In Bali, you can find pretty much any restaurant you want. There are classic Aussie burger joints, Italian fine dining, Latin tacos, sushi & more. It’s a foodie’s heaven, but so many people come to the beach town and suddenly forget about the local warungs in Canggu!
You’re in Indonesia, for crying out loud, so you should eat some authentic Indonesian food at least once while hanging out in Canggu.
Delicious dishes like Nasi Goreng, Nasi Lemek, Babi Guling, Soto Ayam, and Saté are staples in the Balinese diet.
So, if you’re staying in Canggu, here are our favorite local warungs and Indonesian restaurants in town to try real Indonesian cuisine!
Best Warungs in Bali
A warung is basically a local eatery in Bali. More often than not, they are cafeteria-style, with a bunch of different dishes sitting on trays under a warmer.
You walk up to the register, and the cashier grabs a basket with a piece of parchment paper and asks if you’d like rice or mie goreng (noodles) as your base. Then, you point to all of the food you’d like a portion of, and they load it onto your basket.
Each dish is typically 5-15k ($0.30-1.00), so if you get rice, chicken, vegetables, eggs, and fried potato, it’s probably going to come out to about 30-40k ($2.00-2.75). The meat is always the most expensive.
We would go to warungs all the time whenever we just wanted a cheap meal. Occasionally, the food would be a little cold, but it always tasted quality, and we felt good saving a bit of money!
FYI – most lists we read included Varuna Warung, but when we pulled in to eat here, there was a terrible sewage smell out front in the parking lot, and it completely ruined our appetite. There’s probably nothing wrong with the food, but we never went back after that.
1. Warung sika
Warung Sika is our favorite warung in Bali. It was right down the street from our villa in Echo Beach, so it was the one we ate at most often. The menu has a couple of items on it, but it’s mostly a cafeteria-style buffet.
You just point at what you want, and they stick it on the plate. Unlike Warung Bu Mi, they don’t have signs noting what it is or the prices. So, you’ll have to ask if you can’t tell what it is.
After you put your plate together, they give you a small laminated card with the price. We always ordered at least 4 different items on the menu.
We usually share a big plate of Mie Goreng with chicken and vegetables and this delicious BBQ grilled chicken (which was the most expensive part). Still, it came out to about about 30k per person.
What We Ordered: Mie Goreng with BBQ Chicken, spicy pulled chicken, Tempe, mixed vegetables, and fried egg
Cost: 40-50k per person
Opening Hours: 9:00 AM – 9:00 PM
Location: Echo Beach
2. Warung Bu Mi
Warung Bu Mi has been the most well-known warung in Canggu for years. I remember it being super popular way back on our honeymoon in 2018!
Nearly a decade later, it’s still going strong.
The menu changes on a daily basis, and you only pay for what you put on your plate. Every time we came, there were a couple of meat options, a few different kinds of grilled vegetables, fried veggies, and a surprising number of tofu dishes.
We were actually shocked at the number of vegan dishes here. There was more tofu than meat!
The whole restaurant is open-air, and there isn’t a whole lot of seating, so in the evenings, you might have to wait a bit for a seat. The silver lining is that with so many people coming through, the food is usually really fresh.
What We Ordered: Rice with Chicken Satay, Mixed Vegetables, and Sweet Potatoes
Cost: 30-40k per person
Opening Hours: 8:00 AM – 10:00 PM
Location: Batu Bolong
3. Oma Jamu Vegan
Oma Jamu is one of the lesser-known vegan places to eat in Canggu, probably because it’s a lot farther from the beach than the other warungs on this list.
They’re known for their ‘buffet,’ which is actually just a choice of 5 different foods for 42k ($2.80). Rice counts as one of the options, though.
Still, it’s a great deal, and in our experience – along with other people we’ve heard from – the food is routinely served hot, and that’s not really a guarantee at Warungs in Bali.
The menu is completely vegan, so expect a lot of fried vegetables and tofu dishes, but we were surprised at the variety of the platters and the serving size. We aren’t strict vegans, and our main concern when visiting vegan restaurants in Canggu is being full at the end of the meal.
It’s also one of the only warungs that serve specific breakfast dishes, such as pancakes, porridge, coconut yogurt, and fresh fruit!
Cost: 40-50K per person
Opening Hours: 8:00 AM – 11:00 PM
Location: Batu Bolong
4. Ithaka Warung
Sarah and I first visited Ithaka Warung way back in the day. It was 2018 on our honeymoon in Bali and this was our first taste of super cheap Indonesian food.
I think we ordered 4 massive dishes for less than $10. It’s the only warung on this list that serves all its dishes to order rather than cafeteria style.
For some reason, we specifically remember loving the Katsu Curry, although that’s far from Indonesian.
These days, it’s changed a lot. For starters, it’s a lot more expensive – you can expect to pay at least 75k ($5) per plate – and functions more like a normal restaurant. But they also moved the location from a cozy hole-in-the-wall eatery to an open-air balcony with a view of the sunset over Batu Bolong.
What didn’t change is that we still love this warung for its international Asian dishes! Our favorite dishes were their Indian curry and Khao Soi (Thai Curry Noodle Soup).
