Our Favorite Hangouts: Canggu

Canggu is a fairly new hotspot on Bali’s map. The small coastal village turned hipster mecca is not to be missed when you visit the Island of Gods. It has surfer-perfect beaches, trendy eateries, cool bars and laid-back atmosphere mixed with traditional Balinese influences. For us, Canggu quickly proved to be a perfect place to unwind and refuel the batteries during our South-East Asian adventures.

If you haven’t been to Canggu, you haven’t really been to Bali. It’s one of those special places that has a great mix of eco-conscious expat community and locals going about their day. Traditional offerings on the street, surfers balancing their boards while driving scooters, fashionable boutiques, rice fields, and smoothie bowls in all the colors of the rainbow.

There are countless bars and restaurants to choose from, each of them offering more trendy and instagrammable (‘cause, priorities!) menu options than the other. If you’re vegetarian or vegan, you’ll be in heaven.

During the 1.5 months we spent in Canggu this year, we only managed to tick off a couple of dozen places from the long list of culinary recommendations. Because Robin is quite picky with his food (vegetarian but no onion, no coriander, no cauliflower, no broccoli, you get the point 🤯), we tend to return to places we like. Here’s a short overview of our Canggu hot spots we can’t wait to go back to.

Breakfast

Satu-Satu Coffee Company

Bali is world-famous for its amazing coffee, but somehow finding a good cup of the dark brew is not easy at all. Satu-Satu was recommended to us by a friend, and oh boy were we grateful for this tip. People rave about this place and they are completely right.

Except for the amazing coffee, Satu-Satu has excellent service, a large choice of delicious breakfast options from smoothie bowls and porridge to bagels and sizeable breakfast plates. It’s great value for money. There is both indoor (air-conditioned) and outdoor sitting, and plenty of parking spaces.

Crate Café (Lifescrate)

Crate is another great option to break your fast. Located on one of the side streets of Jalan Batu Bolong, and overlooking rice paddies, this place is the perfect place to start your day. Particularly, when the jetlag doesn’t let you sleep.

They open at 6 AM which is 2 hours before most of the other places. It does get quite busy later on in the day but it’s part of its charm. Also, it’s a great spot if you’re trying to run into your favorite Instagrammer or YouTuber. Everybody who’s anybody goes there. 🎉

The food is absolutely fantastic! Among other things, Robin tried tofu scramble and a few smoothie bowls while Diana had the brekkie plate almost every time we were there. Prices are very competitive as well. The only thing we would improve is the drink sizes as you will most probably be done with your beverage by the time your food comes.

Overall, definitely a must visit when you’re in the hood. Just make sure to get there early.

Work

District Café & Coworking

Canggu has a few coworking spaces to choose from. Most popular being the Outpost, Dojo and the newly-opened Tropical Nomad. We didn’t try any of them because we accidentally stumbled upon District Canggu — a café-coworking combo.

For a mere 110,000 IDR (less than 8 USD) you get a code to fast WiFi (limited to around 20 Mbps per connection) that you can connect two devices to. It can be used by 2 people and will last you 24 hours. Plus, you get 10% discount on your order. Do we need to say more? 😍

You can sit with your laptop at the restaurant downstairs in the café area, or upstairs in the designated coworking space that is overlooking rice fields. There are quite a few desks available and a few air-conditioned rooms. When we were there (February and April) it would rarely get full, so it was a perfect place for us to be productive and focus on work.

Apart from the Mie Goreng (fried noodles), the menu didn’t particularly wow us but they have a decent amount of options to choose from. Coffee… we would suggest bringing one from the outside, like Satu-Satu. 😉

Lunch

Warung Bu Mi

Sometimes it’s easy to forget about it, but while in Canggu you’re still in Indonesia. Hence, you should the local cuisine a go every now and then. Not to mention, that dining at one of the warungs will delight your wallet.

Warung Bu Mi is our favorite local eatery in the area. It’s a buffet-style set up with a lot of vegetarian-friendly dishes. The food is fantastic and so much cheaper than everywhere else! Most of the time we would pay around 70,000 IDR (5 USD) for 2 full plates and 2 waters/sodas.

The only downside is that you never know how much exactly you will pay as there are no prices next to the dishes and we think the amount you pay also depends on the size of the portion you are given. In any case, we went with it and didn’t feel like they tried to overcharge us.

We saw other people that could have fed a small village and they still paid only a few dollars.

Sunset at the Beach

All three of the Canggu beaches (Berawa, Batu Bolong, and Echo Beach) have dozens of beach bars to choose from. You can sip your coconut or Bintang in a modest surfers bar or a hip beach club. The only limit is your budget. One thing is for sure, the Balinese sunsets rarely disappoint.

Dinner

Luigi’s Hot Pizza

Yes, we said pizza! 🙈 We had a fair share of pizza in our lives, and Luigi’s Hot Pizza is without a doubt one of our top three worldwide! It’s mouth-wateringly delicious and authentically Italian. Our friends over at Travel Leap recommended this and it was simply divine!

Also, super budget-friendly. Especially, if you benefit from the daily happy hour (5 to 7 PM) when a Margherita will cost you only 50,000 IDR (3.50 USD). And that’s a really good price!

If that’s not enough for you, the place turns into a club at around 8 PM with catchy dance tunes blasting from the speakers. Granted, it’s not an ideal spot to have a conversation among a big group of friends, but it is cool nevertheless!

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There you go. These are the spots we can’t wait to go back to the next time we’re in Canggu. Hope you will love them as much as we do.

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See you on the road,