ADDING WINE TO THE DINE
MACA Villas & Spa Resort’s restaurant gets serious about grapes with the grand opening of the “new” MASÉ Kitchen and Wine Bar.
Located on a quiet stretch of road right off the main Petitenget drag, MACA Villas & Spa Resort gives its guests quick access to some of Seminyak’s best nightlife. But guests at the villas often don’t even leave the complex to grab a bite, choosing instead to dine at the resort’s own restaurant. Previously known as MASÉ Kitchen & Bar, it was regarded as one of Seminyak’s hidden gems, offering excellent cuisine at reasonable prices in a cosy and cool dining room. Recently it got rebranded as MASÉ Kitchen and Wine Bar.
The name change is small but important, highlighting the venue’s shift from a casual restaurant to a more fine dining focus, offering diners an excellent selection of wines from around the world alongside cuisine made to match.
Walls of Wine
That focus can be seen as soon as you enter the dining room, which is topped with a tall wooden ceiling and surrounded by windows, in front of which are lined racks and racks of wine bottles from over one hundred labels that they have on offer. Muted lighting and a great playlist of adult contemporary music make it easy to imagine spending a few hours here over a bottle of wine and several courses. There are comfortable couches and tables draped in white linen, as well as an outdoor dining area set beside the resort’s inviting swimming pool.
That endless array of bottles is meant for more than just decoration. MASÉ offers 15 wines by the glass in addition to their extensive bottle selection. The curated list includes popular selections from Australia, Chile and California, as well as other notable regions throughout the world, including the best selling Matua Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, Monkey Puzzle Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile, Berringer Classic Red from Australia and locally produced Plaga Wine Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon.
Pairing Partners
The menu at MASÉ has been retooled somewhat to offer cuisine more suitable for the new focus, while maintaining popular dishes from the past. For our meal, we started with one of their signature dishes, the Escargot Mille Feuille. The plate features a crispy and flaky square of freshly baked puff pastry surrounded by a pool of an intensely rich and creamy sauce, flavoured with white wine, garlic and rosemary. The sauce contained a number of surprisingly tender escargot, as well as skin-on baby potatoes with creamy interiors that soaked up the sauce nicely. My dining companion raved about her mushroom soup. It proved far less creamy than many of the versions you find here but also more flavourful, thanks to the infusion of truffle oil.
There are several tempting choices for mains, including Sweet Bourbon Pork Ribs, Grilled Stuffed Chicken Breast, and Indonesian specialities such as Ayam Panggang Bali. Feeling particularly hungry, I choose an ambitious sounding dish – Trilogy of Balinese Pork. The dish features three cuts of locally sourced meat cooked in different styles. It includes a juicy grilled pork chop, a portion of pork belly with deliciously crispy skin and succulent pork tenderloin, all of which are tied together with a savoury mushroom sauce. As if that wasn’t enough, the plates come with a generous portion of sautéed mushrooms and a mound of crunchy rosti, Swiss-style potato pancakes.
We finished off our fine meal with a few of the kitchen’s excellent desserts. The Lava Cake, accompanying vanilla ice cream and strawberries, was tender and airy while still containing a molten payload of rich liquid chocolate in the centre. Another dessert, the Raspberry and Pistachio, featured the sweet tartness of berries balanced with light cream, delicate cake and the nuttiness of the pistachio emulsion.
After desserts like that, I require good coffee if I hope to stay awake. Fortunately MASÉ also encompasses the Ippolito Coffee Cafe, which serves up award-winning Papa Palheta specialty grade coffee beans from around the world that are freshly roasted, ground and brewed on site. My Iced Long Black was one of the best I’ve had in a while, being quite strong with only the slightest hint of bitterness or acidity. Like the rest of the offerings at MASÉ Kitchen, it’s simple, honest and surprisingly great.
(www.macavillas.com)