However, IIthaka warung also has all the traditional Balinese dishes you’d expect at a warung, like Nasi Goreng, Soto Ayam, and Beef Rendang Curry.
What We Ordered: Indian Curry & Khao Soi
Cost: 70-90k per plate
Opening Hours: 7:00 AM – 11:00 PM
Location: Batu Bolong
Indonesian Restaurants in Canggu
In addition to local warungs, there are also a few more classy restaurants that serve Indonesian food with a modern flair.
Don’t expect to get the same prices as you see at the warungs in Canggu, but it’s still a wonderful place to taste authentic Indonesian dishes. It’s particularly great if you are nervous about eating in cafeteria-style restaurants.
5. Casa Tua (Formerly Dandelion)
Casa Tua is a dinner-only restaurant that we found on our second trip to Canggu, and at the time, the restaurant was actually called ‘Dandelion.’
Food aside… the atmosphere is super homey. You take your shoes off before you enter, and most of the seating is on the floor (although there are some normal seats for inflexible people like me). We also thought that Casa Tua had unbelievable service.
For real. Of all the Indonesian restaurants we visited in Canggu, this has the best staff!
Casa Tua serves exclusively Balinese dishes, and they taste 100% authentic. The meat was tender, the veggies were fresh, and the spices were on point!
If you’re looking for more of a sit-down experience around lunch, then Pali on Echo Beach is another great option with authentic Indonesian dishes. It’s a little more expensive, but they open at 12 and even do takeaway/delivery.
What We Ordered: Ayam Bakar Sambal Jahe, Ubi Cantok, and Vegetable Kare (Curry)
Cost: 60-90K per plate
Opening Hours: 3:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Location: Batu Bolong
6. Ulekan
ULEKAN is the spot to go for fancy Indonesian dishes. They have one location in Berawa, another in Munduk Bali, and even run a catering service from Denpasar.
They’re an accomplished restaurant, but we’ve only visited their Berawa location.
Their signature dish is actually a 5-course tasting of the most loved options on the menu. When we did this, it only cost about 200k, but the prices have risen over the past few years to 400k per person for the non-vegetarian menu.
It’s definitely pricey for Bali, but the food is still amazing, and it gives you a sample of some of the absolute best Indonesian dishes in Canggu.
What We Ordered: Indonesian Curry, Sate Ayam, Nasi Goreng, Babi Guling, and Gado Gado
Cost: 250-400k per person
Opening Hours: 12:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Location: Berawa
Best Babi Guling in Canggu
Babi Guling is one of Bali’s most famous dishes, and in the past, it was used as a ceremonial offering to the Hindu gods since it’s a whole (perfect) pig.
But they cook the pig by stuffing it full of spices and herbs and slowly roasting the whole pig on a spit over the fire. Then, it’s thinly sliced and served either on its own or as part of other classic Indonesian dishes like Satay, nasi goreng, nasi campur, or mie goreng.
Just expect that it will be a little more lean and chewy than pork you’re used to!
7. Babi Guling Men Lari
If you want to try authentic Babi Guling in Canggu, this restaurant is one of the best spots in town. It is up on the main highway at the end of Echo Beach Road.
At Babi Guling Men Lari, you can try their famous Nasi Babi Guling Special Pisa, Nasi Babi Guling Campur Komplit.
They also cook the meat in a variety of ways, which you can order separately. When we came here, the options were daging babi goreng (deep-fried), uratan babi (pork intestine sausage), kulit babi guling (crispy skin), and kuah balung (spicy pork ribs soup).
Cost: 50-100K per person
Opening Hours: 9:00 AM – 10:00 PM
Location: Echo Beach
Is it Safe to eat at Warungs in bali?
We are extra cautious about eating contaminated food or water. Both of us deal with ongoing gut issues, and we’ve both had food poisoning on multiple occasions in Bali. It’s kind of expected every couple of months while living here.
So, we are super serious about what food we put into our bodies.
The most risky part of eating at local warungs in Bali is the buffet-style food. There’s really no way to know how long something has been sitting there, and in our experience, it’s not always super hot when they serve it to you.
So, our philosophy is just to stick with the places that seem really popular. This is for 2 reasons.
First, if a lot of people are eating there consistently, chances are that the food rarely makes people sick. Otherwise, expats and travelers would stop going.
Second, the more popular it is, the more often each buffet platter will run out and need another batch cooked up. So, you have a better chance of getting fresh food.
We also typically try to go for lunch, not dinner. That way, if something has been sitting out for a while, it’s not like it’s been there for 12 hours, ya know?
Final Thoughts
Warung Sika was a staple for us while living in Bali to save a few extra bucks to use on taking fitness classes around town, shopping, or booking day tours around the island.
Eating out is pretty inexpensive at most restaurants in Canggu, whether you’re getting burgers or going out for brunch.
But at a local warung in Canggu, you can expect to pay less than $3 for a huge portion of food!
Still, we encourage you to have at least one classy Indonesian food experience, too. Ulekan and Casa Tua were a lot more formal than the warungs, and it was so fun to try craft Indonesian dishes that were prepared fresh!
