The ultimate cool kid of Bali right now, Canggu is bursting with luxe new openings we can't get enough of.
Championing stunning seasonal Balinese produce, and teeming with an international smorgasbord of culinary geniuses from across the globe, here's 10 of the best restaurants in Canggu to book your table at this year.
Bar Vera
Jl. Pantai Pererenan, 84
Image credit: Bar Vera | Instagram
Sitting tight up against Pererenan’s main street, this trendy restaurant and bar turns heads for its standout red brick architecture and French bistro ambience. Under dimmed lights, tables of glamorous peeps in sensual clothes and glittery jewellery, gather for on-point cocktails and mocktails, and some of Canggu’s best-looking and tasting food. The shared menu is irresistible from the first mouthful of crispy potato bread, through the burrata-topped slithered courgette, the skewered lamb with burnt lime, and the red snapper tartare, to the final delectable banoffee souffle. This one tops most.
Bella
Jl. Pantai Berawa, 99
Mosaic floors, moody lighting, velvety chairs and wall paintings set the happy scene at Bella, and with the addition of a DJ, encourage most who dine here to stay on dancing into the night. But let’s not forget the food. Executive chef Oguz Karadogan runs the open kitchen, which dishes out Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisine, paying special attention to the flavours of his Turkish homeland. The menu is neatly broken down into five sections and a well-rounded meal could be a dish from each. Standouts include: house-made sesame bagels and smoky aubergine dip; chargrilled octopus with potato cream and harissa; chicken shish with onion salad and burnt butter hollandaise. Martini’s, spritzers and negronis headline the cocktail menu, and the wine list doesn’t disappoint.
Shelter
Jl. Pantai Pererenan, 133
Image credit: Shelter | Instagram
Such is the success of Pererenan’s culinary darling Shelter that plans are afoot for an extended dining room and bigger entertainment area. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The popular restaurant is set in a traditional Javanese joglo building with wooden beams, lovely peaked rooftops and a tropical garden encroaching on all sides. Chef Stephen Moore’s Middle Eastern and Mediterranean menu has a contemporary edge with clean, fresh flavours no doubt inspo’d from his time in Australia. For lunch, for example, crisp fried dory is served with eggplant and tomato salsa, and basil aioli. For dinner, wood roasted scallops come with lemon butter, chilli salsa and sumac. Meat-free dishes, such as house-made ricotta with roast eggplant salad and grilled sourdough, shine too. Artisanal cocktails, a choice of 80 wines and live music up the experience.
Billy Ho
Jl. Pantai Batu Bolong
Will Meyrick has made it his professional mission to perfect the art of modern Asian dining and Billy Ho is no exception. Just a short walk from the beach at Batu Bolong, this restaurant and bar is a fancy affair with no end of cool. Come for intimate group catch-ups, date nights and anniversaries to indulge in a shared menu championing dim sum and sushi/nigiri and then small and large plate options with a seafood leaning. These include Hokkaido scallops with miso butter, sambal grilled squid and dry aged tuna san choy bow. Chilli margaritas and Asian daiquiri style cocktails sit beside a decent wine list that roams the globe.
Yuki
Jl. Pura Dalem
Image credit: Yuki Bali | Instagram
Not many restaurants cut as a fine a figure as Yuki, which sits pretty across the road from Batu Bolong beach. The open-sided pavilion with share tables, couches and bar seats, manages to channel both Bali’s tropical lifestyle and an exceptional minimalist Japanese aesthetic. It has the look and whiff of an Izakaya but it’s more than that. Bali’s veteran vegan chef, Dom Hammond, and head chef, Yudha Permana, have put their experimental talent together to create a sharing menu that nicely marries plant-based dishes (oyster mushroom yakitori) with chargrilled meaty options (pork chop with pickled daikon and togarashi). Craft beers and classic cocktails are drinks of choice, so too the highball menu including a pearl pilot with gin, nashi pair, elder flower and tonic.
Indigo
Jl. Pantai Berawa, 7A
Indigo is considered one of Bali’s best Japanese restaurants. It is in a beautiful Japanese shoji-style building with an elegant interior décor of indigo blue chairs and cushions and plenty of sunlight. The space says as much about the experience as the cuisine. Chef Morita Shigehiko’s menu is equally as refined with highlights including contemporary takes on sashimi (Hokkaido scallop with lemon peel and shiso oil) and maki (spicy tuna with asparagus, jalapeno and avocado) that are exquisitely presented on Japanese ceramics and blinged with flower petals. The ‘Tokyo Paris’ cocktail with sake, gin, berries and spices is drink-perfect.
Home by Chef Wayan
Jl. Pantai Pererenan, 92
Image credit: Home by Chef Wayan | Instagram
Chef Wayan has some culinary notches under his belt, including being head chef at some of Bali’s best Indonesian restaurants, and authoring Paon, a Balinese cook book published in 2022. But his stand-out achievement is Home, a casual warung that he and wife Mary opened on a small family plot on Pererenan’s main street. The simple setting—with wood chairs and green tones to match the indoor plants, belies the greatness of the food. This is the place to try Indonesian and Balinese favourites with five-star unfussiness. Try soto ayam (chicken noodle soup) for lunch and don’t go past the babi guling (roast pork) for dinner.
Skool Kitchen
Jl. Pura Dalem
With its cracker sundowner location overlooking Batu Bolong beachfront, Skool Kitchen is a go-to place when you’re wearing a pretty dress or shirt and feeling the need for cocktails. The temptation, of course, is to stay on for dinner. Skool’s elongated dining room has an open kitchen where diners can pull up a stool and be entertained. Every dish that leaves the kitchen has been touched by an open-flame fire fuelled by natural wood and charcoal embers. The ensuing paired-back, flavour-heavy dishes are a sensation. From a sharing menu categorised as ‘smalls’, ‘mains’ and ‘treats’ try Murotsu Bay oysters with yuzu and charred jalapeño, followed by grilled Iberico pork with shiitake and chestnuts. For dessert, charred apple crumble is served with whiskey ice cream and custard.
Ji
Tugu Hotel, Jl. Batu Bolong, 117
Image credit: Ji Restaurant Bali | Instagram
It’s a little tricky to locate if you’re not in the know, but once you’ve been to Ji you’ll keep returning. Behind Kawisari Coffee Farm Shop at Tugu Hotel head upstairs to a colourful space where you can drink and dine on quality Japanese cuisine among mosaic tiles and walls painted with Asian motifs. Or keep going upstairs again to the fairy-lit rooftop terrace with head turning views over Batu Bolong beach toward the Indian Ocean. The cuisine in both spaces is well suited to the bar-style venues. You’ll see avocado-stuffed sushi rolls rolling out alongside mojitos, slithers of delicate fish sashimi being paired with margaritas, and plates of gyoza sidled up to cold Asahi beer.
Santanera
Jl. Tanah Batak, 55-57
The three-storey building might look a little out of place in this characteristic little street, but the cuisine is right on target. Santanera is a contemporary Latin American restaurant that champions the likes of empanadas and ceviche while also paying homage to iconic Euro ingredients, such as Spain’s Iberico ham and France’s foie gras. The downstairs dining room has an Argentinean ambience, with intimate low-lit booths, teak tables, extravagantly high ceilings and the constant rattle of cocktail shakers at work. Upstairs, the rooftop bar has a distinctly good-times Barcelona vibe. Santanera has recently opened for a lunch time crowd. Don’t skip the chorizo on English muffins with jalapeno emulsion, or the woodfired baby quid with black garlic mole, or the wood-fired chicken with pomme puree.
Deciding where to eat next in tropical paradise? Check out: