Opening News
Bali Street Cafe is here to show Dallas the joys of Indonesian food
Fried chicken from Bali Cafe
A family-owned restaurant in Dallas has staked a bold claim: Bali Street Cafe, which opened in February at 2515 Inwood Rd. #119, proudly proclaims that among the many Asian restaurants, Bali Street is the only Indonesian restaurant in Dallas.
Indonesian food shares many flavors in common with other Southeast Asian cuisines such as Thai and Indian, but it's not (yet) as widely known. Bali Street Cafe owners Travis and Linda Prausa hope to change that.
The couple were previously involved with another family restaurant that was located in Allen called The Koi Way, which served a variety of Asian cuisines. (Koi Way briefly had a location in Lake Highlands, but it closed in 2023.)
With Bali, their focus is strictly on Indonesian's exotic, diverse food: from grilled meat skewers to fried tofu with spicy sauce for vegetarians.
"It's like Thai, Chinese, Indian, and European all mixed into one — that's how I like to explain our food," Travis says.
They're a dynamic duo: While Linda's Indonesian heritage helps chart their path to authenticity, Travis' experience in the hospitality industry as well as his affable social skills are a great help to customers trying to navigate through the complexities of their dishes and the cuisine.
"Rendang is one of our most popular dishes," he advises helpfully, pointing to the trademark beef stew with herbs and coconut milk.
But it's their Ayam Kalasan — Indonesian fried chicken — that's the big draw, he says.
"It's a unique cooking approach where the chicken is first boiled in coconut water before it's fried," he says. "But that's not even the hard part. They don't bread the chicken. Instead, they sprinkle on bread crumbs, so it has a light crust — like a gourmet fried chicken. No one around here does this, and people drive hours to get it."
There is also gado-gado, a cool, weird, wonderful Indonesian salad with cucumber, carrot, potato, fried tofu, and tempeh, all tossed in a peanut sauce dressing; plus stir-fries with noodles or rice, dumplings, egg rolls, and comforting spicy soups. Prices are a bargain, ranging from $7 to $17.
Their other big draw is a recent dessert introduction, called martabak manis — thick pancakes stuffed with chocolate, cheese, peanuts, and condensed milk. When the pancake bubbles, sugar is sprinkled into the popped bubbles to both cook it evenly and allow the sugar to soak in.
Their drinks menu has many exotic temptations from the now-familiar brown sugar boba to their most popular offering, cendol, which is halfway between a drink and a dessert.
"It's a coconut version of boba tea, and the green jellies are a green bean pandan flavor," Travis says.
The decor also offers nods to Indonesian culture, with a parasol umbrella hanging from the ceiling and cultural art lining the walls.
“The whole purpose of this is to show people our culture and our food — we just want to pretty much spread the love of Indonesian food,” Travis says.
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