Talking with Raja’s staff in Seminyak Bali

Location: 2nd floor space across parking area from Bintang in Seminyak
Hours: 8am – 12 midnight
Menu: Combo Western / Asian
High points: Great view of street and shoppers below. Plenty of space.
Low points: Traffic noise
Good for: People shopping who want some place for a rest and bite.
Staff: Male / female. Friendly.
Cuteness: 7/10
Uniform: Nothing special

Raja’s restaurant in Kuta Sqaure was the target of the October 2005 bombing. Raja’s has re-opened in Seminyak, across the parking lot from Bintang Supermarket. From across the street you could be forgiven for thinking the place was still under renovation, strange bamboo structures hanging from the ceiling and no sign of life on the second floor.

Actually Raja’s is open and the new place is huge! The entrance is halfway back in the supermarket parking lot, and the first think I noticed was the security guys at the front. One guard waved a metal detector at me and then gestured for me to pass. “Wanna look in my bag?” I said “Its full of money.”

There’s probably 30 tables and this after there were 6 other customers. I sipped a delicious cafe latte for 15,400rp and talked with the staff. One of thre waitresses at Cafe Seminyak has a sisiter who was a cashier at Raja’s and was injured in the bombing. She was working abother shift and I’d like to talk to her. The 4 young ladies working at waitress and cashier, were from Bali and Java. One was from Central Java and I asked if Amrozi was staying at her house, which brought laughter. The lady sitting at bottom right was also working at Raja’s the night of the bombing. She said she was sitting, did not see the bomber, but of course heard the explosion. I asked them all if they were happy to be working at the new Raja’s and they said yes. They told me they had no fear about starting up again and did not think there would be another bomb. We did an interview using my recorder, but it was so disjointed, with everybody chattering in Indonesian it wasn’t worth linking to.

Raja’s is open for makan pagi (breakfast), makan siang (lunch) and makan malam (dinner). They start at 8am and close at midnight. According to the staff the specialties are steak and noodles. The location is a great for shoppers, looking for a shady place to get a cold drink and grab a bite.