Apéritif Restaurant in Ubud has updated its seasonal tasting menu to a new format, now titled Guided by the Moon. The earlier version, introduced in September 2025 as the Lunar Cycle Menu, built each season around a specific full moon from the Balinese Sasih calendar, selecting dishes for their ritual and calendrical significance. Guided by the Moon keeps that starting idea, that a meal can follow the rhythm of the moon, but brings the rhythm inside a single evening. The eight moon phases, from New Moon to Final Moon, now name the courses themselves, tracing one arc across five or seven courses rather than marking a season on the calendar.
Under Executive Chef Nic Vanderbeeken, each course is built around a specific ingredient and a regional Indonesian culinary tradition, refined through European technique. The result is a degustation menu in Ubud that does not separate European technique from Indonesian identity.
What the Lunar Cycle Means at the Table
For Chef Nic, the moon is not a decorative theme. It is a structure for feeling. “The lunar cycle is not only about the moon itself, but about emotion, rhythm, and feeling,” he says. The early courses, New Moon through Half Moon, are built to be fresh and precise. The middle courses, Nearly Full Moon through Fading Moon, grow richer and more generous as the meal reaches its fullest point. The closing courses, Closing Moon through Final Moon, soften and quieten before the last bite of the Mignardises.
That arc also shapes how the food is meant to be read. “We are not here to lecture the guest or make the food difficult to understand,” Chef Nic says. “You come to dine with us, to taste new flavours, to feel something, and to enjoy the moment.” The menu asks nothing of the guest except attention.
Four Dishes That Explain the Menu
The Heirloom Tomato course began as a reinvention of one of Apéritif’s early years, created during the period when the restaurant was closed but the kitchen kept working. Its idea is zero waste. The tomato’s flesh, juice, skin, seeds, and trimmings each return to the plate in different forms, alongside goat cheese mousse and a kombucha made from kitchen trimmings. “It is a dish about memory, creativity, and not wasting beautiful produce,” Chef Nic says.
The Madura Blue Crab course draws on Chef Nic’s time in Manado and Bunaken, where bubur Manado, a simple and comforting rice porridge, was a daily meal. The dish translates that memory into a risotto, pairing sweet Madura blue crab with fish bouillon, pumpkin and kemangi. The flavours come from Manado. The technique belongs to Apéritif.
The Beef Cheek began with a question Chef Nic posed to his team: which beef dish is most associated with Indonesia? The answer was Coto Makassar, a slow-cooked broth from South Sulawesi built on toasted rice powder and a spice paste of galangal, lemongrass, candlenut and coriander. “I am not really a big fan of peanut sauce,” Chef Nic admits, describing his early hesitation at the ingredient list. Understanding that the peanut gives the broth body rather than dominating its flavour changed his approach. The Apéritif version clarifies the broth and serves it with acar, cem-cem leaves, and a beef consommé poured tableside to clean the palate.
The Venison Wellington is one of Apéritif’s longest-standing dishes, built on venison, foie gras and sweet potato in a classic Wellington structure, finished with a rendang sauce. The rendang recipe traces back to Chef Nic’s wife’s family in Padang and has been developed over the years into the kitchen’s own version. It is the clearest point on the menu where Chef Nic’s European training and his Indonesian family life meet directly on one plate.
Elsewhere on the Menu
Other courses carry the same logic in shorter form. The Tuna is dressed with a cold pindang sauce Chef Nic has refined since Apéritif’s first year. The Line Caught Fish sits in a sauce inspired by bobor, an Indonesian coconut vegetable soup, finished with spinach chlorophyll. The opening kare telur amuse-bouche pairs a crisp egg with shiitake mushrooms and a curry espuma. The Rice dessert gently closes the meal with pineapple, vanilla, and cinnamon, followed by a Chocolate course built around tamarind and 70% chocolate before the Mignardises.
Fine Dining in Ubud is Worth Experiencing Now
Guided by the Moon is available for lunch and dinner daily at Apéritif Restaurant in Ubud, in five-course and seven-course formats, alongside dedicated vegetarian and vegan menus. Wine pairing is available alongside the tasting menu. The full course-by-course menu is listed on the Apéritif news page. Reservations can be made at aperitif.com.
