First I’d like to apologize because I have no answer why Indonesian food is as good as it is. Nevertheless, I want to share a bit of our culinary experience. Bali certainly is a bit overcrowded, living costs are rising and food gets more expensive every few months. However, if you’re not after western food you can not only get pretty good deals but food you won’t forget so soon.
In our last few months in Bali we’ve had the pleasure of eating Indonesian food almost every day. For the uninitiated, Indo food consists mostly of nasi (rice) and mie (noodles) either steamed or fried with other ingredients such as daging (meat), telur (egg), sayur (vegetable), tempeh (soy beans) or tahu (tofu).
One of the most popular and our favorite way to eat nasi apart from goreng (fried) is as campur (mix). If this sounds a bit odd to you, don’t worry it did to us too. Nasi campur can basically just be called touch screen food. You’re usually standing in front of a showcase and select dishes to accompany your rice by pointing at them. If they finally ask you: “Sambal?”. You can say ya (yes) for spicy chili sauce and tidak (no) if you don’t want any. Whatever you selected will then be summed up, and you pay for it after eating.
At what time do you eat nasi campur then? Any time it’s open. This can range from early morning breakfast until late night dinner depending on the warung (a small restaurant or shop) that you’re frequenting. The same goes basically for any other food in Indonesia. There are no rules, or at least we didn’t catch up on them.
Now that we’ve got this out of the way, I’ll show you a small selection of where and what we ate. You can find a link to a list of selected places on Google maps at the end of the post for your convenience.
Sambalado Warung
This is by far our favorite. It was recommended by a good friend. The place offers nasi campur from 9 AM until they run out, which is probably around 3 PM. We don’t know exactly. There are no opening times. We only know that you have to go early if you want specific things. The place is absolutely packed with locals, and it can be a bit hard to decided what to take. Be careful, almost everything is super spicy.
Warung Madura Sate Kambing & Ayam Gule
We’ve found this gem by chance. They have the best sate ayam I had on the island, and let me tell you, I’ve had many. Apart from sate ayam and steamed rice you won’t find much here but the sate will leave you craving for more anyway.
Nasi Goreng Barokah
This is just a small cart that comes out once the sun goes down. They offer a variety of nasi and mie goreng and put small premade omelettes on top. This is just one hell of a place for absolutely delicious and cheap nasi goreng. Right next to the stall is a warung that serves nasi campur if you’re feeling more like it. On some days there is also a cart that serves soto (soup) with bakso (meat balls). I can only recommend to try them when they are there. Everything is freshly made and the cart is just a sight to be seen once it rolls in. The soup is also seriously delicious.
Warung Solo Via
This warung is located on a crossing on the main road on your way from the airport to Uluwatu. They offer delicious nasi campur, and compared to the other places it’s self-service. You get a plate of rice, and then you’re behind the showcase shoveling food on your plate. The area around is quite busy and loud but the food and price make up for it. This is probably the cheapest food you can get on the Bukit.
Warung Jawa Allya
Not as cheap as Solo Via and the portion size is smaller, but it has often saved us after a long surf or trip down to Uluwatu. This place has many options and is quite “Westener” friendly in the sense that most things are not spicy but it’s still cheaper than full “western” warungs where no Indonesian would ever go (looking at you Warung Local). It’s always good to stop by.
Warung Sika
One of the few places in Canggu where eating does not break the bank. Yet another place where you can get nasi campur, but be careful the food can be spicy. Also, always nice to have a choice for the rice between white, brown and yellow.
Warung Black Pearl and Warung Torotoro
I thought about splitting these two but as I’ve just heard from Anna, she didn’t even realize these are two different places. LOL. So what do they do? They grill fish and other sea creatures, and it’s just purely delicious. We’ve been there with friends for dinners, and we’ve been there for Anna’s birthday. Everything is grilled and served with different sambals and plecing kangkung (water spinach salad). It’s not as cheap as nasi goreng for a weeknight dinner, but it’s still quite affordable for us. Be sure to either reserve a table or come for a later meal, it gets pretty crowded on weekends.
This is a selection of our favorite places. We hope you get to try at least one and then tell us how it went.
🍛️ Click here for a selection of places where you can satisfy your indo food cravings 🍛️!
See you soon.