Nasi Tempong Indra — Restaurant in Kuta

This is a great spot! It's famous with the locals and a great place to try Indonesian food, especially if you can handle the spicy sambal that they serve with pretty much everything. Here's what we tried:

Grilled chicken thigh tempong - This was yummy. It's grilled up with a sauce so it was moist and had lots of flavor. This was my favorite of the 3 that I ordered.

1/2 tail fried chicken tempong - This was a larger order than the others. It was fried so you get some crispier skin but the meat dries out a bit. It's still tasty so if you have a larger appetite

Fried chicken breast tempong - This was good, but I do prefer the other cuts of chicken better. The really fry this up and it's white meat so it got a little dry.

For the sambal, it's a wonderful well-balanced sauce that is slightly sweet. I'm very picky about sambal and I like it spicy but not too sweet. This didn't fail me, and I think I like it better than any other sambal that I've tried (for reference, a chunky sambal called matah is my favorite, and there is a green one called ijo that's also spicy and tasty). The complexity of this sauce is what makes it so good, and also the build up of heat. For my first 3 bites I didn't feel any spice, but then it started to build up. By the time I was done with my meal I was panting a bit and had to wipe the sweat from my brow. Delicious!

All of the chicken orders came with some veggies...something like a sauteed spinach, some cucumber, and something that reminds me of chayote in Mexican cuisine (it's called labu siam in Indonesia). The orders also came with steamed rice, tempeh, fried tofu, sambal and a little fried fishy.

Overall, I really liked the food here. My order was delivered so I can't rate the place or the staff but I gave them 5 stars anyway.

BTW you can buy the sambal in a jar too. I think it'll go well on pretty much anything but I plan to try a little with sauteed mushrooms, grilled pork, maybe...

Dear owner or whoever in charge of this place!

I rarely give a bad review unless the service or the food are REALLY BAD! There is several point that i really need to say here!

First, your food was good. But your drink section need to be improve more. I ordered plain orange juice, but the taste of orange seems off. When also my sister order the same thing, she found some coconut meat on her drink which not suppose to be in her plain orange juice. We all questioning, was is because the glass are not clean properly ? Or something else behind the bar. If the glass not clean properly, this place need more HYGIENE CONCERNED! Because It’s DISGUSTING!

Second, about customer service, one of your staff named LEO is TERRIBLY RUDE! My suggestions that you have to training him how to have a GOOD MANNER BECAUSE HE DOES NOT HAVE ANY OF IT! WE GO TO YOUR PLACE TO EAT! NOT TO LISTEN YOUR STAFF GOSSIPING ABOUT THEY CUSTOMER BEHIND THEIR BACK! The problem was HE talking about our table behind our back, as you know! we asked to replace the orange juice because is NOT RIGHT and THAT IS NOT AN EXCUSE for HIM to gossiping about our table because of it! IT IS OUR RIGHT TO ASK FOR IT! At the same times, We also asked for a glass of ice cubes, and we got it already, but another staff bring us an extra ice again, I said we got it already and we don’t need any more extra ice. And you know what, THIS LEO CAME AGAIN WITH THE SAME ICE CUBES AND SAID WITH HIS CYNICISM TONES “OH, YOU GUYS CAN HAVE THIS ICE, YOU GUYS FEEL SPICY RIGHT, anyway ITS FREEEEE” WHAT DOES HE MEANS ? FREE ? He keep mentioned about ‘ITS FREE’. DOES HE THINK WE DONT WANT TO PAY FOR IT ? OR DOES HE THINK WE CANNOT AFFORD IT? COME ON, WE WHEN OUT TO EAT ITS MEAN WE CAN AFFORD IT LEO!

That’s my criticism and also suggestions for your place, IT IS DEEPLY REGRETTED TO YOUR BUSINESS THAT YOU HAVE A GOOD FOOD BUT NOT GOOD...

The most popular restaurant in the area and for good reason. This is a genuine chilli experience. Come early to obtain seating.

At dinner time on busy nights there will already be hundreds of patrons seated at large benches. Just find a spare space, point at it and smile. It will be obvious if the seat is taken.

The “ayam” on the menu means chicken. It’s fried. Strongly recommended. The “empal” is one or two chunks of beef cooked in a mix of spices. Recommended.

Chicken pieces are very very small. Never order a quarter chicken - you’ll need a magnifying glass.

“Sayuran”, “lalapan” (I forget exactly) means salad style vegetable accompaniment. Order one of them too. It contains labu Siam / choko, mentimun / cucumber, terong / eggplant, kangkung / water spinach.

Grab a steamed rice “nasi putih”. Order extra “sambal” for extra heat if you are a maniac chilli fiend.

To soothe your tongue you’ll need a “jeruk manis panas” - a very sweet hot orange drink made with some real fresh squeezed oranges too. Yes. Warm drink to soothe your burning lips and tongue. And real squeezed orange added!

You’ll wait a while for your order to arrive at peak times. Relax. If you watch the process at the front of the restaurant you’ll see that they are pumping out over a hundred meals per hour as fast as humanly possible.

The acoustic band (only on busy nights) adds to the enjoyment of the evening meal.

Oh yeah. You eat with your hands here. Wash both. You’ll see where to go for that. Use both hands but raise the food to your mouth with the right hand.

You are now a local and you’ve obtained your...