Wonderful, authentic food and experience. The Beef Rendang was so tender and flavorful. We loved the Pineapple mock tail, as well. Great service, too! Leslie helped us with the menu, which was much appreciated. I really love their new location. read more

Lucky us for finding this place... DDD was just there filming (episode plays in October). It was the most amazing food I have ever had in the tiniest little restaurant with a teeny-tiny kitchen that produces amazing amounts of flavors. I ordered the chicken special and hubs ordered the only beef dish. Both were excellent and even though they give you a knife, the meat is so tender it cuts easily with a fork. I was asked by the cashier/server/owner/chef how spicy I wanted it...mild!! It was all cooked to order and tastes amazing. In fact we may just go back tonight for dinner too. They are open Tues-Sat and located right next to the printing shop. Its easy to miss.. read more

Blue Toba - Excellent food, tiny little restaurant. - Indonesian Near Me - Ashland, Oregon

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I was happy to see an Indonesian restaurant in Ashland, a rare cuisine option in the US. Unfortunately, Blue Toba was a bit disappointing. I've had Indonesian food in the US, Amsterdam, Java, Bali and Curaçao so comparisons are easy. The atmosphere, decor and service are good. The menu options are limited, and rather pricey for the six or seven main dishes offered. $22.50 to $26.50 for what in Indonesia is offered as street food. I chose the Mie Goreng with chicken (like spicy spaghetti with vegetables). The flavor was good but this dish is more like Chinese than any Indonesian I've ever had. My dinner was very light on the chicken and the "added" vegetables (cabbage, carrots, broccoli) were oddly cold. Are they held in a bowl and tossed in at the end, after the noodles are stir fried? Disappointing for the price. read more

Just recently moved to Ashland. We were so excited to discover that we have a local authentic Indonesian restaurant! They'd just recently reopened in a new location in the heart of downtown. The restaurant is beautiful and the food is such a wonderful treat! It will definitely be one of our regular "go-to's"! read more

We have zero experience with Indonesian food, so no idea how authentic this was, but holy cow it tasted amazing. Service was great

What a great experience! We came in last night to celebrate our four year anniversary. The restaurant was packed, and we had to wait for about 45 minutes, but it was well worth it. The bartender, Chelsea, made us a pair of Indonesian Spiced Old Fashions at the bar while we waited for a table. What a treat! It was so rich in many different spices, very unique and probably the best Old Fashioned I've had. The atmosphere is lovely. I love all the artwork they have, the music, and the lighting is gorgious. The food was delectable. Our waiter, Liam, recomended we start off with the Corn Fritters, which were warm and delicious, real good, fried comfort food. I ordered the Beef Rendang, and it was so tender. Incredibly unique spices, like nothing I'd ever had before. My husband ordered the Ayam Bakar, also delicious! Very tender chicken thigh with a great (coconut?) marinade. I wanted to try the Black Rice Pudding for dessert, but I was just too full. What a great way to spend our anniversary! Highly recomend. The one down side to our night was the table of four next to us. We could overhear them giving their waiter a hard time. I think their server was named Jess? It was his first night and I could tell he was trying really hard. He was just so lovely and attentive with us, I wondered what was wrong with those people that they were so mean to him. My husband and I were disapointed in their behaviour. read more

Yummm!!! I'm so excited about their new location. I love all their food. I wish they were open all day

Almost like a trip to Indonesia - the dishes are delicious and so authentic...a special and exotic experience to treat yourself to!

Incredible food. Great ambiance. Excellent customer service. First time we visited the restaurant and we will definitely be back!

My family (4 of us) recently had dinner at Blue Toba and the service, the ambiance, and all the meals (4 different entrees) were all fantastic. My granddaughter was especially intrigued by the "magic" of the Tipsy Toba cocktail. The corn fritter appetizers were so tasty, and each of our entrees was absolutely delicious. We highly recommend Blue Toba! read more

A truly memorable meal last night! The Gulai was my personal favorite, but the Opor and Mie Goreng were also amazing. Chef's homemade Sambal chili paste was perfection. Loved the mock-tails (Spicy Pineapple-Lime, Watermelon-Basil Shrub & Tamarind Ginger Beer), and they all paired beautifully with the dishes. Lovely decor. Friendly staff were remarkably gracious and caring. It's a real treat to have authentic, delicious Indonesian food in Ashland. Much appreciation and thanks, Blue Toba! read more

Absolutely lovely. Amazing food. Great folks. Wonderful environment. Definitely worth the visit.

