Nuka Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Kuta

⚠️ Scam Alert! ⚠️

Since this restaurant was within walking distance from my hotel and located next to an Indian restaurant, my wife and I dined here three times during our stay in Bali. While we had no issues with the food—though it was a bit pricey but acceptable—the staff’s behaviour was disappointing.

They clearly treat customers differently based on whether they leave a tip. More notably, they show extra politeness and care towards their white customers, especially older ones. One staff member, in particular, would say “bless you” whenever they coughed, while their attitude towards others was noticeably different.

On our last night in Bali, we had dinner here, and the bill came to 74K IDR. Since we were leaving the next day, I wanted to get rid of smaller currency notes, so I handed them 124K IDR (1 lakh in large notes + 24K in small notes). I clearly informed them that I had given 124K and should receive 50K as change.

However, the cashier casually tried to scam us by giving back only a 500 Rupiah coin instead of 50K IDR! At first, I assumed it was a 50K coin (since I wasn’t familiar with Indonesian currency). Thankfully, before leaving the restaurant, I checked on ChatGPT and realized the scam.

I immediately confronted the cashier. Since he was attending to a Japanese couple at that moment, he couldn’t argue much—probably because he didn’t want to get exposed in front of other customers. However, he still tried to question whether I had given 124K and attempted to manipulate the situation by repeatedly calculating the same numbers to cover his scam.

Only when I stood my ground did he finally return my 50K IDR. Since we were aware, we managed to avoid being cheated.

If you visit this place, be cautious with your payments and double-check your change. Instead of tipping blindly, give it to someone who genuinely...

We stayed at a nearby hotel down the road from this restaurant while on vacation and we wanted to try out the local cuisine so we asked a staff member at the hotel to recommend a good place to grab some dinner at and he recommended Nuka which was within walking distance from the hotel. We walked in and sat down, a few minutes later a waiter arrived. He took our starters order and it took a long time to arrive so while we were waiting on that, we decided to place our order for the mains as we anticipated it would also take a long time to arrive. The starters were mixed vegetable pakoras which were oily and not very tasty but the vegetable samosas were okay. The mains were also not good as it took a very long time to arrive and it tasted bland. One would assume that if the wait time is long then the food is being prepared fresh. The biryani was kind of stodgy and was not flavorful or pleasing to the eye. The coconut chicken was watered down and had a singed taste to it. The naan was very thick and hard to chew and digest. The food and service were awful and I am very upset that the staff member even recommended this place!! We had so much of uneaten food and we just left it behind due to it tasting awful! What a waste of my...

Me and my daughter came here expecting a nice atmosphere and great Balinesean food; instead, we got terrible service and dishes that weren’t even cheweable.

Our first impression of this restaurant was alright... the place seemed to be kept clean and full of people. We were offered a menu and within 20 minutes our orders were brought to the table. I ordered a butter chicken and my daughter ordered fried noodles with sea food and beef sate. My butter chicken was cooked terribly; it was obvious that the pieces of meat were pre-cooked and cold. The beef sate my daughter ordered was so burnt, it was impossible to eat it. Both of us tried to eat at least a piece... however, we had to leave most of it untouched. The only good dish was the fried noodles, but the amount of “sea food” inside was incredibly small.

Not only that, the service (as noted before) was awful as well. The woman who served us seemed to be very dissatisfied. Her understanding of English was poor and very limited.

In general, I definitely don’t recommend going here. This place does not deserve all of the high...