New Years’ Eve is often a much hyped, over-anticipated, let-down of a night, but when you get to spend it with loved ones in a tropical island paradise, with a beautiful spread of delectable dishes in front of you, its easy to feel grateful.
Dave’s immediate family – his folks, his sister, brother and their respective partners (including four kids), and the two of us are spending a week in Seminyak in Bali, Indonesia. Its not the best time of the year to visit – monsoon season and school-holiday-flight-prices, but even during the wet season, Bali still delivers.
With eight adults and four kids aged between six and eight years old, finding a suitable New Years Eve dining experience close to our Seminyak villa proved a little difficult. We had been forewarned not to count on taxis as a lot of the roads would be closed to pedestrians, and many of the Seminyak hot-spots were running adults only parties, or a set menu dinner option, which we weren’t too keen on.
We knew what we wanted – a top notch meal, with preferably a la carte menu that we could order off easily for the kids and adults alike. Plus it had to be able to cater for an early-ish sitting – the plan was to be back at the villa by 9pm at the latest. After trawling through reviews and emailing with a few restaurants it seemed we had struck gold – Barbacoa in Seminyak could seat all 12 of us at 5pm, and no set menu was required. Whoo hoo!
Barbacoa
We arrived spot on 5pm, and were shown our way through the mostly empty (lets face it, 5pm is VERY early for dinner!) warehouse style restaurant to our table. A round of drinks was ordered within minutes and some complimentary spiced nuts were placed on the table for us to nibble on while we perused the menu.
Cocktails all round!
Espresso martinis – YUMMO!
Spiced Nuts
With a Latin American, chargrill barbecue (asado) style menu, choosing what to eat was certainly the biggest challenge of the night. We started with the jalepeno chilli croquettes for the table – and what a great choice! The cream cheese stuffing had a heated jalepeno kick to it, and the crispy batter was perfectly deep-fried. These went down a treat and whet our appetite for the mains.
Jalepeno Chilli Croquetas
Once we ordered mains, everyone went outside to snap some pics and take in the beautiful view of the rice paddie fields out the back of the restaurant. Only in Bali can you be dining at a top-notch establishment, yet have the ruralness of a working paddock out the back! Stunning outlook, and if it hadn’t been for the mosquitos and the smokers, it would have been lovely to sit outside.
View over the rice paddies
Three of the four little tackers ordered the Kids Tasting Plate (what a great idea, right?!), and one ordered the Fish and Chips. These arrived fairly quickly and all four plates were practically licked clean, with all the kid very happy. Barbacoa clearly know that eating/full kids equal happy kids!
Children’ Menu Tempura Fish and Chips 
Kids Tasting Plate
So, back to the adults menu. Most of us were drawn to the signature Barbacoa 8 hour slow cooked suckling pig … which we actually walked past on our way into the restaurant (and sorry to the vegos out there)! The wait staff also highly recommend this as the dish to beat so it was hard to say no. We also ordered a bunch of salads/sides for the table to share.
Slow cooked suckling pig cookin’ away
My sister-in-law and I ended up sharing a few of the smaller dishes and the suckling pig for mains, my pet hate at a restaurant is only being able to try one or two things! Sharing is much more fun! The fish tacos we ordered were DELICIOUS, a definite winner for me, and the tuna sashimi was fresh and zesty, with tender slices of fish.
Fish tacos with cabbage slaw, chipotle mayo and mango salsa 
Sashimi tuna with palm heart, ginger grilled pineapple, basil, coconut cream and corn tostadas
Roasted beetroot with labne, quinoa, pumpkin seeds and lime dressing
Fried cauliflower with pine nuts, raisins, parsley, cauliflower puree and cumin
And the amazing suckling pig with crackling and chimichurri!
Whilst we were enjoying our mains, the kids had their dessert, and the highlight for them was the liquid nitrogen mango ice-cream made in front of the table…
Liquid Nitrogen mango ice-cream 
The grand finale was the desserts – we ordered a few white chocolate ice cream sandwiches and the flan de leche to share amongst us. The Flan was literally like heaven on a plate – it tasted exactly like the creamiest, tastiest creme brûlée with a toasted waffle-like cone – I would honestly put it up there a one of my top three desserts EVER!
White chocolate ice-cream sandwich
The world’s best Flan de Leche
All in all, our dinner at Barbacoa was five star – the drinks were flowing, the staff were absolutely lovely and the food was mouth-wateringly good. What a fabulous way to bring in the new year – bring on 2017!
Happy New Year from all of us!
