Sumatra, Java and Bali at one table in Ubud

Pick a starting point

It’s easy to start reading at the top and have a whole dinner picked out before you reach the larger plates. Try working backwards. Choose one substantial dish you definitely want to taste, then look for something fresh or sharp among the smaller plates. It works even when there are only two of you.

The place names are more useful than dividing the menu into starters and mains. Padang is in West Sumatra and Cirebon lies on Java’s north coast. Dishes from places that far apart can be good companions precisely because they taste so different. Sharing is how this townhouse on Sri Wedari serves its food.

Padang on a skewer and in a pot

Beef Sate Padang comes with a thick curry sauce, compressed rice cake and pickles. Skewers are easy to share around a larger table. Everyone can take a little meat, rice and sauce before moving on. For a seafood alternative, the slipper lobster dumplings show a different side of Padang-style chilli, finished with fried curry leaf.

Give the rendang a central place in the meal. The beef cooks slowly in spiced coconut milk, and the kitchen serves it with cassava leaf, green sambal and yellow nasi kuning rice. Read to the end of the menu description. Some of the sides you might otherwise order are already part of this plate.

What Java and Bali bring to the table

Cirebon’s tahu gejrot shifts the meal towards tofu, with tamarind, palm sugar, garlic, shallot and chilli in the dressing. At a table for two, that’s the small plate I’d put beside rendang. For four, I’d add the Javanese beef cheek as well. With sweet soy, nutmeg and jengkol beans, it makes a revealing comparison with the slow-cooked Padang beef.

For a Balinese centrepiece, look at the bebek guling asap. The kitchen smokes the duck and then slow-roasts it. For a lighter meal, there’s ikan bumbu kuning, fish steamed with yellow spices and served with sambal dabu dabu. If anyone has an allergy, mention it when booking, particularly if the whole table plans to share.

When planning the order, leave a little space for the end. Bali-grown coffee meets coconut ice cream and palm-sugar rice balls in the Balinese affogato. It brings the meal back to the island you’re sitting on. If you’d prefer a fruit finish after the spice, there’s pineapple granita with nata de coco.

If you like to bring cooking ideas home, pay attention to what comes alongside the main dish. The green sambal and leaves with the rendang, or the pickles with sate, are clues to how a meal is balanced. They’re also the kind of detail you might want to ask a cook about on a Balinese cooking class.

The same table at lunchtime

At lunch the tall windows fill the dining room with daylight, and a warteg counter adds another way to eat. Choose from the day’s dishes behind glass and build your own plate with rice, vegetables and sambal. It suits a day of walking around Ubud, when you want several small tastes in a single stop. Dinner leaves more room for the larger plates and the conversation that goes with passing them around.

Check the restaurant’s music programme if you’re choosing a particular evening. If you’re coming by car, allow time for the centre of Ubud. The restaurant suggests a drop-off at the top of Sri Wedari. Seniman Coffee is on the same street if you’d like to start with a coffee.

For your trip

The restaurant profile has the map and a link to its booking system. The Ubud farm cooking class is a separate experience you can explore on AMANI and book through GetYourGuide.

• Hujan Locale
• Seniman Coffee Ubud
• Balinese cooking class on a farm near Ubud

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Tags: Hujan LocaleUbudBali