Nirwana Resort Bintan: best lunch for 2023

We ate here two times for lunch – our first day and one during the week. Not bad, not brilliant, and high on the price. Some quite average food, broken service, and staggered serving like you would not believe, but hey it’s a bistro in a hotel lobby, the staff is really nice and the view is beautiful.

One stand-out is the Dino Burger. I had this the two times we ate here. If you like a regular classic burger, made with real ground beef cooked to medium, cheddar cheese, shredded lettuce, tomato, mustard, mayonnaise, pickles, onion, and fries – then this is your buddy. Seriously a great burger, and I loved eating it on both occasions and would sure have it again. Well done Dino Bistro.

Jude had the spaghetti with meatballs, and yes that bowl of grated parmesan that he decided to dip his face in – did you see Ninakennett.blogspot.sg too funny. Anyway to the food – for the kids, this was excellent and was actually very very tasty very beef intense with some really nice garlic overtones. 100% recommended for your kids too.

Amy went for the fish and chips. A classic for the kids. Mary commented that it was really fresh fish, but the batter was very lacking – also for some reason every time we ordered this (bearing in mind it was kid’s food) it turned up last, always a disaster when you are trying to get the kids to eat their food. So maybe not as high up as the spaghetti on the must-purchase list.

Ollie then chose the Philli Cheese Steak sandwich. Ollie’s feedback was; sadly the feedback was it wasn’t great but it wasn’t bad. The beef was a tad chewy. The gravy was like pepper sauce, not BBQ sauce. So I don’t think he’ll be ordering this again, but for today it was just to try something different, so he did!

Poolside

Just for something different this lunch I went off the local Indonesian track and veered off to Korea. You could say I Korea‘d off the menu. I went with Kimchi Chige.

This is Kimchi spicy cabbage soup with sliced beef. You know I am glad I did. I really did enjoy this. The deeper you got in the bowl the more intense the beef flavour got intermingled with the sour kimchi soup.

Very good Poolside, Ollie had this the following time we came to visit you, and had the same experience too.

Sorry Poolside, not a bit of me, again trying something different by ordering Hot Stone Chicken. Rice underneath, in a hot-stone bowl, covered in this supposed Chinese style chicken. Supposed to be with soy sauce and all that. Sad to say really tasteless, I didn’t eat all of this, in fact leaving about half of it. Not good. Would not be ordering this again.

Wifey kicked a goal though apparently with her choice of Stir Fried Chili Squid. She raved about this one. Not too spicy, but the spice flavoured the squid perfectly. The squid was supremely fresh and so tender to eat. She truly did go on about this one and how good it was, and the plate was cleaned completely – always suggest a good thing!!! Worth a go for this one if you happen to be there.

Makan Makan

Almost hawker-like, up where the sports centre and spa is, is this little place called Makan Makan. Sadly though the prices seemed to move from the high-class restaurants to this place on the same resort. In fact, a Bintang can was $8 SGD to give you some idea of how pricey. But they did have a couple of absolute belters on the menu and let me share those with you now.

This is the oxtail soup, a very simple broth, almost Pho-like as it is clear and beefy. Just very simple. Big chunks of oxtail, slow cooked to be super soft meaty goodness. Soft vegetables accompany it all. This is such a nice soup, so light but so flavourful. I always have this when I come to Indonesia, and Makan Makan has knocked out an absolute stormer.

I went for the oxtail stew this lunch. I tell you this bad boy has an unctuous, sticky gravy. It is peppery and meaty, quite intensely. The meat is super super soft from slow cooking, and sort of falls off the bone. And again the vegetables accompany this perfectly. It is a stew to DIE FOR. Whenever I come back to Indonesia this is going to be top of my list to hunt for to have. It is a MUST-have lunch/dinner. OMG love it!!!

Poor old Amy went through about 5 choices before she had to choose one on the menu – she chose Beef Hor Fun. I think she was delighted with the choice. This was hawker grade, smoky, fresh, and just all round good. Shame now hawker pricing though, but that’s another story. She really tucked into this.

So there you have it folks a few reviews for you of Nirwana and Lunching @ Nirwana Resort on Bintan. Not much choice from the location perspective, but plenty on the dishes – but hopefully above gives you an idea of what may or may not work if you happen to be staying here. Smiley faces maketh the day on holiday and if that can be achieved through a decent meal then that is all good. Hoping that these recommendations assist – ENJOY!!!

Is Life a Recipe YouTube Channel