I've been on a bit of an Indonesian restaurant hunt lately, so we had to give Ubud a try. The verdict? Well ... it's a bit "Suburban-Indonesian". And while that may be the snobbiest, most inner-city thing I've ever said on Yelp, bear with me ... I'll explain.
Ubud is huge, and the decor is kind of over the top. There are heavy, carved wooden doors and heavy wooden tables. It's an enormous room... and being so big means it can take a while to get your food. The place all seemed very manufactured and inauthentic.* Even though it's so big, they have positioned the tables quite close together. The floor is tiled, which makes the place really loud, and when you get up from your seat, your heavy wooden chair makes this awful scraping sound on the floors.
The menu is quite limited, and the food surprisingly bland. I was expecting a lot of variety - sambals, lots of chili, etc. Yes, there is a lot of satay sauce going on, but not a lot of spiciness. Are they playing it safe? The other people dining there seemed very happy. And our food was yummy ... it was just .... boring. I never think of Indonesian food as boring, so that was sad.
*Honestly, I shouldn't make claims about inauthenticity and authenticity, as I wouldn't have a clue. But I guess I'm trying to say: the vibe feels fake. read more