with. Certainly nothing that had ever met a cow or even a field. Industrial effluent.
Then:
"Spicy Seafood". Two shrimp. Some crab legs and a lot of lotus root, wood ear mushrooms and unidentifiable vegetation. It wasn't bad. Could have been a lot better.
This was the best dish I ate in the original place in 2011. "Beef with Mango". Unfortunately, whoever cooked this had only ever seen pictures of the original. The original was spicy and sweet and sour in perfect balance. This was like mango jam. Nothing sour and again totally unseasoned. A great disappointment.
Finally, "Steamed Scallops with Garlic"
Actually, not very garlicky. Steamed scallops with vermicelli would be closer. But they were fine. Yet, I could have bought them round the corner for half the price.
Despite the disappointment with the food, I had lovely evening with lovely company. It was a birthday celebration or as the local cake shop has it "Brithday"
Despite my notorious aversion to all things sweet, this was actually the best thing I ate all evening. The cake was moist and chocolately and the fruit on top was fresh.
Happy Brithday!
