Best restaurants and what to eat
Indonesia
Ubud sits in the cultural heart of Bali, where temple offerings, market cooking, and home-kitchen traditions shape a cuisine built on rice, herbs, coconut, and deeply aromatic spice pastes. The area is known for refined Balinese dishes such as babi guling, bebek betutu, and lawar, alongside tropical sweets, rich sambals, and fresh young coconut-based drinks.
Ubud’s most famous ceremonial specialty: whole suckling pig seasoned with turmeric, coriander, lemongrass, galangal, garlic, and chilies, then slow-roasted until the skin turns shatteringly crisp. The meat is juicy and perfumed, often served with rice, lawar, and sambal.
A legendary Balinese duck preparation wrapped in banana leaf and cooked slowly with a rich spice paste called base genep. The result is intensely aromatic, tender, and deeply savory, with a smoky, festival-like character.
A classic Balinese mix of finely chopped vegetables, grated coconut, herbs, and spices, often enriched with minced meat or young jackfruit. It can be earthy, fresh, and fiery all at once, making it a perfect side for rice and roast meats.
The foundational Balinese spice blend of turmeric, ginger, galangal, lemongrass, garlic, shallot, chilies, coriander, candlenut, and shrimp paste. It is the aromatic backbone of countless dishes, bringing warmth, depth, and a distinctly Balinese perfume.
A raw Balinese sambal made with shallots, bird’s-eye chilies, lemongrass, lime leaves, salt, and coconut oil. Bright, sharp, and fragrant, it adds a lively citrus heat to grilled fish, chicken, and rice.
Water spinach dressed in a spicy chili-tomato sambal, often finished with lime and sometimes bean sprouts or peanuts. Its appeal lies in the contrast between the tender greens and the vivid, tangy heat of the sauce.
Fresh young coconut served chilled, often with its sweet water and tender flesh. In Ubud’s heat it is prized for being refreshing, lightly sweet, and beautifully simple.
A traditional herbal tonic made from rice, aromatic kencur ginger, tamarind, palm sugar, and spices. It tastes earthy, gently sweet, and warming, and is commonly served as a restorative drink.
A classic turmeric-and-tamarind drink with a bright golden color, tart edge, and mellow herbal finish. It is widely associated with wellness and balance in Indonesian daily life.
A cooling jelly drink made from daluman leaves, usually served with coconut milk, palm sugar syrup, and ice. The texture is silky and pleasantly herbal, making it a beloved Balinese refresher.
A Balinese iced drink or dessert beverage built around tamarillo-style fruit flavors, often sweet-tart and vividly refreshing. It is served cold and valued for its bright fruitiness in tropical weather.
Bali’s signature coffee, often grown in the Kintamani highlands and known for its clean acidity, citrus notes, and smooth body. In Ubud it is typically served black, sometimes with palm sugar, as a refined local brew.
The signature roast pig dish of Bali, seasoned inside and out with base genep and cooked until the skin becomes crackling crisp. In Ubud it is served as a celebratory plate with rice, lawar, sambal, and crisp skin for contrast.
Duck slow-cooked in banana leaf with a dense spice paste, producing meat that is tender, deeply perfumed, and almost confit-like. It is a ceremonial dish with a long cooking tradition and a memorable smoky-spiced finish.
A finely chopped Balinese mixture of vegetables, coconut, spices, and sometimes meat or blood, designed for freshness and complexity rather than neatness. Its flavor is layered, herbal, and assertive, often changing from village to village.
Minced seasoned meat or fish molded around skewers and grilled, with lemongrass and coconut adding fragrance and juiciness. It is one of Bali’s most elegant street-to-ceremonial dishes, prized for its aromatic char.
A composed rice plate that combines several Balinese specialties in one meal: roast pork, vegetables, sambals, peanuts, and sometimes egg or sate. It captures the region’s range of textures and flavors in a single serving.
Compressed rice cakes mixed with vegetables and a rich peanut sauce, creating a dish that is simultaneously light, filling, and deeply flavorful. It is a popular everyday meal and a favorite for lunch stalls.
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