V Rating: VV
Where: 129 Avoca Street, Randwick.
When: Dinner Tue - Sun: 6pm - 9pm. Lunch: Sat - Sun: 11am - 3pm.
Tel: (02) 9398 8555.
Price: Entree: $6.60 - $10.90. Mains: $9.90 - $28.90.

Jimbaran sits serenely on Avoca Street in Randwick, a world away from the squashed and noisy Indonesian cafes on nearby Anzac Parade.

The restaurant has a modern, elegant feel. There’s a tasteful chocolate feature wall, fluttering candles and thick white embroidered tablecloths - covered in a plastic protector. It’s the only Indonesian restaurant in Sydney I know of with such a lovely interior, and reminded me of the beautiful restaurants in Sengiggi and Ubud, Bali.

I assume that the restaurant is named for Jimbaran Bay in Bali, tragic site of bombings in October 2005, and whose upmarket restaurants were popular with Western tourists.

Last Sunday, L. and I were led away from this romantic front area (perhaps they knew that even with plastic covers I wasn’t to be trusted) and into the large, covered back courtyard.

After poring over the menu we were please to see ten vegetarian main dishes scattered throughout the listings, and helpfully indicated by an asterix. Five were noodle stir-frys or nasi goreng variations where the distinguishing feature of each dish was the type of noodles, not the vegetables used in the stir-fry.

We eyed off the vegetable curry (lodeh), but opted for the fried egg noodles with vegetables and Morning Glory stir-fried with a preserved soya bean sauce.

The noodles were huge and beautifully presented on a banana leaf. There were not a lot of vegetables in amongst the noodles, but it was certainly a filling dish.

I was keen to try the morning glory and it reminds me of being in Asia. I don’t remember morning glory from Indonesia but ate a lot of it in Laos (not an overly veggie friendly place). It’s not a dish you see a lot in Australia - perhaps because it’s less euphemistically known as river weed, which makes it hard to move on a menu.

Morning glory is long, thick stemmed grass along the lines of shallots. Jimbaran serve it stir-fried in the preserved soya bean sauce (basically what they make tempeh from) and chilli. I liked the sauce and the flavour easily absorbed into the soft texture of the morning glory.

I ummed and ahhed about giving Jimbaran a VVV - the food is well-priced, the atmosphere is lovely and the menu has a good range of traditional Indonesian and vegetarian dishes, although other friends tell me that Jimbaran is famous for its seafood dishes.

My only hesitation was that the vegetarian food I tried was pleasant but not particularly flavoursome. Disappointingly, Jimbaran doesn’t make use of tempeh or tofu, which are common in Indonesian, and half of the vegetarian dishes were variations on noodle or fried rice.

The rating is provisional - I’d like to go again and try the lodeh, fried eggplant, and cap cay which might make better vegetarian choices than the options.

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