Our trip to Bali: Bebek Bengil

C says:

Bebek Bengil, or Dirty Duck, is another Ubud institution. What I thought was a fairly modest establishment from the outside turned out to be a huge operation, with numerous mini pavilions and a double-storey main eating area, all set amidst sprawling padi fields.

Their specialty is the crispy duck - half a duck fried so crispy that you can crunch most of the small bones. We only ordered one portion to share, expecting half a duck to be rather large, but the ducks here are either very small, or it shrinks considerably after deep frying.

The duck was really flavourful, and surprisingly not oily despite being deep fried. They serve it with some bean sprouts and a selection of chilli padi and shallot chutneys.

We liked it so much that we decided to return a second time to try their other specialty, the smoked duck wrapped in betel leaves, which requires a 1 day advance order.

Given how awesome the crispy duck was, this was a bit disappointing. It was by no means bad; it was still delicious, just not as good as the crispy one. It was really fall-off-the-bone tender, but maybe that was the problem. After a while it became a bit monotonous.

So is the crispy duck alone worth a trip to Ubud? I'm still deliberating. 

A says:

The crispy duck is way, way, way better than the smoked duck.  Awesome.