DO NOT skip Nusantara in Bali; Go here for ribs instead of Naughty Nuri’s

Nusantara is an Indonesian restaurant in Bali, Indonesia. Its by the same group that produced Locavore, which was #42 on Asia’s best 50 List in 2019. Upon arrival, I saw them grilling stuff outside which is always a good sign.

After we ordered, our server brought out some snacks and a card explaining what each item was. It was a nice surprise:

To start, we had “Jukut Kelor Mesanten (Munggu, South Bali)” which is a soup of “Moringa leaves, base genep and torch ginger cooked in a young coconut over an open wood fire”. They had me at “open wood fire”. The taste was delicious, BUT the dish we got was over seasoned. I would still get it again, but just ask for less salt.

For the mains, we had “Basa Manis (Cemagi, West Bali)” which is “Mud crab, moringa leaves, green mango, young coconut and cucumber marinated with chillies and kaffir lime juice, served with a sauce made from shallots, garlic, chillies, turmeric, candlenuts, dried shrimps and coconut milk”. It was kind of like a crab salad with a curry sauce. It was very very delicious. We also had the “Konro Bakar (Makassar, South Sulawesi)” which is “beef ribs marinated with shallots, garlic, cloves, cumin, star anise, nutmeg, cinnamon, burnt coconut and palm sugar, cooked over an open wood fire, served with peanut sauce”. Totally delicious and one of the best ribs we had on the island (though not the best, subscribe to this blog if you want to know where the BEST ribs on the island we had can be found). This blows Naughty Nuri’s “famous” ribs away. To accompany everything, we had the “Nasi Liwet (Solo, Central Java)” rice which is “High-grade Balinese heritage rice from Mas, Central Bali, steamed with pandan leaves, lemongrass, salam leaves and coconut oil”.

Finally, for dessert, we had “Sangkulun Ubi” which is “Purple sweet potatoes steamed with sticky rice and grated coconut, served with pandan leaves infused coconut milk”. I found it interesting that Indonesia had a similar dessert to the Philippines’s UBE.

Overall, service was good and I found the food to be delicious and full of flavor. This is in stark contrast to other highly rated restaurants in Bali that, I was told by our hotel, dumb down the food spice and flavor level for tourists. I would certainly return and recommend this place.