Batam Food Guide (3D2N)
There's many outdated blog posts of Batam out there, so here's one for u if you are thinking of making a trip down. This guide is mostly going to be about the food and shopping (for snacks) because that's all we're interested in! It's going to be quite a long post so grab some munchies and read on~
We got our ferry tickets from Majestic Fast Ferry on Groupon, for about $36 dollars per pax. Good thing is that there were no fine print for extra fees, unlike the hotel+tour+ferry offers on Groupon.
On a Friday morning, immigration was pretty smooth. All aboard!
After clearing Batam immigration, follow the linkway on level two to Mega Mall. It was lunch time and there were quite a few dining options at the mall -- A&W (horrid reviews about cockroaches), Godiva (not the atas chocolatier) and quite a few other restaurants/cafes serving Indonesian food.
1. Coffee Town (Mega Mall)
The first thing on our mind was where to have lunch. Unfortunately, the mall was deserted and, Coffee Town seemed the most crowded... if three is a crowd. On hindsight, we would probably have done better at any other Indonesian restaurant in Mega Mall. We started with a very weird tasting carrot juice (22,000RP) which tasted like carrot water...
This bowl of Mee Bakso (5,000RP) was soup bowl sized. Taste-wise, it was bland and unappetizing.
Salted fish fried rice (30,000Rp) was decent and had a decent portion of salted fish. The sambal was nice but S was nursing a sore throat and couldn't really enjoy it.
This meal can be summed up with one word: disappointing! After that, we cabbed over to our hotel. It cost about 75,000Rp from Mega Mall to Nagoya Mansion. We got quoted 70,000 initially but it rose to 75,000 after bargaining. Got to brush up on our bargaining skills.
Nagoya Mansion is one of the newer hotels in Batam (about 2 years old). From Agoda, it cost us about S$80 per night after tax. First thing we noticed upon arrival was that the concierge was crammed full of security guards (probably 7 of them, just sitting around on a long bench). Second was that the hotel only occupied the 17th-21st floor and 3rd floor for the reception/pool/restaurant/spa. The other floors were private apartments. Third was with only two incredibly slow lifts, being allocated to the 21st floor made using the lifts a painful process.
The room was well furnished and the bed comfy, not much complaints here.
Toilet was bigger than expected and clean (a definite plus too!).
This is the view from our room, with Nagoya mall (the square building with the blue dome) in the distance. Apparently taxi fare in Batam are all fixed prices with little room for negotiation (or perhaps we weren't pushing hard enough). They quoted us 50,000Rp from Nagoya mall to our hotel, which we obviously rejected! By the way, it's only a 10mins walk and the streets are safe enough to walk even at night -- just watch where you are stepping on because there were hardly any street lamps.
Room service ~ anyone?
The hotel's pool was tiny and got very crowded fast as somehow there were so many kids when we stayed there.
2. Warung Cobain (Nagoya Mall)
For dinner, we walked down to Nagoya mall. Nagoya mall is probably the biggest and best (we haven't seen BCS mall though) in Batam. It has a food street and many many restaurants. We dined at Warung Cobian, an Indonesian food chain restaurant. Warung Cobian also has an outlet at Mega Mall which we missed on the way into Batam.
If you thought the iced tea (right) was sweet, it pales in comparison to the iced milk tea (left). We're willing to bet that a whole can of condensed milk went in there.
This was Sher's favourite dish, some kind of raw vegetable salad with peanut sauce (ala Gado Gado) and crushed Belinjau chips. Be warned though, this dish is extremely spicy. Looks like her chilli training paid off.
Ayam Bakar (grilled chicken) had a nice char grilled taste, however, it was extremely tiny.
The fried duck thigh was served bone-dry and dripping in black oil and was quite a turn-off. Worst thing was it wasn't even fried, the skin was still rubbery and impossible to remove with a fork and spoon.
S was a huge fan of the Sambal Ijo (cooked green chilis). It wasn't very spicy and had a sour/sweet taste to it.
Sayur Asem (spicy and sour vegetables soup) was very tasty and had lots of vegetables in it. Corn taste a bit raw though.
Our total damage for this meal came down to S$11, which was so incredibly cheap and worth it.
3. Rotiboy (Nagoya Mall)
We would suggest not to buy the Rotiboy (9500Rp) at the food street. Although cheap, and looks authentic, it was tasteless and dry to boot.
4. Breakfast @ Nagoya Mansion
Breakfast the next day at our hotel. Remember to go early (around 7.30am). We went at 9am on the 2nd day and couldn't find seats! All the food were gone too:/
Sher really likes her fried onions and spring onions. There were more of those than porridge.
Our favourite omelette and sunny side up eggs. Note that the queue at the eggs station was insane (at least 45mins - an hour's wait)
Prata made to order. It was meh. We read some reviews that the prata was good. But ours was so chewy that we had trouble cutting it with a fork and spoon.
5. Ayam Penyet Ria (Nagoya Mall)
5. Ayam Penyet Ria (Nagoya Mall)
For those of you who are wondering if this Ayam Penyet Ria is related to the one in Lucky Plaza, the answer is yes! We haven't tried the Singapore outlet, so we decided to give the one at Megamall a shot.
We sat at the open air food street. Although damn sunny and hot, it was better than stuffy, smokey and hot in the Ayam Penyet Ria shop we suppose.
Watching the crowd go by while waiting for our food to arrive.
Lemon Tea & Lime Juice (15,000Rp each).