This restaurant is so wonderful! The food is genuinely authentic Indonesia food. I've been to Indonesia many times and love Indonesian food. The chef is from Sumatra and has access to the Indonesian spices. Makanan Blue Toba sangat enak ( the food at Blue Toba is very pleasing to the senses) read more

Wow! This place is awesome! I highly recommend anyone to come try this it out. It's my first time trying Indonesian food and it was great. They also offer plenty of vegetarian options which is nice. The restaurant is on the smaller side which is nice because it makes it really quaint and quite, they have nice music playing and they offer self served cucumber infused water which is super refreshing. I ordered my meal spicy and they did not disappoint! Sometimes I order spicy food and its usually mediocre at best but here they make their food with a kick! The service is nice and knowledgeable food is made in house and all the spices come directly from Indonesian! This was a great first time experiencing this type of food I can't wait to try it again! read more

Amazingly authentic Indonesian foot. Always delicious and a go-to restaurant for us.

AMAZE-ING. I got the chicken opor curry and WOW, you need to run--don't walk--here to try it. It is beyond flavorful. It's really mild so I asked for a side of red chili paste (I think that's what it was, at least) to spice it up. The dish was a generous portion especially for how relatively inexpensive it is. I came for the first time with 3 friends and every single one of us was able to find something on the menu that fit all of our dietary needs (gluten free and vegan) while also being delicious. We all agreed that we wanted to come back. Don't let the weird strip mall-ish location in a totally unassuming building throw you off, the food you'll find inside is incredible. I want to come back just writing this review. 10/10! read more

Definitely one of my favorite restaurants in Ashland. Super delicious, I just wish they had a gluten free noodle. I can't wait for them to open up in their new location. read more

Never looks open because the diners are in the back where the open kitchen lets them smell the excellent food. Greeted by the chef's wife, seated by the friendly waitperson, fed delicious dishes by the chef and crew. Drink menu is all nonalcoholic but staff can recommend appropriate spirits to add from the bar. read more

The food here is delicious and oh-so unique. It is authentic from start to finish with most dishes sporting 16+ fresh unusual spices from Indonesia. We don't eat red meat but there are so many other choices here. We got the spicy Gulai and the Mie Goreng one with chicken the other with tofu. The tofu is totally fab - and my husband doesn't even like tofu! But this is Nothing the the wiggly blocks you get at the grocery store. It looks pricey at first, but it's so worth the splurge. read more

Excellent, delicious and fresh flavor. The Redang which was recommended by the chef was flavorful. I am definitely coming back.

Visited this small town for a quick weekend family meet-up. We're looking for a dinner option and found this place thru yelp. But since they close at 7:30 pm, we opted to give it a try at lunch time instead. Small restaurant, no more than 10 seats indoor and 2 tables outdoor. Pretty excited because you can't find a decent Indonesian food anywhere in the SF bay area. But this small town of Ashland one! The menu is small and usually that's a good sign in my book. We ordered the chef specialty Beef Rendang plate, satay and mie goreng. The lady who took our order on the counter is pleasant and nice. She told us their "medium" spicy is on the high side. The beef Rendang is LEGIT!! Super authentic, soft, moist and that sauce is on-point! I'm an Indonesian so I'm highly critical when it comes to the food of my peeps. :) Satay is also very nicely done! They all come with thus tumeric lime rice- very flavorful and light (not heavy in your stomach at all). The mie goreng is missing the charring smokiness from the wok. It's because the chef is cooking it differently. It's leaning towards italian pasta style, where you just coated the noodle with sweet soy sauce in a pan, instead of high heat wok action. BUT taste wise, it's perfectly good! This place will definitely my to go place if I come back visiting Ashland. What a little gem! read more

Tasty food. I don't remember the names of all the dishes we got but they were all tasty. We got the slow cooked meat dish they are know for. Very flavorful. On the spicy side. Mild curry with coconut and galanga was quite good and definitely not spicy. Fried rice we ordered medium spicy and it was definitely spicy. Interesting and complex flavors here too. Small place so we took it to go. However, there would have been room to sit there at 6 on a Tuesday. read more

Very overpriced and not worth it. Food was very bland and disappointing. Would not recommend.

