There’s a sense of anticipation when arriving at Chef Will Meyrick’s shining edifice to food and drink, Buzo. Jalan Oberoi earned its name Eat Street when Seminyak was Bali’s glamour destination. Post-COVID, after the rush to move to Canggu, it lost a little of its sparkle, and many of the glittering destination restaurants closed; less glamorous offerings have taken their place.
Fast forward a few years, and Seminyak is starting to shine again. Buzo is a shining example. It’s an imposing establishment with a unique take on dining – specialising in small bites, sharing menus and craft beer, Buzo straddles two food cultures – Japanese and Italian in a space that’s reminiscent of the best New York steakhouses.
A glowing bar runs along the centre with soaring shelves of gleaming bottles. Warm lighting, studded leather banquettes and prodigious live palms fill in the spaces between tables. An open kitchen overlooks the dining room, flavouring dishes that are created using local ingredients and international flair.
It’s a welcoming space and brings back a taste of the glamour that made Eat Street a foodie destination in its prime. We like that.
The Japanese menu offers izakaya-style dishes and robata grills. The Italian menu features hand-made pastas and pizzas alongside some excellent grills. Izakaya e Birra is their tagline, featuring both Italian and Japanese flavours and techniques incorporated into the menu and some excellent craft beers.
Will Meyrick made his name in these parts as the Asian Street Chef. Venues like Sarong, Mama San, Billy Ho and Hujan Locale reflected his take on Asia’s most-loved dishes. During Covid he returned to his adopted country, Australia, to set up a grill restaurant in Perth, and his cooking changed a little. More Western tastes, more flame-grills and a new maturity crept into his menus. He’d mellowed, and you can feel it in the food.
That’s a good thing in my mind. Buzo shines in its conception – it’s all about having a good time. He encourages guests to take a seat at the bar and order charred skewers along with a cocktail or two or a good glass of wine. The menu opens with Kushiyaki – which translates loosely as food on skewers. We began with the deboned chicken wings with Sichuan furikake ( a savoury seasoning ), the skin was crisp, the meat delicious. We also had the Nikumaki A5 Beef skewered served with enoki mushrooms, rocket and sesame oil.
They were salty, spicy and the perfect foil for a cocktail or a beer. Craft beer is available on tap here, it’s local, and it’s a point of difference. We chose to start with some classic cocktails instead, which paired well wth smoked tuna crudo served on watermelon with pomegranate ponzu. I loved it; my companion found it a little too smoky. Her favourite was the salmon tartare served on a crispy rice cake with cooling avocado. I agreed, it was tasty and something I would order again.
The mojitos got the seal of approval, and post-cocktails, the wonderful floor manager Shannon pointed me towards a good red for the next course.
The Italian menu and the Japanese flirt with each other, especially in the way the menu reads, but they rarely meet on the plate. That means there’s a menu of Japanese dishes and a menu that offers pizzas, pastas and Italian-style mains, the cross-over dishes like the Japanese miso mozzarella arancini are the exception rather than the rule. We stuck to the Japanese, simply because that’s how it rolled out. The concept means that groups who have different tastes can all enjoy the same restaurant; it works
Our final main course was the Miso pork ribs, dark, sticky and full of flavour. This is definitely beer territory.
We rarely leave without dessert, so we ordered the strawberry and vanilla syphone panacotta with strawberry, elderflower and lemon meringue. I’ve never had a whipped panacotta before – the flavours were fresh but I sort of missed the silkiness of the original. There are five desserts on the menu, so sweet lovers have plenty to choose from.
The dining room, the bar and the kitchen are a well-oiled machine, you expect this from an experienced restaurateur. I’ll head back to try the Italian dishes including the sourdough pizzas and hand-made pasta dishes, and sit at the bar and gaze out to the former Eat Street with optimism that Seminyak will return to its glory days.
With restaurants like Takumi and Mauri, Sumak a new Turkish restaurant open opposite Buzo, the brilliant Sangsaka, the ever-popular Ginger Moon, Saltlick above KuDeTa, Fu House and more offering great food experiences alongside the 5-star hotel restaurants, Buzo is just one of the restaurants that is proving that Seminyak will always be a favourite among visitors and locals. The tables filled with happy diners at Buzo says it all.
