Di Sini Di Sana
Ubud, With Taste
I discovered Di Sini Di Sana on my way to a birthday celebration in Ubud for a friend who means a great deal to me. She had also decided that the occasion required an appointment with one of Ubud’s many healers, a gentleman whose methods seemed to involve a convincing mixture of magnetic gestures, mysterious water and enough charisma to make the whole performance almost believable. Ubud has always been very good at this sort of thing. Inner peace, healthy living and spiritual reinvention are readily available, sometimes by the hour. But Ubud has another quality that interests me considerably more: taste. And in Bali, taste is rare enough to deserve recognition when it appears.
Di Sini Di Sana is one of those places where you understand within a few minutes that somebody has actually thought about the whole experience. The restaurant opens onto a small terrace facing a modest patch of rice field which, despite its almost comically small scale compared with the famous terraces elsewhere on the island, creates an unexpectedly peaceful little pocket away from Ubud’s increasingly busy roads. I stopped there for breakfast, was welcomed with remarkable warmth and eventually found myself eating an excellent cheesecake while looking out over this miniature landscape. It was one of those moments where very little was happening, which was precisely why it worked.
The reason the place feels so carefully composed becomes clearer once you know who created it. Jonathan Rachman, an Indonesian-American interior designer who built much of his career between the United States, Europe and Asia, conceived Di Sini Di Sana as a return to Indonesia and a tribute to his family. The project draws on memories, recipes, objects and craftsmanship accumulated over three generations. Its name means simply “Here and There”, and that idea runs through the entire place: Indonesia and the West, memory and contemporary design, restaurant and boutique, heritage and personal reinvention.
The distinction is literal. Di Sini, meaning “here”, is the restaurant. Its architecture draws heavily on Jonathan’s Indonesian roots, including a nearly 200-year-old royal structure from Central Java, restored and gilded with 22-carat gold leaf, alongside Javanese, Balinese, Peranakan and Dutch colonial references. Di Sana, meaning “there”, is the adjoining boutique and café, where Jonathan’s life in Europe and America becomes more visible through antiques, vintage objects, textiles, wallpaper and a carefully edited collection of decorative pieces.
This is why the shopping side never feels like merchandise attached to a restaurant. The objects belong to the same story as the room. Jonathan has described the entire project as a way of bringing together design and food, two things he considers universal expressions of love. It may sound almost suspiciously poetic on paper, but standing inside the place, surrounded by old doors, textiles, ceramics, furniture and objects collected with a very particular eye, it makes considerably more sense.
The kitchen follows the same East and West conversation without reducing it to the usual vague promise of “fusion”. Family recipes inherited from Jonathan’s grandmother, mother and sister sit alongside Indonesian, Thai, Vietnamese and Indian influences, while French, Italian and American references appear elsewhere on the menu. The culinary team has included chef I Putu Yudi Yasa, sous-chef I Made Aldi Danuarta and pastry chef Tj. Azyet, whose work gives desserts a particularly prominent role.
I have not yet had dinner here, so I will resist pretending to review a meal I have not eaten. What I can say is that breakfast was excellent, the cheesecake memorable, the service genuinely kind and the atmosphere sufficiently seductive that I immediately wanted to return. That, for me, is already a very good sign. Some restaurants impress you with a dish. Others make you curious about the rest of the menu before you have even left the table.
Di Sini Di Sana also succeeds at something Ubud increasingly struggles with. It gives you a sense of place without turning Bali into a decorative theme. The result is Indonesian without being folkloric, sophisticated without becoming sterile and beautifully designed without feeling as though every corner exists solely to be photographed.
My appointment with the healer is unlikely to become a regular habit. Di Sini Di Sana very probably will.
Address
Di Sini Di Sana by Rachman & Sons
Jl. Raya Lungsiakan No.57
Kedewatan, Ubud
Gianyar, Bali 80571
Indonesia
disinidisanabras.com
Instagram
@disinidisana.bras
Price
$$$ · Upscale
Expect IDR 250K and above per person depending on the meal and drinks.
Go for
A beautifully considered Ubud address where food, interiors, heritage and hospitality are treated as parts of the same experience.
Order
I can personally vouch for breakfast and the cheesecake. For dinner, explore the East and West menu rather than looking for one obvious signature dish. I will be going back to do precisely that.
Browse
Do not leave without walking through Di Sana, the adjoining boutique. Jonathan Rachman’s collection of antiques, vintage objects, textiles and decorative pieces is not an afterthought but one of the reasons the address feels so complete.
Recommendation
Give yourself more time than the meal technically requires. Sit outside if the weather allows, enjoy the little rice-field view and browse the boutique afterwards. This is one of those Ubud addresses where slowing down improves the experience considerably.
