A guide to 12 of Bali’s best restaurants and bars

Café-style brunch and dinner
Down a side street off busy Pantai Pererenan, about three minutes from the beach, Rize Cafe epitomises the Canggu scene: you’re guaranteed to see buffed surfers with top-buns, yogis, an encyclopaedia of tattooed bodies, and a lot of barely-there fabrics and prayer beads. Its surprising lack of pretension comes down to the friendly staff and the regulars who have a digital nomad groove going-on. The food is pitch-perfect ticking all the trend boxes: healthy, plant-based, gluten free, local, artisanal. But it’s the Indian dishes that sing: spiced chai (for that mid-morning high); dosa, stuffed with spiced mushroom and served with dahl and chutneys (for brunch); jackfruit biriyani (for dinner).
Jl. Pantai Pererenan No.150, Pererenan, Badung. Phone: +62 811-3884-446. See instagram.com/rizecafebali

Mosto, Berawa

Euro food and natural wine
In an island starved of quaffable wine (due to high taxes on alcohol), Mosto is queen. During Bali’s long lockdown sommelier Nicolas Lento miraculously secured a license to become Indonesia’s only natural wine importer and distributor. Fast forward to Mosto, the country’s first natural wine bar and eatery. The casually cool 70-seat eatery and bar has a European thing going on with high stools along the counter and convivial outdoor street-front gatherings. The low-intervention wine list is Italia-centric with cameos like sparkling pet nat from South Australia and Rose from Provence. Wine list sub-heads such as ‘juicy + fresh’; ‘safe + clean’ assist punters new to the genre. The Euro menu is not afraid to free-range Asian ingredients. Tagliolini with sambal arrabbiata and coriander is a hit, so too beef tartare with umami yolk and sage tempura.
Jl. Pantai Berawa No.99, Tibubeneng, Kec. Kuta. Phone: +62 811-3980-909. See mostobali.com

Times Beach Warung, Batu Bolong

Beachfront coffee, brunch and sunsets
You don’t have to be a surfer to appreciate the surf scene here. Times is basically two well-built pitched-roof bamboo buildings plonked right on the sand at Batu Bolong beach. One has a café style counter, long table and surf rack. The other has coveted low-slung tables and chairs that face the waves. On the sand, neatly laid out market umbrellas, beanbags and little wonky bamboo side tables take up the slack. With cruisy tunes, smiling staff and a soft breeze to take the edges off the heat, Times does laidback to perfection. Sip on coffees, smoothies and juices, and munch on an Aussie-influenced brunch menu – toasties, smashed avocado, eggs benny. Hang around in the afternoon for beers, cocktails and an epic Bali sunset.
Jl. Pura Dalem, Canggu, Kec. Kuta. Phone: +62 811-3800-4953. See timesbeachwarung.com

Indigo, Berawa

Japanese fine dining
There's something special about watching itamaes (sushi chefs) at work — the flash of a sharp knife, glisten of orange roe, prettiness of micro-herbs and pink salmon rolled in rice. This elegant and refined restaurant housed in a Japanese shoji-inspired building with a dining room exquisitely styled in teak with indigo-blue textiles, is a Japanese culinary experience. True to chef Morita Shigehiko's exacting standard, seafood is imported daily from Japan (scallops from Hokkaido, Wagyu from Kagoshima prefecture etc), dashi is homemade, and fresh produce comes from Bali's organic farms and markets. Contemporary takes on sashimi and maki shine: hamanshi with green radish and nasturtium; spicy tuna with asparagus, jalapeno and avocado. Don't go past classics like vegetable tempura and salmon teriyaki. Both excellent.
Jl. Pantai Berawa No. 7A, Canggu. Phone: +62 819-9888-8018. See indigocanggu.com

Moksa, Ubud

Vegetarian and vegan favourite
Moksa is something of a crowd favourite in Ubud, not least of all because co-owner I Made Janur Yasa made global headlines during the pandemic for his work setting up Plastic Exchange (a not-for-profit where plastic litter is exchanged for rice). Chef Made Runatha is also on a pedestal. His menu, mostly plucked from the restaurant's own permaculture garden, is plant-based but almost by stealth. Such are his cooking techniques, dishes including Mongolian jerky, soyfish and chips, and tempeh ribs hardly register as meat-free. Desserts, like the moringa cheese cake, are similarly fantabulous. Diners sit in a big breezy pavilion surrounded by greenery where Moksa also hosts culinary classes and a farmer's market.
Ubud II Kutuh, Jl. Puskesmas, Sayan, Kecamatan Ubud. Phone: +62 813-3977-4787. See moksaubud.com

