Bonton/Temple Tree Resort

I have decided to create a special post just devoted to the beautiful food we ate at our resort on Langkawi Island, Bonton. It consists of two resorts adjacent to each other and owned by the same people, Bonton and Temple Tree. Because they are sister resorts, guests are free to roam from restaurant to restaurant, pool to pool giving us lots of options. The owners of the resorts are clearly foodies as the options available to dine were plentiful and wonderful.  Bonton's restaurant, Nam, featured a Western menu 'with spice' and each dish had its own Asian twist on it. Temple Tree's restaurant, The Straits Club, also featured an Asian fusion menu with many tempting dishes. Despite the excellent quality of the food and the great service, the prices are very reasonable, similar to a pub meal in Australia.

In addition to these two restaurants, the resort provided a great breakfast of homemade bread and cakes, beautifully packed healthy little picnic baskets and a great mezze menu between 5 and 7. In fact, one of the perks of staying at the resort were the little goodies brought out at 4.45 every day by the pool- satay sticks, ricotta and spinach samosas, noodle salads. Such great little afternoon snacks, perfectly matched with happy hour cocktails. We ate officially at the resort restaurants three times- a 'wine dinner' at the Straits Club, a 'Malay Dinner' with other guests at the resort and a three course meal at Nam.

The Straits Club menu consisted of an entree of eggplant salad, a main of slow cooked beef with Indian spices, pumpkin and spinach puree and a dessert of flourless chocolate cake with coffee soaked pears and icecream. It was very enjoyable, and was matched well with copious amounts of wine (such good value for three courses plus seven glasses of wine for $30 AU) which had us rolling home very 'merry' and full.

The Malay Dinner at Nam was a great little dinner where you dine with strangers staying at either of the resorts. We were lucky enough to eat with a lovely couple from the UK and a very friendly couple from Amsterdam, as well as the manager of the resort, and we had a really great time chatting about travels and our home countries. It was a nice change after dining just us two for almost three weeks! The food itself was also very enjoyable, an array of traditional 'homestyle' Malay cuisine such as prawn fritters, baked fish, dahl, red curry chicken, cucumber and pineapple salad, red rice, cornflake crumbed prawns and coconut stuffed pancakes with palm sugar ice-cream.

On our last night in Langkawi, armed with a very cheap duty free bottle of champagne (the alcohol prices are insane there, no tax whatsoever) we had a three course meal at Nam, the restaurant that Rick Stein has dined at. It was wonderful eating amazing food whilst the sun went down, then being able to wander home across the resort to our little villa. It is obviously not a luxury we could afford every night of our holiday but a wonderful way to spend our last evening in such a beautiful place.

Lobster Tails on Apple Slaw

Pistacio crumbed Haloumi salad

Garoupa and Prawns on a Spring Onion Rice Cake with ponzu sauce

Lamb Rack with roasted pumpkin and salad

Tropical Fruits with Raspberry Sorbet and Palm Sugar Ice-cream

And to close, I will share with you the kind of lovely views we had to endure whilst eating all this yummy food. An amazing resort, if you ever go to Langkawi, it is a must stay!