Sugarsand Beach Club and Restaurant is part of the luxurious and exotic five-star Indigo Resort, which opened in 2017 in elite Seminyak. Sophisticated, fun, bright - these are the epithets that Australian chef Nick Phillips used to describe this restaurant.
The restaurant and beach club itself opened in October 2018, so fans of new things can safely set off on a culinary adventure in search of new things.
And there really are new things! The restaurant's menu, like a mysterious box, hides exotic ingredients. It embodies the chef's desire to "surprise, but at the same time not scare" with the exotic sound of dishes, creating a restaurant in a beach club in the ultra-fashionable Nikkei culinary style.
It so happened that Peruvian cuisine has undergone a very strong Japanese influence under the pressure of Japanese immigrants. At the end of the 19th century, 7,000 workers arrived on short-term contracts to work on sugar cane farms. Some of them settled in Peru and started a new Japanese-Peruvian culinary tradition.
This mix was called Nikkei style. And the first restaurant in the Nikkei style was opened by a Japanese, Mitsuhuru Tsumura (or as he is also called "Micha"), in the capital of Peru, Lima in 2009. More recently, this nuclear combination of cultures has become a gastronomic explosion and a sensation in the culinary capitals of Europe.
Chef of the Sugarsand restaurant Nick Phillips has been in Bali for 7 years. He worked for about a year in the luxurious Sundara restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel, and for about three years in the restaurant of the Kokun beach club in Seminyak. In between large Balinese projects, he travels to Singapore, Thailand, and Great Britain to gain experience and gain additional seniority.
The menu was created in close collaboration with Singaporean mixologist Sulfian Mahmood, as Nick wanted the main menu and cocktail menu to be in harmony with each other. Although many dishes contain Japanese ingredients, Nick emphasizes that this is by no means an authentic Japanese restaurant where you could indulge in traditional Japanese food. It is fusion and Nikkei style.
Trying to ride the crest of the wave and stay on the ground seemed risky to Nick, but justified. It was necessary to take into account the need to include such typical beach club dishes as burgers and sandwiches.
Since the restaurant is not Italian, Nick managed to cleverly avoid including pizza on the menu. But he created a completely adequate alternative in the form of Loaded flat breads - flatbreads with additives, which are essentially the same pizzas. Flatbread with dried salmon, pickled shallots, bonito mayonnaise, flatbread with miso chicken, whipped avocado and Peruvian huacatay sauce, and flatbread with barbecue beef, parmesan, and jalapeno peppers will please meat eaters. And vegans will get a flatbread made of baked eggplant, pickled Mexican cucumber, and mozzarella.
Another specialty of the restaurant is the use of a large number of marinated ingredients, which allow for an even richer taste of the dishes. The dishes actively use red miso paste, which, unlike the lighter white paste, is fermented for about a year or more. From the seemingly shocking, but quite safe and even tasty - black garlic, which is fermented until ready for a week.
If you want to stick with the good old classics - without all the fermentation mysticism, head to the sandwiches and burgers section. There you will find a chicken sandwich with the finest shredded cabbage, mayo and lying on a tender brioche. Or order a burger with an Australian imported Angus beef patty with Spanish Manchego cheese, pickles with ketchup and a Japanese milk bun.
Sugarsand has its own bakery, which supplies the restaurant with excellent and fresh pastries.
A special experienced sushi chef works on the preparation of sushi, who brings a touch of Nikkei flavor to each roll and maki created. One of the most interesting rolls is the rainbow, which is made from tender salmon and shrimp. And the trick is that tuna is put on top, creating a composition that combines both a roll and sashimi. And on top, the culinary delight is complemented by delicate crumbs. Another interesting roll made of puffed rice contains salmon, tuna, crab and whipped tofu and is simply unforgettable with its unusual texture.
Another logical center of the menu is grilled skewers. There are meat versions with beef, chicken drumstick, chicken hearts or cod. Or vegetarian ones with corn or eggplant.
Even the Indonesian traditional dishes nasi goren (fried rice) and mee goren (fried noodles) received a new baptism of fire in the Nikkei tradition. The rice was named chifa fried rice with chicken, Chinese pork sausage, cabbage and soy crackers. The noodles have been renamed yakisoba with tiger prawns, green onions and pickled ginger.
It's hard to get lost in the meat and seafood section. Everything is clear and concise, without Japanese-Peruvian terms. King prawns, whole fish, whole chicken, Angus beef fillet with ribs. By the way, opaca is used for fish. This is a reef fish, not as rich as cod, but more similar to snapper in terms of oiliness.
Another secret of the scout: before cooking, the chicken is soaked for 24 hours in yogurt buttermilk with black garlic and rice vinegar to achieve a more tender and juicy texture of the meat.
And of course, such a menu could not be left without a section on ceviche - the dish with which many begin their acquaintance with Peruvian cuisine. The most interesting of them is probably tuna ceviche with konbu seaweed, avocado tempura and baked onions.
The star of the salad section of the menu is the tomato salad with whipped tofu, Japanese shiso mint and tosazu vinegar sauce. To prepare the sauce, specially charcoal-roasted onions were ground in a blender to give the seasoning extra richness.
The menu takes into account a wide variety of preferences and food allergies. The dishes are marked as vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, containing pork, nuts or lactose.
If you are intrigued by the Nikkei style of the menu, you can complement the experience with Nikkei-style cocktails. Among the most recommended are the Shogun Milk Punch based on whey with sake, black tea and goji berries, which is a new version of the classic English cocktail Clarified Milk Punch. And a cocktail that is suitable both as a dessert and as a pleasant alcoholic drink - Javanese juice. This is a version of an espresso martini that uses cold-extracted coffee mixed with butterscotch sauce, vodka, nutmeg and ice cream to top it off.
The restaurant has an extensive wine list, featuring both local and imported wines.
What to try?
Tuna Ceviche
Heirloom Tomato
Beef Hanger Skewers
Angus Beef Burger
BBQ Beef Loaded Flat Bread
Whole Market Fish
Whole Spring Chicken
