Earlier this year, yet another restaurant opened at the Desa Potato Head resort in the village of Seminyak in Bali. Aptly rechristened as Dome, the restaurant was designed by the Dutch studio OMA established in 1975 by Rem Koolhaas (1944 -) with his then-wife Madelon Vriesendorp and Elia and Zoe Zenghelis.
OMA has worked with Potato Head for several years, designing for example the Potato Head Studios hotel compound that managing director David Gianotten of OMA has described as combining regenerative design with tropical brutalism.
The same is true in Dome where an earthy dome-shaped cave exists side by side with shiny early-space-age metallic-blue components, all in a brutalist concrete shell.
At the Dome, chef Diego Recarte offers a modern European take on food inspired by his time working in Michelin-starred restaurants across South America and Europe. Like most of the Potato Head resort spaces Dome is multi-functional and flexible. During the day, it opens as a cafe library with a curated selection of books on food, art, wellness, creativity and design.
Desa Potato Head is an impressive, seven-acre compound often described as a resort, beach club and creative playground. It includes several hotels and restaurants, spas, event and workshop spaces, public open plazas, a farm and many other components.
It was founded by Ronald Akili in 2020. He has created several food and beverage concepts starting with the original Potato Head restaurant in Jakarta. Akili’s motto is “Good times, do good.” Potato Head takes sustainability perhaps more seriously than any other resort, with zero-waste Bali as the ultimate goal. Tuija Seipell
Images: Potato Head
