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Value & Flavor: Cuca Restaurant in Jimbaran

A Bali restaurant worthy of note and not to be missed on any trip is the Cuca Restaurant tucked away on a quiet roadside heading to the ocean’s edge in the Jimbaran Beach area.

Cuca is a thoroughly modern venue that emphasizes natural light through its floor-to-ceiling windows and a tastefully minimalistic interior design. 

The restaurant can accommodate large groups in air-conditioned comfort or in inspiring gardens set beneath old-growth trees. Polite young attendants greet visitors in a foreyard designed for vehicle drop-offs and personally escort diners through well-kept gardens and past fish ponds. As they go, visitors are offered a choice of al fresco dining in the gardens, a raised “ring-side seat” overlooking an amazingly talented kitchen brigade, the private group dining room, or the main dining room.

Safe by Design

By design, Cuca’s interior space has high ceilings and, because of the venue’s size, provides generous spacing between guests. Retractable curtains in place from the restaurant’s inception to allow added privacy between tables, now also enhance dining demands in the “new normal” by providing additional “breathing room” and an additional security barrier between any adjoining table of diners.

Separating Curtains for Added Safety

Beyond its welcoming ambiance, the ultimate and undeniable attraction of Cuca remains its outstanding food and impeccable service. Here is a restaurant for committed “grazers” who come to leisurely discover and be awed by new taste sensations as they while away the hours with fellow friends and family. Accordingly, the menu is composed entirely of artistically presented course after course of incomparable food augmented by the informative explanations of attentive waiters and waitresses detailing both the ingredients and preparation method. Whether you choose to label these delectable dishes as “tapas” or “amuse-bouches,” the service staff urge each diner to try at least three courses that are meant, by design, to be shared. Throwing caution to the wind and ignoring amy well-intended recommendation, we lost count and consumed far more than the recommended trio of courses.

Edith Piaff said it best: “Non je ne regrette rien?”

Dining with a friend, we voiced our “oohs and ahs” through a great many courses that included:

Each course at Cuca reflects the restaurant’s co-creators’ culinary sojourn, Canadian Chef Kevin Cherkas, who honed his skills earned at three-star Michelin restaurants in Spain and New York. Later, he picked up an undeniable Asian flair during Shangri-La Hotels assignments in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. Kevin’s co-creator, and partner in life and business is his Spanish wife, Virginia Entizne, who hails from Salamanca. Holding advanced degrees in linguistics and business management – her energy and project management skills form the perfect complement to her husband’s kitchen genius and Cuca’s success.

Drinks List

Everything Cuca touches is magic. This magicality includes an innovative cocktail list with all items also available in a non-alcoholic mocktail version. Opting for the alcoholic strand, we lost track and count after several rounds of “Tokyo Mojito” made from fresh citrus juices, rum, soda, and lemon basil. As the meal progressed, we also enjoyed Cuca’s “Sun-gria” – a take on red sangria was delicious and served over frozen cubes of fruit juices.

Cuca also boasts an excellent wine list.

Pre-pandemic seating, now trimmed to conform to Provincial health protocols, accommodated 250 for cocktails or canapés in dramatically-lit garden, 160 in the main dining room, or 40-person private dining room.

At a Loss for Words

While we could say “more” about Bali’s Cuca Restaurant, but based on our last visit, we simply prefer to say “more, please.

May I have more, please?

Important Links

Cuca Restaurant Website

Cuca Restaurant on Facebook

Cuca Restaurant on Instagram

Cuca Restaurant on Twitter

Cuca Restaurant

Jl. Yoga Perkanthi, Jimbaran, Bali, Indonesia

Phone +62 361 708066

Email

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