The good...the skewer appetizer is really yummy and a blond male bartender had a great personality - he would do well running the place. And, that is where it ended. Normally I would never write a negative review but I happened to see the owner's response to Yelp comments and I feel bad for the staff. You can tell they don't feel empowered when things are not running well because of staffing, or whatever reason the owner chooses to site as an issue. It is sad because I think the place has a lot of potential, and clearly people really like the food. But, when things aren't going well you get your hands dirty and pitch in (we saw way too many people just wandering around with no sense of urgency and the owner not doing anything = the staff clearly feels they can't take charge/apologize/etc). When things are not going well you take ownership and make it "right" by acknowledging you can do better and offering something to smooth things over (top off that glass of wine, which I agree from another review is a pretty lousy pour). Offer an appetizer if the wait is going to be really long. Do not argue with customers and try to explain - listen. It can be as simple as "thank you for the feedback, yes, we can do better." IF you cannot get folks in and out (we didn't get food for over an hour) you let them know. It stinks to lose the business but better than letting people stew and wonder if they will get to eat before their 8 p.m. show - that person likely won't be back and will write a negative review. All it would have taken was a little communication and humility to have made the experience better than it ended up being. read more

Best little Asian spot in town! Uncle Birong cooks some of the tastiest dishes. The flavor in each dish is amazing. I specifically like their mie goreng and the rengang. The spices in the mie goreng is so complex and delicious. The beef rengang is so tender that the meat melts in your mouth and so flavorful paired with their signature rice that balances the spices & the texture. Be warned that their spicy level is super southeast Asian aka it's on the SPICYYYYY side. read more

Let me try to explain how good the food at Blue Toba is. If you were to remove the 3 *best* entrees from their menu, and then evaluate the food, it would still be 5-stars for me. Serious eats, folks. There are times in your life where you find a restaurant that has a dish that you literally daydream about. The rendang at Blue Toba is one such dish. Rendang is like a spicy stewed beef dish, but that really simplifies what we're talking about. This is beef that is carefully seasoned by hand-selected Indonesian spices, and then painstakingly cared for as it cooks. 'Spicy' also doesn't mean spice of the hot pepper variety, but rather the blend of spice and seasonings that comes from the Spice Islands or thereabouts. It's the savory/flavorful blend that makes your mouth water. Several of the entrees come with an amazing yellow rice side. This is also something special...the flavor is subtle but incredible, and it's just the side dish. Worth going there just for this. We've had other entrees too, of course. The worst entree we have had there, we would still give a 'great' rating. The owner is a true authenticity master and purist when in comes to his native cuisine. He could take shortcuts or substitute local ingredients and call it 'fusion', but he doesn't do that. He bring to Ashland this amazing food. He's also a very down to earth dude that keeps it real. Locals know about this hidden gem, and many of them do take out orders. Blue Toba is a small place with only about 5 tables for seating. It's a very humble little spot, but the food is crazy goodness. Nom nom nom read more

Delicious!! Little tucked away gem! Friendly staff and very clean! Small space, big flavor! read more

Absolutely lovely place! All the main dishes were so delicious including the corn fritter appetizer!

Really flavorful, delicious food, Blue Toba was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives: https://www.foodnetwork.com/restaurants/or/ashland/blue-toba-restaurant I don't know why I forget to come here, as when I do, I'm always more than satisfied with my meal. The menu features healthy, exotic, and tantalizing dishes. read more

The food here is like nothing I've ever had before. Oftentimes, I leave a restaurant thinking ya know, that was pretty good but I probably could have made it at home. But not at blue toba. I don't know how it's even possible to pack that many flavors into a single dish, but they do it somehow! My favorites are the rendang and ayam bakar. read more

This is a small, informal place that appears to be mostly a take-out joint. The food was spicy and tasty and the prices were reasonable. My wife had the fried noodles with tofu and I had the fried rice with tofu. The flavors were complex and not quite like anything I've had before. read more

Soooooooo tasty! Hot, unique, fairly priced, friendly service, easy parking, snd oooooh the curry you can get! Can't wait to return. read more

Is there a rating below 1 star? Because that is my review. First of all- to the owner Leslie- I am am shocked and abhorred by how completely unprofessional your response to Annabel's review was. You claim you reviewed the security camera to insist she lied on her review. REALLY?!! Because I was there with her and the service was awful. Terrible. Read your other reviews here- the theme is repeated over and over. Terrible service, unreliable food and overpriced menus. Again let me emphasize to the public that the 3 people in my party were sat at an empty bar after 15-20 mins of waiting for we don't know what. The host insisted we could be fed within our 90 minute window before our movie. Then we waited at the bar another 20 minutes before begging the front house person to bring water/drinks/menus/ANYTHING. She finally did that and eventually took our order. 10 minutes after taking our order she came back and said the kitchen was really too backed up to take any more orders including ours which had already been submitted. I have no idea what was going on in the back room but I will state again that we were sitting at a nearly empty bar in the front with plenty of available seats when we were told- 45 mins after entering the restaurant- that they could not make food for anyone else there. Do yourself a favor and eat somewhere else. I don't know how the food is here because they couldn't make it for us. My time is valuable though and they wasted a bunch of it and sent us out hungry to find another restaurant. By the way we walked around the corner to Taqueria Picaro who seated and fed us nearly immediately. The food was great, drinks were strong and bill was cheap! Eat there instead :) read more

