Night Rooster Ubud: Inside Bali's Most Celebrated Cocktail Bar
Night Rooster is Ubud's only bar on The World's 50 Best Discovery platform and a Tatler Best Bar Indonesia selection. It seats 40 guests, charges IDR 140,000–180,000 per cocktail, and runs on a reservation model designed to protect walk-in culture. Here's how it works.
Table of contents
Night Rooster sits in a narrow lane off Jalan Goutama in central Ubud, drawing guests from across Bali and across the world, for cocktails rooted in Indonesian folklore. It holds a spot on The World's 50 Best Discovery platform, alongside sister restaurant Locavore NXT, which ranked No. 44 on Asia's 50 Best Restaurants in 2026. It seats 40 people. It runs no advertising. And it has a reservation model deliberately designed to keep most of the room free for walk-ins.
This is both a profile of the bar and a look at the operational logic behind how Night Rooster handles reservations.
At a Glance
- Location: Jl. Goutama Sel. No.5, Ubud, Bali
- Hours: Daily 5:00 PM – midnight
- Capacity: 40 seats
- Price per cocktail: IDR 140,000–180,000 (approx. USD 8.50–11)
- Rating: 4.6/5 on TripAdvisor (159 reviews)
- Recognition: The World's 50 Best Discovery; Tatler Best Bar Indonesia 2025–2026; Travel & Leisure Asia Best Bars; affiliated with Locavore NXT (Asia's 50 Best, No. 44 — 2026)
- Bar team: Raka Ambarawan & Esy
- Reservations: Accepted via Revasi, walk-ins always welcome
What Night Rooster Is
Night Rooster describes itself as "a taste laboratory blending local ingredients and house-made recipes with modern mixology" and the description earns its weight. The bar sits under the Locavore Group umbrella, founded by chefs Eelke Plasmeijer and Ray Adriansyah, and is run day-to-day by bartenders Raka Ambarawan and Esy. Tatler Asia named it a Best Bar in Indonesia for 2025–2026; Travel & Leisure Asia lists it among Indonesia's best bars; The World's 50 Best Discovery platform features it as a standout Bali destination.
Every cocktail on the menu is tied to an Indonesian myth, folktale, or supernatural story. The concept is not atmospheric decoration, the folklore is the brief. Raka and Esy work backwards from the story to the flavour profile, then to the ingredients required to build it. The invitation the bar extends to every guest is deliberate: "Take your own journey through the night as we stir your imagination." The result is a drinks programme unlike anything else in Ubud: ten signature cocktails, rotating seasonally, made with fermented rice wine, house-distilled vermouth, bitters, and infused spirits produced in-house.
The bar runs its own production operation. Ingredients not available commercially are made from scratch: fruit wines, fermented bases, distilled botanicals, and cured garnishes. When the menu describes a cocktail as containing "homemade fortified wine," it means the bar made it. This level of in-house production is rare in any market; in Ubud, it is unique.
The interior reflects its concept, a planter's-club aesthetic filtered through Indonesian craft: recycled tropical wood, amber light, textiles, and an atmosphere that feels genuinely of its place rather than designed for international consumption.
The Cocktails: What to Order
Night Rooster runs ten signature cocktails at any one time. The menu rotates with the seasons and with ingredient availability. These are the drinks that appear consistently and that first-time visitors order most.
| Cocktail | Profile | Key Ingredients | Price | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ashes | Smoky, complex, dry finish | Vodka, whiskey, blowtorched dehydrated fruit, house-made fortified wine, palm sugar, burnt cinnamon bark | IDR 165,000 | Adventurous drinkers; most-ordered |
| The Greedy King | Bold, layered, story-driven | Seasonal spirits, local botanicals | IDR 155,000–165,000 | First-timers wanting something memorable |
| Monkey Business | Playful, tropical, unexpected | Local fruit, house-made bases | IDR 150,000–160,000 | Guests who want something lighter |
| Kiss of Death | Rich, slightly sweet, herbal | House-infused spirits, local botanicals | IDR 155,000 | Spirit-forward cocktail fans |
| Seasonal rotation | Varies by ingredient cycle | Local fruit, fermented bases, in-house bitters | IDR 140,000–180,000 | Return visitors |
If you order one thing: Order the Ashes. The smoke element from the blowtorched fruit and burnt cinnamon arrives before you taste anything, the presentation is part of the experience. It is the cocktail that most completely expresses what the bar is trying to do.
