naughty nuri's bbq spare ribs

Naughty Nuri's infamous spare ribs. Are they really what they're all cracked up to be?

We went to find out, since it was in the same street as the Blanco museum, where we've just been to.

The warung is rustic, with its tin roof.

Its pet dog sitting sweetly at the front.

And its chalkboard menu.

You may have already noticed from the pictures that there were quite a few foreigners eating here. I’d estimate that Naughty Nuri’s patrons were divided into 90% foreigners and 10% local. As a sign of authenticity, this ratio is not working on their favour.

For a place with so many international patrons, I am very surprise with their lacking service. A lot of Balinese restaurants are aimed for international patrons, but for such a place, the service is usually flawless and the price reflected that.

Naughty Nuri's on the other hand was aimed at international patrons, but had a service like it didn't need them. The waitpersons were inattentive, bordering rude. Our meals arrived at our table too long apart. And this was after few prods from our part.

Considering that we were starving, as it was a late lunch, after busy touring Ubud, we should really be able to forgive any unpleasantness thusfar. We should be able to just concentrate on enjoying the food, right? Right?

I forgot to take a photo of the chips we ordered. The chips came first. And, straight off the bat, it was a disappointment. It was neither crispy, nor was it served hot. It costed Rp 15,000.

We also ordered a corona (Rp 37,000) and bottled water (Rp 6,000).

The rice we ordered arrived at the same time as the chips

BBQ ribs - Rp 85,000

The spare ribs arrived afterwards, not as quickly as I'd hope. This was served hot at least.

The BBQ sauce were indeed peppery, barbecuey, but they were way too heavy handed with the sweetness. It was still too sweet even when eaten with rice.

Though I’ve gotta say the meat of the ribs themselves were tender, falling off the bone, and was a pleasure to eat, if not because of the sauce.

Vegetable soup - Rp 15,000

When we made our orders at the start, I also ordered a bowl of vegetable soup, to offset our impending proteins & carbs intake. It was supposed to be our appetiser, but it was nowhere to be seen.

When I asked for it midway through the meal, the same waitperson who took our order seems to forget that I ordered it. She’s one of those servers who don’t use notepads because they think they have an extraordinary memory, grr... how I hate them!

The vegetable soup was nothing special. Just a mild, bland, vegetable soup. Though it helped with the sweetness of the ribs.

Naughty Nuri’s, like Ibu Oka, was made famous by Anthony Bourdain. He mentioned that their martinis are the best outside of New York, I'm not sure when or where he said this, but it has been perpetuated since.

I only came about this little piece of information after my visit to Naughty Nuri's. That martini could have seriously helped soften our memory of the awful service.

Naughty Nuri's Warung
Jalan Raya Sanggingan
Ubud BALI
Open 7 days 11am-10pm