What to eat in Bali, one warung at a time.

Balinese first

The Balinese dishes to find.

Most Balinese are Hindu, so pork is common and beef is rare — the reverse of much of Indonesia. That is why babi guling, the island’s most famous dish, is so closely tied to Bali.

• ☐ Babi guling — spice-stuffed pig roasted on a spit for hours. A plate comes with rice, crackling, pork sausage and a coconut-vegetable salad.
• ☐ Nasi campur Bali — rice with a little of many things: shredded chicken, satay, vegetables, egg, sambal. Often sold wrapped in banana leaf.
• ☐ Sate lilit — minced fish, chicken or pork, spiced and pressed around a lemongrass stalk or stick, then grilled over coals.
• ☐ Lawar — chopped young jackfruit or vegetables, coconut, spices and minced meat. The red version contains blood; vegetarian versions exist, so ask.
• ☐ Bebek betutu or ayam betutu — duck or chicken rubbed and stuffed with spice paste and slow-cooked; the old way is wrapped in leaves and buried in embers.
• ☐ Sambal matah — raw shallot, lemongrass, garlic, chilli and lime, dressed with hot coconut oil. Put it on everything.
• ☐ Laklak — little rice-flour pancakes with grated coconut and palm sugar.
• ☐ Bubuh injin — black sticky rice pudding with coconut milk and palm sugar.

Indonesia too

Indonesian favourites you will see everywhere.

More Indonesian dishes, plate by plate: Indonesian food.

• ☐ Nasi goreng with a fried egg on top, the breakfast of every homestay.
• ☐ Mie goreng, fried noodles, sweet with kecap manis.
• ☐ Sate ayam with peanut sauce from a street cart.
• ☐ Gado-gado, vegetables and tofu in peanut sauce.
• ☐ Rendang at a nasi Padang place, if you see the stacked plates in the window.
• ☐ Pisang goreng, fried banana, with afternoon coffee.
• ☐ Martabak manis, the thick sweet pancake from a night cart.
• ☐ Es kopi susu gula aren — iced coffee with milk and palm sugar.

How it works

How a warung works.

A warung is a small, family-run place to eat — sometimes a few tables under a roof, sometimes a counter on the street. Many specialise: one roasts babi guling until it sells out, another only does betutu, another only nasi campur. A short menu is a good sign, not a bad one.

1. Look at the cabinetAt a nasi campur warung, the dishes sit behind glass. Ask for rice, then point at what you want on top — the server builds the plate in front of you.
2. Say how spicyAsk “pedas?” (spicy?) before you point at a sambal. If you want it mild, “tidak pedas” or “sambalnya dipisah” (sambal on the side).
3. Eat in or take away“Makan di sini” is eating here; “bungkus” means wrap it to go, often in paper and banana leaf.
4. Go early for the famous onesBabi guling warungs roast in the morning and often sell out after lunch. Check hours before you go.
5. Pay at the endTell them what you had at the counter. Small notes help at street carts and small warungs.

Words to know

Six Indonesian phrases for the table.

Copy this

Your Bali food passport.

• ☐ Babi guling — warung: ___ · crackling crunch out of 5: ___
• ☐ Nasi campur — what I pointed at: ___
• ☐ Sate lilit — fish, chicken or pork: ___
• ☐ Lawar — red or white: ___
• ☐ Betutu — duck or chicken, and who I shared it with: ___
• ☐ A sambal I would bottle and take home: ___
• ☐ A Balinese sweet — laklak or bubuh injin: ___
• ☐ The warung I would go back to on day one next time: ___

Keep the trip

From banana leaf to map pin.

A nasi campur plate is a whole menu on one leaf. Snap it in PlateDiary and the dishes are cut out into saves on your phone in about a second — offline, which helps in rice-field warungs with no signal. Every warung pins itself to the map, so the babi guling place in Ubud and the sate cart in Sanur are easy to find again.

Write down what the bill came to in rupiah, or scan the receipt — it is read on your phone, and PlateDiary never converts currencies. Tag the trip “Bali”, add your companions, and when the month ends, your Served story picks your dish of the month and your new places for you.