On Saturdays: Night Rooster runs Skewed Tastes, a weekly special where dishes are cooked over an open flame. Beyond the signature drinks, the bar's Eccentric Eats food selection includes oxtail croquettes, rabbit sausage, and Wagyu options. Saturday is the best night to visit if you want the full experience.
How Night Rooster Fits Into the Locavore Group
For first-time visitors to Ubud, the relationship between the Locavore venues can be confusing. Here is how they connect:
| Venue | Type | Format | Price point | When to go |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Locavore NXT | Fine dining restaurant | 16-course tasting menu | ≈ USD 135/person | Special occasion, full evening |
| Nusantara | Indonesian restaurant | À la carte, sharing plates | ≈ USD 30–50/person | Lunch or casual dinner |
| Night Rooster | Cocktail bar | Drinks and bar snacks | IDR 140,000–180,000/cocktail | Pre-dinner drinks or a standalone evening |
Night Rooster sits at the informal end of the group. It does not require a reservation to visit, does not operate a tasting menu, and does not carry the same booking pressure as Locavore NXT or Nusantara. It is the group's most accessible venue, but with the same commitment to craft and local sourcing that runs through every Locavore property.
Many guests use Night Rooster as a pre-dinner stop before Locavore NXT. The two venues are relatively close to each other in Ubud.
The Reservation Challenge at a Cocktail Bar
Restaurants and cocktail bars operate on fundamentally different models of time. A restaurant table turns once or twice in a service, guests arrive, eat a multi-course meal, and leave at a predictable interval. A bar has no such structure: guests arrive across a three or four-hour window, stay for one drink or five, and move tables, talk to strangers, or shift from bar stool to banquette as the evening progresses.
This creates a specific problem for reservation systems designed around the restaurant model. A system built for timed covers will overbook a cocktail bar or, more commonly, lock too much of its capacity behind reservations and leave it looking half-empty during the early evening while walk-in guests are turned away at the door.
For Night Rooster, the challenge was sharper than average:
- The bar seats only 40 guests. Every misjudgement on capacity allocation has an immediate visible effect.
- The walk-in audience is a core part of the bar's identity. Night Rooster draws spontaneous visitors from the surrounding lanes, people who have not planned their evening, and who contribute to the energy of the space.
- The Locavore NXT reservation system already handles the group's fine dining bookings. Night Rooster needed a configuration that felt different, lighter, more permissive, while still running on shared infrastructure.
How Revasi Supports Night Rooster's Service Model
Revasi was implemented at Night Rooster with a configuration specifically designed to keep the bar's walk-in culture intact.
Controlled Capacity Allocation
Rather than making the full 40 seats reservable, Night Rooster uses a capacity split: a portion of seating is held open for walk-in guests at all times, regardless of reservation volume. As reservations approach the threshold, the booking window closes automatically, the bar does not continue accepting reservations until it risks having nothing left for the door.
This is the most important configuration decision the bar makes every day. The threshold is not fixed; it moves based on the expected evening (a Saturday Skewed Tastes night reserves fewer spots than a quiet Tuesday).
Real-Time Visibility Without Rigidity
The front-of-house team can see, at a glance, how many reservations are arriving, when, and in what group sizes. This information sits in the same system as the walk-in count, giving the team a single view of the evening rather than two separate tracking methods.
The system does not impose a seating schedule. There are no timed seatings, no 90-minute windows, no automated reminders asking guests to vacate. Reservations are treated as expected arrivals, not booked slots.
Group-Level Data Across Locavore Venues
Because Night Rooster uses Revasi alongside Locavore NXT and Nusantara, guest data is shared across the group. A guest who has dined at Locavore NXT three times appears in the system when they book a table at Night Rooster. The bar team knows who their regulars are before they arrive, without having to ask.
