The townhouse on Sri Wedari
Chef Will Meyrick draws on regional cooking from across Indonesia. The place names on his menu are a useful way in. Padang appears beside beef skewers and rendang, Cirebon beside tofu with tamarind, and Bali beside smoked duck. Picking two regions to taste side by side makes a good first dinner here.
Daylight comes through the tall dining-room windows. After dark, their lit frames pick out the two storeys from the street. Inside, wooden tables give way to a green-walled corner with armchairs and woven lamps. It’s an easy place to settle into a meal that arrives a few plates at a time.
Building a dinner to share
Beef sate from Padang
The beef skewers come with a thick curry sauce, rice cake and pickles. If someone at the table prefers seafood, there’s another take on Padang flavours in the slipper lobster dumplings, served with chilli sauce and fried curry leaf.
Tofu from Cirebon
Tahu gejrot brings tofu together with tamarind, palm sugar, shallot and chilli. The sweet and sour dressing makes a change of pace alongside a rich, slow-cooked dish.
One larger dish for the middle
Padang beef rendang comes with yellow nasi kuning rice, cassava leaf and green sambal. The Javanese beef cheek goes in a different direction, with sweet soy and nutmeg. A couple can pick one as the centrepiece. A larger table has room to order both and compare.
At lunch you can build your own plate
Lunch adds a warteg counter to the regular menu. Choose from the day’s dishes behind the glass and build a plate with rice, vegetables and sambal. It works well as a stop between a walk through Ubud and the next part of your day. Save the larger sharing plates for dinner and check the live music programme when choosing an evening.
Dessert can bring another taste of the island to the table. The Balinese affogato pairs coconut ice cream and palm-sugar rice balls with coffee grown on Bali. It doubles as an after-dinner coffee. For a fruit finish, look for the pineapple granita with pieces of nata de coco.