Uni Restaurant and Bar, Berawa

Japanese food and cocktail bar
Prawn rolls. Need I say more. The puffy brioche rolls jam-packed with juicy slithers of prawn and house-made kewpie mayo, are house specialities and proof that Uni can riff off its Japanese menu when it's called for. The edgy Insta-friendly Berawa eatery successfully merges a semi-serious dining room with urban-cool design, from the wood-slat façade to an interior featuring graffiti murals, designer-chipped cement columns and black metal fittings and window trims that channel the exposed plumbing look. Chef Steven Skelly's menu has a seafood skew. Follow those prawn rolls with salmon confit and grilled leeks or flip to hibachi-grilled wagyu with braised turnip and red wine sauce. Pull up a stool at the bar for casual bevvies with prawn and snapper gyoza.
Jl. Pantai Berawa No.99, Tibubeneng, Kec. Kuta Utara. Phone: +62 811-3883-371. See unibali.com

BuReka Bistro, Cemagi

Bistro-style local cuisine
On a quiet frangipani-scented street not far from the beach, Bu Reka is a roadside warung-turned contemporary diner well worth getting off the beaten track for. Operated by the Balinese family that has been living on the land for eons, Bu Reka's Asian-, Indonesian- and Balinese-fusion dishes hit a high note. Beef rendang with perfect rice; a platter of herb-topped prawns, whole grilled fish – it's all good. The open-air pavilion hosts about 30 to 40 guests, with a central high table and stools suited to celebrations (arak-based cocktails are on-theme too). Black and white family photos on the walls add to the sense of evolving history that this family are conveying – beautifully – through their food.
Jl. Pantai Seseh No.18, Cemagi, Kec. Mengwi, Kabupaten Badung. Phone: +62 813-5303-1418. See instagram.com/burekabistro

Room 4 Dessert, Ubud

Lauded dessert degustation dining
Celebrity chef Will Goldfarb celebrated being named World’s Best Pastry Chef in 2021, welcome recognition given the difficult pandemic years. This year, the Ubud restaurant celebrates nine years and a host of new initiatives that centre on growing seasonal native ingredients for the 21-course dessert menu. Goldfarb’s dishes appear playful, but behind the scenes they’re highly technical and inventive, with Balinese ingredients highlighted. Where else would you find snakefruit and sorghum in a panna cotta? The courses rove around the charmer red brick-fronted restaurant from the open-plan rear to a cosy interior bar (for cocktail pairings) and out to a fire pit in a romantic garden of vegetable beds and edible plants. It’s a treat-to-self.
Jl. Raya Sanggingan, Kedewatan, Ubud. Phone: +62 813-3705-0539. See room4dessert.com

Mama San, Seminyak

Asian street food and cocktails
Since the pandemic, celeb exec chef Will Meyrick has been bouncing between Perth and Bali juggling the ups and downs of the restaurant trade. If Mama San’s longevity is anything to go by, he knows what he is doing. Mama San is one of Seminyak’s – nay Bali’s – iconic foodie gathering points with a recent makeover emphasising its magnetism. The space has doubled in size with an upstairs chop house-style eatery and bar serving dim sum; and a downstairs dining room with an open flame grill for cooking bang-on Thai and Southeast Asian dishes. The makeover has shifted the menu and the mood ever so slightly from street food to something that says ‘stay a while’, with plush furnishings and cosy corners to keep you sipping on cocktails long after home time.
Jl. Raya Kerobokan No.135, Kerobokan Kelod, Kec. Kuta Utara. Phone: +62 818-0612-6700. See mamasanbali.com

Home by Chef Wayan, Pererenan

Well-priced Indonesian cuisine
You wouldn’t look twice at Home. This casual street-front warung looks like an Indonesian café with an open-front and understated décor of wooden tables and chairs, green walls and indoor plants. It’s not a place you’d necessarily stop at, even for a coffee. It would be your loss. Chef and owner Wayan Kresna Yasa is the author of Balinese cookbook Paon, and has headed up some of Bali’s best-known Indonesian restaurants. Diners reap the benefits. From his non-nonsense one-page dinner and lunch menus, magic happens. Balinese specialities such as babi Bali (pan-roasted pork belly), ayam srosop (pan roasted chicken leg) and ikan bakar (grilled fish) are plated with a five-star flourish (a drizzle of jus here, a micro-herb there) and served without a hint of pretension. The dishes are delish and the sambal matah is to die for.
Jl. Pantai Pererenan No. 92, Pererenan. Phone: +62 812-3759-3530. See home-by-chef-wayan.business.site