Practical Information
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Address | Jl. Goutama Sel. No.5, Ubud, Kabupaten Gianyar, Bali 80571 |
| Hours | Daily 5:00 PM – midnight |
| Capacity | 40 seats |
| Cocktail prices | IDR 140,000–180,000 (approx. USD 8.50–11) |
| Walk-ins | Always welcome; capacity permitting |
| Reservations | Via Revasi, recommended for groups of 4+ or Saturday visits |
| Food | Eccentric Eats selection: oxtail croquettes, rabbit sausage, Wagyu options; Saturday Skewed Tastes special |
| Recognition | Tatler Best Bar Indonesia 2025–2026; Travel & Leisure Asia Best Bars; The World's 50 Best Discovery; Locavore NXT (Asia's 50 Best, No. 44 — 2026) |
| TripAdvisor | 4.6/5 — #307 of 1,172 Ubud restaurants (159 reviews) |
Making a reservation at Night Rooster
Reservations are available through Revasi, Night Rooster's booking platform. Walk-ins are always welcome, but for Saturday Skewed Tastes evenings or groups of four or more, booking ahead is recommended. The system keeps a portion of the room available for walk-ins regardless of reservation volume, so you will rarely arrive to a full bar if you come early in the evening.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Night Rooster require a reservation?
No. Walk-ins are a deliberate and important part of how the bar operates. Night Rooster reserves only a portion of its 40-seat capacity in advance, the rest is held for guests arriving without a booking. That said, groups of four or more and Saturday Skewed Tastes evenings are worth booking ahead.
What is the best cocktail at Night Rooster?
The Ashes is the most-ordered cocktail and the one that most fully represents the bar's concept. It combines vodka, whiskey, blowtorched dehydrated fruit, house-made fortified wine, palm sugar, and burnt cinnamon bark. The smoke arrives before you taste anything — the presentation is part of the experience.
What makes Night Rooster different from other Ubud bars?
Three things set it apart. First, every cocktail is built around an Indonesian myth or supernatural story, the folklore is the actual creative brief, not a theme layered on top. Second, ingredients not available commercially, vermouth, rice wine, fermented fruit bases, bitters — are produced in-house by bartenders Raka Ambarawan and Esy. No other bar in Ubud operates at this level of ingredient self-sufficiency. Third, the recognition is genuine: Tatler Asia Best Bar Indonesia 2025–2026, Travel & Leisure Asia, and The World's 50 Best Discovery are not local awards — they are the publications serious cocktail travellers use to plan their itineraries.
What is the price range at Night Rooster?
Cocktails run between IDR 140,000 and IDR 180,000, which is approximately USD 8.50–11 per drink. Food snacks (oxtail croquettes, rabbit sausage, Wagyu) are priced separately. By Bali standards, Night Rooster sits at the premium end of the cocktail bar market, though it is considerably more affordable than equivalent craft cocktail bars in Singapore, Hong Kong, or Tokyo.
What food does Night Rooster serve?
Night Rooster's food menu is called Eccentric Eats — a small selection of bar snacks and dishes designed to pair with the cocktail programme. Regulars order the oxtail croquettes, rabbit sausage, and Wagyu options alongside their drinks. On Saturday evenings, the bar runs Skewed Tastes, a weekly special where dishes are cooked over an open flame — it is the busiest night of the week and the one most worth booking ahead for, especially for groups.
How is Night Rooster related to Locavore NXT?
Night Rooster is part of Locavore Group, the hospitality enterprise founded by chefs Eelke Plasmeijer and Ray Adriansyah. Locavore NXT, the group's flagship fine dining restaurant, ranked No. 44 on Asia's 50 Best Restaurants in 2026, is located nearby. Night Rooster is the group's cocktail bar and its most informal venue. Many guests visit Night Rooster before or after a dinner at Locavore NXT or Nusantara.
What reservation system does Night Rooster use?
Night Rooster uses Revasi, the same reservation platform as Locavore NXT and Nusantara. The system is configured specifically for cocktail bar operations, with a capacity split that keeps walk-in seating available throughout the evening and no rigid timed seatings.
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Regilio
Co-founder, Revasi
Passionate about the intersection of hospitality and technology. Helping restaurants discover digital tools to transform their dining room experiences and turn first-time guests into regulars.
