When it comes to cafe culture and healthy eating, you can’t go wrong in Bali. I found it hard to go a day without trying another stunning smoothie bowl abundant with local fresh fruits and delicious toppings, perfect brekky in such a hot climate. Being next door to Nalu Bowls we treated ourselves to one or two of these irresistible bowls of goodness.
With such a huge choice of recommended cafes and restaurants to try, it was a challenge to choose where to go to next! Thank fully we’d done our research and had a number of places in mind where we definitely wanted to check out. Arriving in the middle of the night, our first meal was actually in our hotel the next morning. Included in our room was a complimentary breakfast from the hotel’s Green Spot cafe serving up a variety of healthy brekky and lunch options. Day one I was drawn to the dragonfruit bowl beautifully presented with banana coins, fresh mango and crunchy coconut on top.
One of the places high on my list to try in Canggu was Give Cafe, sister to the famous Kynd Cafe in Ubud. This colourful little eatery with its pretty interiors gives all of its profits to charity, so at the end of your visit you pop your token into one of the charity boxes that they support to choose where your money goes. A fully vegan menu includes local dishes such as the Balinese curry which I opted for, as well as nutritious salad bowls and meat free alternatives which could be mistaken for the real thing – those satay skewers were just like chicken!
Another awesome cafe we were keen to hit up was Cinta Cafe which overlooks a rice paddy. This makes for a picture perfect lunch setting in the heart of Bali, especially when enjoyed sitting back and sipping on a coconut.
Next we tried Shady Shack for dinner as we’d heard great things about this hidden gem nestled in the trees just off the main drag in Canggu. Sat on wooden benches amongst the foliage glistening with fairy lights, it makes for an intimate dinner setting with friends or a partner. I was overwhelmed with the extensive choice of salad bowls and vegan dishes, but finally settled on the green bowl including zucchini noodles, broccoli heads and lettuce drizzled in a creamy peanut sauce and topped with a sweet almond brittle. Everything was so fresh and portions were certainly generous without compromise on flavour; this was my favourite dinner spot as I can’t resist a loaded salad bowl.
Back to brekky, I had my eye on the acai bowls I’d seen on Instagram from The Loft. A little on the pricier side given its reputation, I couldn’t fault the presentation of this perfectly formed bowl which even came with a cute pineapple gold spoon for me to scrape every last bit from the coconut. Located on one of the main strips in Canggu, I sat out on the terrace and savoured by sweet acai bowl whilst watching the madness of Bali scooters racing by.
Given our short trip, we weren’t in Bali long enough to sample all of the fabulous places I’ve seen scrolling through Instagram. We did however cover a lot of Canggu and on the most part everywhere was reasonable and eating out was relatively cheap, with the total cost of dinner and drinks typically about half what you’d pay in England! Whilst I didn’t manage to photograph every place we went – I was enjoying myself too much 😉 – below is a list of some of the best cafes, restaurants and bars we did visit and would highly recommend trying for yourself:
- La Brisa
- Cinta Cafe
- Deus Ex Machina
- Give Cafe
- Krate Cafe
- The Lawn
- The Loft
- Luigi’s Pizza
- Mason
- Nalu Bowls
- Old Man’s
- Penny Lane
- Pretty Poison
- Sand Bar
- Shady Shack
Dani Aneka 