Lovely ambiance and good service; food was fair (chicken satay, beef dish) but nothing overwhleming; prices very high for Ashland. Small pour of wine @ $14 was the kicker for me; shared a meal and app for $75 and were underwhelmed. read more

So so so good! I was only in Ashland for one night and was so glad I ate at Blue Toba and had their specialty beef dish.

My friends and I spent a wonderful late afternoon/evening at Blue Toba. Immediately, upon entering, we felt like we entered another world; away from the hustle and bustle. The large bar area, the tall ceilings, the sleek bar with beautiful Indonesian artwork and parasols adorned the room, giving it an air of beauty and calm and with the great music that was played, we felt ourselves relax and enjoying this beautifully esthetic atmosphere. Birong, the chef has been known in this area for his extremely highly elevated culinary prowess and we thoroughly enjoyed all the varied spices and dishes we chose. Our evening conversation was continuously peppered with intermittent exclamations of joy our taste buds were experiencing! We partook of their happy hour and remained in the bar area and the dining rooms in the back were beautiful! We look forward to dining in the back dining room next time. What impresses me immensely is the fact that you can watch the cooking going on so you know what is going into your food and how the cooking is being done in their clean kitchen. Nothing to hide! A good show to watch unto itself! Birong visits his Indonesia several times per year and is amazing in his desire to use spices and ingredients he knows well and grew up with. Truly authentic! A real treat was the cocktails that are infused with exotic herbs which taste out of this world. I keep saying, "out of this world", but it is fitting for this beautiful oasis in Ashland. The staff are very welcoming and warm and inviting! This is our place to come to and look forward to being here many times in the future. The many different rooms and areas make it a visually interesting place to be in and the unique decorations and artwork are museum quality. Thank you Birong, Leslie and staff for a most treasurable and welcoming first visit! We got the royal treatment when Leslie, co-owner, told us the story behind this beautiful place and the dedication it takes to preserve a beautiful authentic restaurant like this. Certainly to be continued! read more

We discovered this wonderful Indonesian restaurant steps from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival venues! Absolutely delicious food - the best chicken satay I've ever tasted and a tender, long simmered beef rendang with complex and intriguing flavors. We saw Chef B and met his wife - they own this restaurant and put their soul into making it a welcoming and peaceful place to enjoy authentic Indonesian cuisine. Great cocktails and shrubs too! read more

Great food. Simple menu. Small and very comfortably casual place. Great for take-out or sit-in. But the seats are limited (which to me isn't a problem). Go there when it isn't busy and it's great to actually sit down and talk to the chef/owner like a actual human person -- unlike other restaurants that run more towards the pretentious and dehumanized spectrum of the service industry. Prices aren't bad for Ashland. Particularly as it is a small, independent and authentic restaurant. read more

My wife and I travel often and always look for great dining places. We decided to take a two-week road trip with the ultimate goal to get to Seattle. We decided to stay a few days in Ashland, Oregon, primarily to visit Lithia Park. While walking though the park, we ran into a friendly couple who lived in the area. We asked about restaurants, and they highly recommended we try Indonesian food at the Blue Toba Restaurant. We did so and loved the food. We had the Gado-gado as an appetizer and loved its healthy fresh taste. For the main course, we had the Nasi Goreng and the Opor. Wow! Those dishes were delicious. We topped everything off with their dessert - Indonesian Black Rice Pudding, which was super tasty. We also met the owners - Leslie & Birong. They are incredibly friendly and warm. The atmosphere of their restaurant is smartly decorated with Indonesian art and has such a homey and inviting vibe. My wife and I highly recommend this restaurant to anyone searching for authentic Indonesian food with a warm, inviting atmosphere and hospitable staff. With love, Bob and Joy read more

I'm convinced you won't find better food in Southern Oregon than Blue Toba. I had read about this place, how the owner/chef travels to Indonesia to bring back all the ingredients, and even closes up shop to do so, and learns all the recipes and only trusts himself to cook them authentically. This was some of the best food I've ever had. It is flavorful, it's spicy, and there's no other food like it around. Have a cup of water on hand when you eat it, and I believe you can even change the level of spiciness. The seating area is small, so be prepared to take your food to-go, but I highly recommend this place! read more