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Suci Ida Bagus has been involved in the family business since she was born. Her parents, Agus and Mary, ran pop-ups and catering jobs before opening Balinese restaurant in West Melbourne in 1989.
“I was still a baby, and they used to put me in the bassinet, and I’d just sleep in there while they cooked and put on this Balinese feast for people,” she says, referring to an early pop-up they operated.
Her dad is from , and her mum is from Melbourne. They met by chance when Mary had an unplanned stopover in Bali on her way to India. “Dad is a huge carnivore and mum was a vegetarian, so dad had to go and learn how to cook because he was sick of eating vegetarian food,” she says, laughing.
Her parents opened Warung Agus to create a space where people could come for a meal and a (clove cigarette), a community hub where people could chat about anything from politics to culture. She believes there weren't any Balinese restaurants in Melbourne at the time.
“We've never done or anything like that. It's always been old-school Balinese food that dad ate in the village – so more saucy and more coconutty and tempeh and tofu and stuff like that,” Suci explains.
The signature dish is , a roast pig (usually on a spit, but here it's cooked in the oven). It's covered in fragrant basa gede (spice paste) and develops a crispy, shattery skin.
“The main thing that makes babi guling is the basa gede, which you mix through the meat. It’s this lemongrass, candlenut, ginger and galangal-y sauce” she says. “There's a lot of chopping and dicing and blending and cooking; it's a huge process. It takes a couple of hours just to get the sauce ready.”
We've never done nasi goreng or anything like that. It's always been old-school Balinese food that dad ate in the village.
The restaurant's most popular dish is the eggplant and tofu braised in coconut milk and kecap manis, which was created by accident when her father was trying to replicate an old family sambal eggplant recipe - and ended up with something quite different. There’s even a group of customers nicknamed “the eggplant gang” because they order four large servings each time they visit.
The dish is part of a , which has always been a priority since the restaurant opened.
The three generations behind Warung Agus
As kids and teenagers, Suci and her siblings, Santhi and Aschi, did many jobs around the restaurant, from ironing the tablecloths to washing the dishes and waiting tables.
As they grew older, they all went on to have their own careers, but the sisters returned to Warung Agus a few years ago when their dad got sick.
Santhi, a trained pastry chef, took over the kitchen. Suci is on the floor and in charge of marketing. She’s behind , which has attracted many new customers thanks to her frank opinions.
And there’s now a third generation of the Ida Bagus family working at Warung Agus: Aschi’s 19-year-old daughter and Suci’s 15-year-old daughter – they're essential to the restaurant's success, too.
Warung Agus has been especially busy with takeaway since the beginning of the pandemic, so Aschi is helping out with deliveries and Agus is back in the kitchen with Santhi. “Dad stepped in to help and now we can't get rid of him. They've learned to work together quite well,” Suci says, laughing.
So what makes customers come back to a restaurant for over thirty years, other than delicious food?
“I think social media has played a big part. Consistency has played a big part. And I think our personalities have played a big part, too. We have these three generations of women, and I think it became this kind of haven for people to come in and feel just nurtured by us. People will come in for dinner, that was half the reason. The other half is that they want to chat,” she says.
305 Victoria Street, West Melbourne
Thu – Sat 5 pm – 10 pm
