Chicken Rice the Kedewatan Way

Months before we moved to Ubud, I heard about the great nasi campur  served out of a little house that's been converted into a restaurant.  Even Janet De Neefe, Ubud's Austrailian-Balinese Martha Stewart, writes about it in her book (although she leaves out the restaurant's name).  The restaurant is called Nasi Ayam Kedewatan (literally--Chicken Rice Kedewatan) and has been operating  in a small village northwest of Ubud proper since 1964.  It's run by Ibu Mangku and is usually full of locals stopping for lunch on their way to temple or sitting with their office/store mates for a plate and a smoke.  You'll also find a few tourists digging into their food.

The guy who rents us our motorbike also told us this is the best nasi campur place in Ubud, so we had high hopes going in...especially because we've been eating THE BEST nasi campur in Sanur for the last few months.  And everyone seems to think food in Ubud is soooo much better than food in Sanur (which it is for the most part), so this had to be an awesome plate of nasi campur.  I have to admit, it is  pretty good. Although not as good as the nasi campur in Sanur (still debating whether or not I should tell readers where it is).

The plate (12,000Rp) comes with rice, sate lilit (chopped chicken mixed with grated coconut and spices, molded onto bamboo sticks, then grilled), tum (slices of chicken mixed with spices and grated coconut covered by banana leaves then steamed), two kinds of braised chicken (spicy and mild, both of which cooked in cocount milk), sayur lawar (sliced long bean mixed with grated coconut), roasted peanuts, fried chicken skin, and a very spicy dry sambal.

The chicken is indeed very moist and flavorful, the lawar offers a nice contrast to the chicken, the peanuts perfectly roasted, and the sambal spicy.  My only real complaint is the sate lilit as it's too sweet and always contains unpleasant, crunchy bits of coconut husk and whatever else.  But who am I to complain after paying $1.25 for the entire plate.  Also, unlike most other local warungs, Nasi Ayam has a nice dining area where you can choose to sit outside or inside.

If you're in the area, you should definitely stop by, have a plate and wash it down with a nice mug of es teh tawar.

Nasi Ayam Kedewatan
Jl. Kedewatan (North of Jl. Sayan)