Review: Portabella Bistro

Last week I was invited for the food tasting session in Portabella Bistro, Fontana Hotel Bali. They have monthly Italian food by region promotion and for April, the theme is Campania. Chef Vittorio Negri, the executive chef is a Campani and he passionately explained to us about Campanian food. One of his mission is to educate people about the real Italian food. I really enjoyed listening to the story while chef Vitto doing the cooking demo, preparing the dishes.

Settled by the Greeks and then dominated by the Etruscans, Samnites and Romans, the southern region of Campania is more densely populated along the coast than inland, where hills and mountains make for harsher living. Near the busy capital city of Naples, Mount Vesuvius reigns impassive and foreboding, a daily reminder of the eruption when the nearby cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae were covered in red-hot lava and a cloud of ashes. But the volcanic soil around Mount Vesuvius has also ensured Campania fertile land where some of Italy's tastiest produce is grown, ready to be shipped and enjoyed all over the world.

Best known around the world for its pizza and pasta, Campania's exuberant cuisine relies on sinkissed vegetables and herbs, salty capers, dried pasta and fresh farmhouse cheeses (chief among them water buffalo's Mozzarella).

pretty interior

wood oven for pizza

Chef Vittorio Negri

The Campani, as the people of Campania are called, are renowned for their fish and seafood specialities. All along Campania's glittering coastline, squid and cuttlefish are boiled and served in salads, stuffed and baked, or fried into crunchy rings, while mussels and clams are cooked with a whisper of wine and tossed with handmade pasta or added to seafood salads. Salt cod, fresh sardines, and anchovies too are staples.

Frittura Napoletana

We were served Frittura Napoletana (fried mix Neapolitan specialities) as a starter. Arancini which is filled with ragù (meat sauce) and mozzarella, it has crispy outer crumb and creamy melted inside. The fried broccoli is crunchy and sweet. Fried couscous is delicious with grainy soft texture. I could taste the intense cheese flavour from the ravioli ricotta. All those fried goodies are perfectly accompanied by the tangy and sweet flavour of Napoletana sauce (tomato based sauce).

Spaghetti Alle Vongole

Spaghetti Alle Vongole or spaghetti with clams. The pasta is cooked into perfect texture then mixed with pesto sauce. It actually tastes a bit bland for my taste buds. But the clams compensate for the lack of taste. The clams are very fresh and sweet that when I took a bite of it, I could almost smell the sea

Polipo Alla Santa Lucia

Polopo Alla Santa Lucia is a dish of octopus in cherry tomatoes capers and black olive. This is my favourite menu. The sliced octopus are tender and crunchy in the same time, also have sweet taste lingers on my taste buds. Cooked in cherry tomato sauce which is sweet and tangy. What a wonderful mingling of flavours !

O ' Rau Braciole E Melenzane

O ' Rau Braciole E Melenzane is zitoni pasta with Neapolitan ragù and served with thin sliced veal meat wrapped and eggplant. Honestly, it's the first time I heard about zitoni pasta which is a thick long tube pasta (up to 1 metre long). Unfortunately, the zitoni pasta that chef Vitto ordered from supplier hasn't arrived that day, so we have to settle with rigatoni pasta as replacement. The perfectly cooked al dente pasta have springy texture and goes well with the tomato based sauce. With soft eggplant cubes and topped with generous portion of grated Parmesan cheese. Delizioso !

O ' Babba

A delicious O ' Babba to end the delightful lunch, which is a rhum baba served with pastry cream and Italian cherry in syrup. The yeast cake is very soft and fluffy that it easily melts in your tongue. It has an intense taste of liquor (rhum) that complement the cake so well.

You can enjoy all these special menu from  1-30 April 2013 in Portabella Bisto, Fontana Hotel Bali. The price range are competitive compare to other Italian restaurants in Bali or I might even say it's more affordable than other hotel restaurants. I will definitely come back to taste their famous wood oven pizza


Portabella Bistro - Fontana Hotel Bali
Jl. Dewi Sri No. 68
Kuta - Bali, Indonesia 80361
T. +62 361 8947002
F. +62 361 8947123
contact@portabellabistro.com
www.portabellabistro.com