Bali Restaurant, G/F, 10, Nanking St Tsim Sha Tsui. Tel: 780-2902. Hours: Noon-11pm.
THERE was a glimmer of hope, en route to Bali, that this restaurant would be the fix that makes Indonesia's most famous retreat a sensory overload.
The island is a collision of colours, aromas and tastes, where women swathed in luscious hues seem to float along dusty village roads with pyramids of fruit on their heads.
Wherever there's a festival, a spread of glistening roast suckling pig and gamelan orchestra awaits. Bali is as refreshing as a Bintang beer at sunset and as surprising as their iced drinks, dreamed up by some culinary clone of Walt Disney.
But reality dashed the fantasy. Instead of ladies gliding in chartreuse and fuchsia, the gents of the tray brigade wore ikat and batik patterns in tobacco-coloured polyester.
Here sunsets are replaced by 60 watts and colour is supplied by the kind of red brick wallpaper found in truck-stops around Memphis or Little Rock.
But the hospitality is plain Indonesian and the smiles as genuine as the ikat patterns.
