Bali Satay House, 4-5 Western Parade, Great North Road, New Barnet
EN5 1AD (020 8449 0396). Starters £7.45-£12, mains £14.95-£22.50, desserts £8.45, wines from £20.45, Indonesian beer £6.45
It’s music night at the Bali Satay House in New Barnet and the vocal guitar duo’s power ballad game is strong. A bit of Whitney gives way to Michael Jackson, via a segue into The Girl from Ipanema. Tall and tan and young and lovely she may well be, but I can’t lie. Her passing by is not making me go “Ah”, because it’s a little hard for me to focus on my delightful fried sea bass. The more senior quartet of diners to my right is in active, if very polite, suburban revolt. They have complained to the waiter that they can no longer hear themselves think, let alone what each other has to say. Never fear, for the waiters are attentive to their customers’ needs. The live music is turned down. Dissent dissipates. Contentment reigns anew.
