Jacques I.
Yelp
I'm so glad we were able to dine at Blue Toba the one night we hung out in Ashland, Oregon, as this is one of the best restaurants in town! Blue Toba is an Indonesian restaurant with craft cocktails, and was featured in Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.
We visited Blue Toba on a Friday night for dinner, around 6pm before seeing a play nearby at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Although they do not take reservations for parties less than six, we were easily able to be seated immediately for the three of us. There's a spacious bar in the front, but they do not serve the dinner menu here. Therefore, we sat in the dining area where most everyone was.
The menu had a lot of options for dinner and drinks. To start, I ordered the Bersama Kita cocktail, which was a whiskey base with Arak, an anise-like liquor. It was very booze-forward, which is my favorite kind of drink! For a second cocktail, I had the Java Jawa, which had Arak and was more of a coffee liquor base. It was my dessert! Everyone loved their cocktails though, so would recommend trying one or two to complement your meal here.
For food, the menu had a lot of dishes that sounded so appetizing and all of us wanted to try multiple items, so we decided to each order something different and do family style. We ordered the famous rendang, the opor, a Javanese candlenut curry and the Ayam Bakar, which is grilled chicken that's been marinated in coconut milk. All of our dishes came with lime-leaf rice. Of all the dishes, ya gotta try the famous rendang, which was everyone's favorite at the table. The beef was tender and flavorful from the 19 spices and coconut milk that it's cooked in. It's unlike anything else! I could've eaten this dish by myself, but sadly promised to share with others. However, the other dishes were also delicious. The candlenut curry was nice, adding a nutty sauce with some veggies and the coconut grilled chicken was solid.
Blue Toba is a restaurant that you must check out in Ashland. Staff was super friendly and the food was fantastic. I can see why there's a lot of praise, including from Guy Fieri for this spot. I would love to come back here again when I'm back in the area.