Yogyakarta food guide
As the cultural heart of Indonesia, Yogyakarta is one of the best places to experience the delicious and diverse flavours of Javanese cuisine. Known for its traditional dishes and thriving street food scene, it’s the perfect place to sample classic dishes such as gudeg (sweet jackfruit curry) and brongkos (keluwek & coconut stew).
Yogyakarta is probably our favourite city in all of Indonesia and also serves as a great base for exploring the surrounding area. One of the highlights of any trip here is a visit to Borobudur, the largest Buddhist temple in the world.
In this quick guide, we’ll introduce you to a few of our favourite restaurants and the delicious dishes they offer, helping you make the most of your time in the city.
A medium sized restaurant popular with both locals and tourists, Warung Bu Ageng offers a great selection of nasi campur (mixed rice) and serves a delicious pecel (spicy peanut sauce salad), It is one of the few places where we spotted Eyem Penggeng (coconut milk chicken) on the menu. They also serve the classic Yogyakarta dish, Nasi Brongkos.
Meaning “Southern Square” in Indonesian, this is a fantastic place to sample a wide range of street food. During the day, a few stalls are open, but head there in the evening for the full experience. The area comes alive with vendors selling snacks like cilok, cireng, telur gulung, sempol goreng, cimol, delicious grilled corn (jagung bakar), and many other Indonesian and international snacks. It’s packed with locals at night, especially on weekends, enjoying food, relaxing in the park, and riding quirky, neon lit pedal cars around the square. Definitely worth at least a couple of evening visits during your stay in Yogyakarta.
A small, popular breakfast spot specialising in nasi uduk, a fragrant coconut rice dish that’s especially tasty here and excellent value. You can go for the standard portion or a jumbo option with more generous sides. There’s also a wide range of additional side dishes to choose from, so you can mix and match to your taste. Highly recommended if you want to try nasi uduk done right.
📍Best Places for Gudeg in Yogyakarta.
Gudeg is a traditional sweet jackfruit curry from Yogyakarta and a must try when visiting the city. We recommend Gudeg Yu Djum Wijilan 31, which serves delicious gudeg with a variety of side dishes to suit your taste. It’s a small place with floor seating around low tables, and they also offer takeaway.
We always referred to the street it's on, (Wijilan Street I believe) as Gudeg Street, since it’s lined with restaurants specialising in this iconic dish. Another good place we tried on the same street was Gudeg Yu Djum Wijilan 167.
📍Nasi Liwet dan Lontong Opor, Dapoer Girli
A little way out of central Yogyakarta, but well worth the trip. This small restaurant serves large portions of lontong sayur (rice cake coconut curry), lontong opor(chicken coconut curry), and nasi liwet (coconut rice), all of them delicious! The friendly service and filling dishes make it a great place to try some classic Javanese food at good prices.
A fantastic breakfast spot serving delicious and affordable nasi kuning (turmeric coconut rice) in various combinations. Located near Pathuk Market, it can get very busy with long queues, but it’s well worth the wait. There are a few seats, but it’s mostly a takeaway place, with the nasi kuning wrapped in banana leaves to go. It closes around midday, so it’s strictly a breakfast stop, and probably served the best nasi kuning we had anywhere in Indonesia.
The place to try Ketoprak (noodles with peanut sauce) in Yogyakarta. It’s made from scratch to your spice level specification and run by a lovely couple, this is one of the standout meals we had in the city. It only opens in the evening, so it’s a great option for dinner!
A street food place that opens at 18:00, serving only Kerak Telor (sticky rice omelette) made with your choice of chicken or duck egg. It’s the only place we found serving this dish in Yogyakarta, and it’s the best one we had outside of Jakarta.
