Bhimas Warung, Waterloo

Yup, yup, another business trip.  Another absolutely packed itinerary of mostly work, which included some local dining.  And yup, another set of notes meticulously taken, ambitious plans of writing up my review as soon as I had a free moment, and ... trip over, time elapsed, notes lost.  Sigh.

This trip was to a slightly less exciting place than many of my travels, it was to ... Waterloo, Canada.  Not exactly a fine dining mecca, but, when I looked at reviews, one place came up over and over again: Bhimas Warung, a restaurant that has been around since 1994, so clearly has staying power.  They serve a mix of Indonesian, Vietnamese, & Thai food, and had a menu full of things I was excited by.  My local host was really, really excited to take us there, as it is his favorite place in town.  We headed there as a group of only 3.

While this is seemed to be considered the most highly regarded restaurant in town, I found it only ok, and if I was back in Waterloo for one meal only, no question, I'd return to The Crazy Canuck for another fantastic hot dog, poutine, and decent beaver tail.

The Space

Entrance.

The decor was fairly unique, with a kinda authentic, homey feel to it.

Bar.

The bar was in the center, large, but, didn't really seem to be where people went to sit and dine or otherwise hang out.

Menu.

Tables were set with laminated (kinda tacky) menus and fresh flowers on every one.

The Check.

The bill at the end of the meal was much less tackily presented, in a wooden folder.

Drinks

We all started the meal with cocktails, as the local who took us said they were excellent.  One diner cannot drink alcohol but he had a nice selection of mocktails to pick from.

Every drink came with a fruity garnish.

Some more elaborate than others.

While a nice touch in some ways, I found the garnish hard to drink around.

Appetizers 

The menu at Bhimas Warung is extensive.  Very full pages, with long descriptions of each dish.  

In the appetizer section alone there was more than a dozen choices, and nearly every dish had something I loved in it - foie gras potstickers (!!) with peanut nam jim, dumplings with scallops, crab, mango, squid ... so many things I love.

We were a group of only three though, and we weren't particularly hungry, so, we settled on only two choices (sadly, not the foie gras potstickers, as I was the only one excited for those).

Go Tai. $17.

"Fried dumplings, filled with spiced minced chicken and fresh sea scallops, in spicy mango butter."

Big plate, little dumplings.

Sotong Goreng Sama Rujak. $13.

"Tapioca and garlic fried squid in roasted chili, lime, and hoisin glaze with 'rujak' salad."

They were really into drizzling and painting on plates.

Mains

The mains lineup was just as extensive, a huge page, even ending in a note that says if you have a favorite that isn't listed, just ask the servers, they can "by all means try to prepare it for you".  How rare is that?!

Again nearly every dish had something I was excited about, like taro mash, excellent seafood, and, zomg so many sauces.

We again picked only two dishes for the 3 of us due to not being particularly hungry.

Bakmie Goreng Die Bawah Bebek Buie. $32.

"Muscovy duck magret roasted in ginger medium rare onto a wack of warung fried egg noodles, with the chaing mai curry"

The first one was definitely not what I'd ever normally order, at least, not if picking only two to order, but our local told us that this is what he gets every single time.  It wasn't a question of if he was getting it this time around.

Pad Ped Surf & Turf. $35.

"Beef tenderloin slivers and tiger shrimp jump fried with mushrooms, snake beans and selected vegetables and hopped up in a *&%$@!! hot Bhima's red curry"

The other was also the pick of our local host.  He told us this was a signature dish so we had to try it. We almost didn't order it because the server warned us it was spicy and the other diner can't handle a lot of spice, but, our host really encouraged it.

Served with coconut rice on the side.

Dessert

The dessert menu at Bhimas Warung was basically what my dreams are made of.   We were only 3 people, and we only ordered 2 appetizers and 2 mains because were weren't that hungry, but, we still ordered 3 full desserts, because I couldn't possibly narrow it down more.  Honestly, I wanted them all.  You know how much I love pudding, and there was not one, not two, but three pudding inspired options (tapioca pudding, creme brulee, and bread pudding), plus warm fried things (pisang goreng, gulab jamboon) with ice cream, and a mango & macadamia buterrnut tarte ... plus a slew of fascinating housemade ice cream flavors: black sticky rice & praline, thai basil & pandan, banana & bourbon, mango, etc, etc.  I mean, really.

Tea.

Uncle Warner's Tapioca Pudding.

"Tapioca pearls, vanilla ice cream, fruits, chocolate sauce, and creme de menthe."

A HUGE goblet of warm tapioca pudding, with two full scoops of ice cream, fruit, and sauces.  I mean, really.

Black Sticky Rice Creme Brulee.

"With fruit & praline."

Certainly not a traditional creme brulee, and I was surprised to see it served this way, and to not see the black sticky rice evident, but, a very unique dish nonetheless.

Commander's Palace White Chocolate Bread Pudding.

"Served warm with dark chocolate ice cream."

And warm bread pudding ... swoon.  We asked for the black sticky rice & praline flavor ice cream instead of dark chocolate as we were avoiding caffeine at night, and this allowed us to try the ice cream I most wanted to try too!