Sher's fav gado gado (15,000Rp). It was full of crispy keropok, eggs, ketupat, and vegetables, all of that doused in a flavorful but mildly spicy peanut sauce. Could probably be a meal on its own. The portion was so huge that we had trouble finishing it.
The eponymous Ayam Penyet i.e. smashed fried chicken (15,000Rp). Raw vegetables aside, the rest of the dish was delicious. Although the chicken was small, it was tasty and perfectly complimented by the sambal.
Next up was the Lele or smashed fried catfish (24,091Rp). This was quite hard to eat because the fish was very bony. This was very similar in taste and texture to your kuning fish in Nasi Lemak.
S insisted we get a serving of Teri Cabe Ijo (9,091Rp). This wasn't as spicy as the one at Warung Cobain, and as an added bonus, it came with crispy ikan bilis.
Total damage : 110,331Rp (S$11). Overall, a very satisfying meal. We would suggest having it at night though, or else you'll have to eat in the hot sun (or the stuffy shop).
Do not buy this at Nagoya mall supermarket. Cost us 4,000Rp each we seemed decent, then we went to Habor Bay mall and we discovered that they were going at only 2,000Rp each. #FeelingCheated
As it was our second last day in Batam, we went on a mad shopping spree in the supermarket. Most of the loot was Sher's!
Throughout our trip, we were scouting for where to buy the best kueh lapis. Eventually, we settled for La Moist. The premium ones with butter cost us 140,000Rp for small (280,000Rp for large) with prunes.
6. Wey Wey 2 Live Seafood (Harbor Bay)
The taxi dropped us off at Harbour Bay Mall, which consisted of a dilapidated shopping centre connected to a the hotel. The only shops open of interest were probably the supermarket (not Carrefour anymore), a J.CO which had better looking donuts than the one at Mega Mall and Godiva Cafe. No wonder our driver kept insisting (in semi-decent english) that we go to BCS mall instead. Within walking distance were the seafood restaurants situated along the waterfront and the nearby Harbour Bay Ferry Terminal which had an open air duty free area. After combing the area for signs of life, we sadly headed over to Wey Wey 2 Live Seafood for our seafood feast. We chose Wey Wey 2 because it had the most lively dining area.
As other bloggers might have mentioned, the sea doesn't smell good. And it's probably not just Wey Wey. We found out why -- they were sweeping the trash/leftovers straight into the water. Oh well, at least when they started cooking the food aromas quickly covered up whatever stench was emanating from the putrid water.
At least the atmosphere was pretty good and thankfully it didn't rain on us.
For drinks we settled for an overpriced Bintang Beer (33,000Rp, supermarket sells about 13,000Rp) and Lemon Tea (15,000Rp). As usual, any drinks to do with fruits just tasted bland.
The first signs of green chili padi in Batam!
We decided to try Mantis Prawns two ways - steamed and fried. At 50,000rp per prawn, this didn't come cheap. The steamed prawn was juicy, and had a curious sweet aftertaste.
The fried mantis was highly recommended by the waiter. We thought there would be some special sauce to go with it, but turns out it was just lightly fried with garlic.
Lala fried with eggs and chili (35,000Rp) was a bad order. The shellfish were tiny and there was hardly any flesh in them.
We also had a plate of Baby Kailan (20,000Rp). Small, unassuming portion.
Bawal Emas Steam (600g- 144,000Rp) - We ordered pomfret steamed Hong Kong Style. This was probably the best dish so far because the fish was big and fresh.
Total damage: 357,000Rp (S$36). That's a steep price to pay for a rather disappointing meal. Oh well, at least now we know not to visit Harbor Bay ever again!
7. J.CO (Harbor Bay Mall)
While waiting for our ride back to hotel, we dropped by the mall for JCo donuts - 8,000Rp each. These ones look a lot better than those at the Megamall outlet.
We also headed down to the supermarket to grab some Haagen-Dazs. This tiny tub cost us about 35,000Rp. Expensive.. but we were craving ice cream.
8. Baresto Cafe (Mega Mall)
Time flies when you are doing nothing. And soon enough, it was our last day in Batam and we had a ferry to catch. But first, we had to find something to satisfy our stomachs and so we stopped by Baresto Cafe at Megamall.
What better to order for our last Batam meal than Ayam Penyet. This one was probably better than the earlier one at Ayam Penyet Ria. The chicken thigh was juicy and flavorful. As usual, S wanted the one with Sambal Ijo.
French beans with haebi hiam looked rather soupy. It was garnished with surprisingly crispy haebi hiam and garlic bits. Average at best.
The prawns weren't the freshest we've come across but the cereal was nice and crisp and the portion was generous. So overall, an acceptable dish!
We had a huge assam fish which came with lots of veges (which only S eats). The fish was quite fresh, no fishy taste and whatnot. This fish cost us about 40,000Rp - about the same as our coffee.
Can you believe it? We had 4 dishes and 2 drinks and this meal was only S$19. The drinks were on the pricier side about $3 - $5 each. Had we known earlier, we wouldn't have hesitated to dine at Baresto's when we arrived in Batam.
That pretty much sums up our Batam Trip: lots of feasting, supermarket shopping and idling around. When it was finally time to return to the hustle and bustle that is Singapore, we were in for another nasty shock -- the departure immigration queue. As suggested in other blogs, go about 2hrs early and be prepared for lots of unpleasant jostling.
0 comments: