Nusa Dua

As an Indonesian, I have to say the food here is as good as it gets in London! The usual suspects are here and cooked authentically. The meats and noodles could be more fresh, but they do have good lunch specials. I just wish they would communicate clearly when their opening hours: it seems closed at the most obvious times, like Friday nights. I would come back often, but I just never know when it’s open! Also, they seem to have trouble keeping staff? There is a constant want ads posted on the windows where open hours notice should be.

My friend and I came here as we were going to see a show at The Soho Theatre and its practically right next to it. WE had fried chicken with salas and egg fried rice. The chicken practically looked grean, and didn’t taste very good either. The egg fried rice was lovely though, and so was the woman serving us.

Food was great. Unfortunately we were seated downstairs, which felt like the basement, and no other guests were around. It was lonely and the décor wasn’t particularly… well… anything… but the taste of the food made up for the lack of «experience» … not enough to be back though. Unfortunately.

#564 Running short on time, a friend and I decided to forgo our original plan of grabbing Indian food in Covent Garden for a quick bite at Nusa Dua. Instead, we were actually greeted with a full-​on sit-​down dinner. I suppose the exterior of Nusa Dua belied the fact that it’s a more upscale restaurant than it looks. But, after being led downstairs to a room all to ourselves, we weren’t complaining. Their menu is rather extensive and it took us a full 15 minutes before we finally settled on what we wanted.
I went with an order of the Perkedel (or potato dumplings for £3.10) and Fried Prawns (£4.95) for appetizers, while the friend chose Roti Canai (8 pieces for £4.45). For my main, I went with the Sambal Ikan Goreng (fried red snapper fillets for £7.95) and the friend went with a customized order of Duck Curry, which the waitress offered up as an alternative because the friend was torn between a duck main and a curry main. We also decided to continue our drinking streak from earlier (at Zenna just down the street) and go with a glass of the house white for me and a glass of the rose for the friend. Immediately after we put our orders in, the waitress came back with a full complimentary basket of Kerupuk Goreng (prawn crackers for £3.50 a la carte).
We snacked on the crackers and sipped our wine for an incredibly long time before our appetizers arrived fresh out of the kitchen. I appreciated the fact that everything was so fresh but an almost-​20-​minutes wait is much too long for appetizers. I suppose there was only 1 chef in the kitchen? Regardless, everything tasted delicious. We especially loved the sauce that came with the potato dumplings, which had a thick aromatic curry scent and heavy flavoring. It went well with the lightly-​flavored dumplings, which was a surprise since most potato dishes are unnecessarily filling. I also enjoyed the Roti Canai, which wasn’t as plain as I expected. Instead, it also had a heavy curry flavoring mixed into the dough and there was almost no need for the sauce that came with it. The Fried Prawns weren’t spectacular, though they satiated my need for prawns. I definitely wouldn’t order it again.
After we finished up our apps, the waitress brought out our main dishes. Of course, they also took a long time before coming out (20 minutes after our appetizers showed up), so the night was dragging on much longer than if we had just gone to Covent Garden for Indian food. Though, the delicious fried red snapper more than made up for it. I swear, they really know how to fry things to perfection here and pair them with flavorful sauces. The friend also enjoyed her Duck Curry. Soon, though, I realized that I had to run to catch the Oxford Tube back home. So, we had them bag up the leftovers (that alone took another 15 minutes!) and I had to leave my friend behind. Thank goodness she was so helpful and opted to cover dinner. But, seriously, the waitresses really need to pick up the pace! Nonetheless, loved this place and loved the food!

My boyfriend and I were actually on our way to Nam in SOHO for some phở tonight. As I’ve been suffering through the chilly day with a sore throat, a nice hot bowl of soup was all I could look forward to.
However, making our way down Dean St. we noticed Nusa Dua. Quiet, quaint, Singaporian. We are huge fans of Thai and Vietnamese cuisine but never came across this realm of lndonesian cuisine. One look at the menu and… sold. Phở can come at any time.
I ordered a steaming bowl of Tom Yum soup immediately. A small appetizer size, it was just what I was craving. Bursting with flavor, and red peppers for that throat-​numbing spice factor. Even if you aren’t feeling under the weather – this is amazing.
We followed up with the duck curry and coconut rice (fabulous combo concurred) recommended by a fellow Unilocaler (thank you) and the veggies with homemade peanut sauce. Delightful as well. Portions were perfect for the two of us.
Throat was feeling so good, I joined my boyfriend by also ordering a Tiger beer. Essential.
Waitresses were very sweet and patient with us. We hung around for quite some time.
If I lived here I would be a regular. There’s more I want to try.

STAY AWAY FOR THE SAKE OF YOUR HEALTH
I would give zero stars if an option, but since not I urge all Londoners and tourist to STAY AWAY from this health hazard, Nusa Dua staff re-​heat dishes 3 – 4 times and reuse noodles that were left on previous diners’ plates. I know this because a university friend was a waitress here for a short while before leaving in disgust. Fish is left in room temperature for up to 2 days and frozen again if unused. Most ingredients are bought from Chinese wholesalers because they are way cheaper than genuine Indonesian food stuffs, and the manager could not give a damn about authenticity.
I am sure if you are an intelligent person you have read anough to do what my title reads.

Nusa Dua is named after the the upscale resort-​town situated on a peninsula in South Bali.
«Different worlds, same region, different colors, same pallete.»
I strolled in here on a cheeky Sunday afternoon with 6 cool friends. We were originally destined for a place which Lucien H.D., had chosen (I have since banned him from picking locales for 2 weeks)
We grabbed a 7 top right in the center of the sunny window-​laden front room that only exibited one working server, a lovely Asian women who let me take a picture of here when I so asked her.
We repeatedly ordered Tiger beers at an alarming brisk rate, one to which a spin of the right index finger in the air while making eye-​contact with out server was all that was necessary for her to return to our table with another round. Lovely.
When it came to our orders, a few people at the table got Pad Thai, others got Indonesian noodle or curry dishes. I fixated my green eyes on this fantastic Duck & Peppers curry — to which I ordered coconut rice along with it. This dish was amazing. I was throughly impressed when every lasting bite I took exibited an explosion of Indonesian chillies, coconut, and roasted Duck. Yes!
Cool experience — only came out to be about £20 per head for a deightful lunch.
This place swept me off my feet (some might say it was the Tiger) but I really enjoyed this cool Soho location.

Myself and some fellow adventurers were out on the Chinese New Year with day-​drinking mischief our only requirement for the afternoon. A few unsuccessful attempts at other venues saw us stumble in here only to be pleasantly surprised.
When we arrived around 1:30pm, they only had the upstairs open with 18 total seats. The woman, who I assume was the proprietor, was kind enough to move tables together so we occupied pretty much the entire upstairs. «Seven Tigers please» would be the constant theme.
Though we were a bit worried that she was the only one serving, she was quick to bring us Tigers as well as take our orders. Good service in London always make me a happy man, especially with a constant stream of prawn crackers. Don’t mind if I do.
I got the chicken pad thai — safe bet, but this was much better than the run-​of-​the-​mill pad thai. Everyone was extremely pleased and the final price was even more pleasing.
The venue also had a downstairs that looked great for larger parties of 6 – 8.
Needless to say, we stumbled out much happier than we stumbled into it. A tribute to you Nusa Dua.

Well played Nusa Dua. Coming off of my bad restaurant pick, my six companions and I found Nusa Dua. Suffice it to say that Nusa Dua really picked up the slack on a day where we could have been wandering for ages.
When the seven of us walked in, we were the largest group there, we got snugged in next to a family, a group of friends and two old guys sitting separately enjoying their soups. Although there was only one waitress on, she closed the store temporarily for us so that no more people would come in and overwhelm her.
To her credit she kept the prawn crackers and Tiger beer coming and that tided us over until the food came out. I had some chicken and coconut curry that was really quite good. I have to say it wasn’t served with flair, but it was tasty, as was the tom yum soup. So I may not shout its praises, but very nice place to eat lunch on a quiet Sunday where I had run away from the chaos of Chinese New Year.

Nusa Dua is like Old Faithful. Falling out of Nellie Deans straight across into Nusa Dua became such a habit of mine that you could almost have named it my second home. So, on a brief return to my old haunts, it seemed rude not to pay the old dear a visit.
One thing I do remember and like about ND is that the food is pretty reasonable and pretty tasty to boot. It would be in the category of good places to visit to grab a bite to eat, but certainly not a good restaurant for a romantic or significant night out. It’s quite small and cramped so you do tend to eat with your neighbours.
The only other gripe I would say I have is that some of the way the food is presented has changed. Before, rice and meal would be ordered on one plate. So, no problem to have them on separate plates, but:
1) the rice was served for myself and one of my friends loooong before the rest of our meal turned up, giving the rice plenty time to cool down
2) it was served on a large plate which was impractical given that meant there were 8 plates crowded together with glassware etc. etc.
So all in all, i still like Nusa Dua, it’s still on my list as an everyday place to visit, but I wouldn’t like to say it was anything special, sadly, except in my heart.

i always go to this restaurant as it‘s one of my favourites, the food is great, but it depends on what you order, they have so many to choose from that sometimes it‘s confusing, but i‘ve tried almost all of them, and i‘ve got some favourites. I would recommend for starters the udang bakar (grilled king prawns topped with peanut sauce) and the roti canai which will never dissapoint you. Afterwards i always have a soup, i think the best one is the soto, and for mains we always order some dishes to share, ayam bawang putih (fried chicken wings with garlic and spring onion) is on the starter menu but it makes a great main, kambing bakar (grilled lamb chops with soya sauce) rendang daging (beef cooked in coconut sauce) udang belado (king prawns cooked in green chillies) and the gado gado will do for vegetables. Add some egg fried rice and you‘ll come back to this restaurant as often as i do, sometimes 3 times a week.

I got my first taste of Indonesian cuisine in London, and Nusa Dua was the first and best one to do it. I came here on a recommendation of a coworker and always visited this place thereafter for inexpensive, filling, tasty cuisine. Service was not stellar, but most Thai/​Indonesian places do not bank their restaurant businesses on service. I’m no pro when it comes to South Asian cuisine, but I know food when it’s good and made well. Despite its location in SoHo, tourists do NOT frequent this joint, so all in all, cheap delish goods sans tourists make Nusa Dua one hotspot bookmarked in London for me!

I went here against the warning of my friend who tried it before. I figured it was just him being picky and a little bit unlucky to have caught the restaurant on a bad day.
Nevertheless, he was right. I wouldn’t recommend this restaurant to anyone who was looking for a taste of Indonesian food. As a restaurant in a sense of where you get nourishment, it’s okay. The food was edible, the décor was rather interesting, the location was convenient, and the service was excellent.
But, about it being a good Indonesian restaurant, it flunked quite badly. A dish that is quite quintessentially Indonesian is fried tofu and tempe (soybean cake). Their fried tempe came out soggy, oily, and undercooked which is horrible considering raw tempe is basically soybean and fungus.
Another common Indonesian dish was ‘nasi goreng’ or fried rice. The Indonesian fried rice is slightly different from Chinese fried rice because of all the extra spices it uses, most notably shallots, sweet soy sauce, and sometimes (depending on which part of Indonesia), tomato sauce. Regardless which fried rice they were aiming for, what showed up at my table was Chinese fried rice with a dash of sweet soy sauce. It was just too salty and not enough flavour from the spices.
Apparently reviewers here like the tofu satay… I have to say I wasn’t even interested in trying it because mainly I never heard of tofu satay in Indonesia.
I feel really bad giving one star, especially considering the service was quite nice. But… this is a food establishment first and foremost, and one that claims to be ethnic so I have to give very low marks because they have failed in both accounts.

Ended up here on Boxing Day with my family because we had a yen for Thai and, unfortunately, Patara was closed and Busaba Eathai is too loud for my hard-​of-​hearing father.
Since the purpose of this dinner was to introduce my parents, who were visiting from the States, to my boyfriend at the time, this little place had major appeal; it appeared so cozy and intimate; a nice calm atmosphere to help diffuse some of the anxiety of this potentially nerve-​wracking situation.
Since the boyfriend was running late by an hour (I know! In ²⁰⁄₂₀ retrospect, I really ought to have just dropped him on the spot) we ordered an appetizer of the tofu satay. It was so wonderfully tasty that we couldn’t *wait* for them to bring on the entrees!
Unfortunately, once the boyfriend finally got there and we ordered, the main courses that followed were dismally disappointing. Their were five of us in total, and we ordered a vast array of dishes from the menu — everything from curry to chicken… and not one of us thought that the dishes rose above boring and outright *blah.*
The boyfriend ate his dish out of politeness (he could be decent sometimes) and my mom took no more than two bites of her curry before asking them to just take it away. There was just *no* flavour… even the quality of the ingredients used seemed far from extraordinary.
All around, it was kind of a bust of a night. I guess I should have taken it as a sign!

I love this damn place. The girlfriend thinks it’s not so great but all I know is one bite of tofu satay is a heavenly experience.
With the set menu, you start off with prawn crackers (on the table) and then it is followed by a clear broth soup with spring onions.
Afterwards, you get a starter which for me is always tofu satay. I usually get red or green curry for a main and get noodles instead of rice.
I think this place rocks. It used be my favourite restaurant. It is still a Soho favourite save for the fact the girlfriend thinks the portions are too small for the price. I don’t actually care. I love it.

Nusa Dua is a sweet little Indonesian restaurant on Dean Street. You can eat in or takeaway (they have a two course takeaway offer for £7.95).
It is a small restaurant, with only a few tables. The decoration is simply themed and tastefully done. There is also outside seating, though it is a busy street and the restaurant itself has a glass frontage, so you can watch the world go by from the inside too.
I have not eaten much Indonesian restaurant, but the cuisine seems similar to Thai food. The food here it is tasty, though perhaps not amazing. I usually get the takeaway, and I usually go for the fishcake starter and one of the well done main chicken dishes.

Delicious south-​east Asian cuisine (mainly Indonesian and Singaporean, but you’ll also find Malaysian, Vietnamese, Burmese and Thai items on the menu). There are only a few tables upstairs but there’s a lot more room downstairs, so don’t be afraid to walk in with your group.
It’s certainly value for money, and you’ll certainly find yourself stuffed full for a tenner.
My opinion was corroborated by someone who lived in Singapore for two years.