Moksa, Bali

Moksa has a mission: to create, and serve, healthy food in the most extraordinary and inspiring way.

Their ingredients are sourced directly from their own permaculture garden and this Glowcation is a fun farm to fork experience from start to finish.

Apart from their inspirational mission, Moksa’s USP is serving raw, vegan food which will quite simply explode your taste buds. Their standout dishes from the massive menu are the raw vegan lasagne and pizza.

The location

Moksa is quite remote, so you need to follow the instructions on their website to get there from central Ubud. We went by scooter, as it’s a long walk from the town centre. Moksa is surrounded by rice fields and on arrival you instantly feel like you’re miles away from the super busy and increasingly touristy Ubud.

The space

When you arrive at Moksa, you relax and can appreciate the sound of birds and the jungle. It’s the perfect get away from the city.

There’s two big, wooden, open terraces under a roof. You can relax and look at their beautiful permaculture garden from the chairs and tables made of dark Indonesian wood. When we arrived around 4pm it wasn’t busy at all. It filled up later but it never felt crowded or noisy. The music was  Ed Sheeran and acoustic covers of numbers, but not too loud. Working with your laptop in a culinary restaurant like this won’t be appreciated, but they do have good WiFi.

There’s a little shop next to the restaurant where they sell their own cakes and pies. You can also get take away there.

The crowd

Is quite international.  Moksa restaurant was founded by Chef Made Runatha and Made Janur Yasa. Chef Made Runatha became the world’s first Indonesian certified plant-based cuisine chef.

The fresh juice test

We had a fresh young coconut and the Body Cleanser which contained carrot, kale, celery, wheatgrass, ginger, apple and lime juice.

The apple made the juice a bit sweeter, but not too sweet. It came in a long glass with a bamboo straw.

What we ate

Moksa is 100% plant based and serves raw and cooked food. They use seasonal produce direct from their permaculture garden and the choices on the menu range from Asian, to Italian to Mexican!

We started off with the Moksa Mezze which came on a platter with quinoa, tabouleh, grilled aubergine, cucumber stick, olives, red radishes, tomato, vegan pesto cheese, living bread and crackers, accompanied with zucchini hummus, vegan tzatziki and red beet muhamara.

As our main dish, we had the Moksa Sampler, tempeh ribs and a portion of purple sweet potato fries with house made “ketchup”. The Moksa Sampler was a chef`s selection of mini lasagne, Asian spring pasta, mini pizza, gado-gado, organic spring mix, and accompanied with a soup of choice. We chose the soup of the day which was a very creamy and rich flavoured pumpkin soup.

Our favourite was definitely the mini lasagne, as the flavours were so intense and delicious.

We really loved the Sampler, because the menu is so large and everything sounds amazing, having the sampler allowed us to taste half of the selection.

The Tempeh ribs were two pieces grilled soy tempeh marinated with homemade bbq sauce, served with mashed sweet potatoes, mixed greens and grilled tomato. The flavour and texture of the ribs really were like a piece of meat. Plus, the extra portion of bbq sauce next to the ribs was perfect. So we ate it with the sweet potato as well.

Last, but not least, we ordered the Sweet Symphony as dessert. This was the chef`s selection of three raw vegan cakes and pies with vegan ice cream. We had a passionfruit pie with a nut and date layer and a very creamy light yellow passionfruit and lime layer with raspberries and topped with a gelatin like layer with passionfruit seeds. Plus, a slice of lime pie and another slice of raw chocolate pie with “whipped cream” and a strawberry next to a scoop of raspberry ice-cream.

The desserts were amazing.

Our tip, since the dessert menu is also pretty large, you can have 4 desserts in one if you go for the platter.

The little things that make the difference

The service is perfect and so professional. When we arrived, they asked us if we had been to Moksa before, and explained the philosophy of the restaurant. When your food arrives they also go through everything on your plate.

Almost all their food is grown in their own permaculture garden and they have a farmers market every Tuesday and Saturday from 10AM till 2PM. Also, the ceramic sets on sale (made by Hillary Kane from Gaya Ceramic Art Centre) and the cutlery are really unique.

The bill

Moksa mezze 70.000IDR
Moksa sampler 80.000IDR
Sweet potato fries 25.000IDR
Sweet symphony 70.000IDR
Tempeh ribs 70.000IDR
Body cleanser  55.000IDR
Young coconut  25.000IDR

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