Long lunch at Locavore

Ubud's Locavore restaurant is justifiably famous. Rated in the top 50 restaurants of Asia for the last four years "the passionate and dedicated kitchen team create unique, contemporary European fare from the finest of locally sourced seasonal ingredients. Artfully presented, meticulously prepared and utterly delicious, the cuisine of Locavore promises an exhilarating fine dining experience".

It was such a thrill for us to be inside Locavore today for the first time - and with the promise of an exhilarating lunch experience to look forward to .........

 We were in the first group of lunch guests to arrive but the space rapidly filled after about 12.30pm.

 We started with one of Locavore's unique cocktails: a "ginger? indeed" for me and an "ashes" for Rob. There's a burning pine cone and cinnamon stick happening with Rob's drink to add to the sensory experience (very Heston Blumenthal).

 Then followed an amazing array of amuse bouche - unique tasters before our meal proper.

The first was a "salad" of leaves and flowers dipped in a marigold foam .....

then lemongrass sticks dipped in palm sugar and lime, then dipped in ground peanuts and coconut .......

 black rice blini .......

 frangipani tempura (who knew frangipani's were edible?)

 locally grown roasted mango.....

 tomato and chilli sorbet.......

 bread made with cassava flour and leaves and flowers (absolutely delicious)......

 Then it was onto our meal proper - we chose the 6 course (non veg) option with matched drinks for one (so much better to share 6 cocktails rather than drink 6 each we thought!!!).

Our first course was all based on broccoli (with ham puree, peanut miso, seaweed and vichyssoise)....... I think this was my absolute favourite dish of the day - although a tough call!

 Second course included lots of marigold flowers with young white corn "rice", mud crab and a corn miso veloute.....

 By the third course I forgot to take a picture while everything was perfectly arranged (before I spoilt the arrangement by taking my first spoonful) -  this amazing dish was a homage to carrot, cooked and prepared a myriad of ways.

It was fun to see the "dedicated and passionate" kitchen team hard at work the whole time we were there. Eelke and Ray (the founders of Locavore - ex Alila Ubud Hotel) were both busy working the kitchen today.......

 The two main courses started with snapper confit in vanilla cacao butter with black orange sauce and burned tangerine from Kintamani (Rob's favourite dish). The matched drink was vanilla infused vodka, orange zest with frangipani burned orange segment. 

The second main was chicken grilled with lots of variations on black garlic ... 

 ... then a palette freshener of coffee skin granita with mangosteen segments ..

 before dessert which was "everything palm tree": caramel gelato, tamarind jam, kaffir lime pickled palm heart and palm sugar meringue ......

 After dinner coffee was a real treat too - prepared by this gorgeous staff member who explained every step of the process to us...

 And still there was more .......... amazing and unique petit fours - Locavore style ......

followed by a scoop of cassava frothy cream with kaffir lime to close the deal - one of the most extraordinary meals we have ever eaten. It took over three hours of unhurried but constant eating (and drinking) to get through this amazing meal. We are so lucky to be staying only a 5 minute walk away from Locavore - although surprisingly we were both able to walk home from lunch without falling over!