What to Eat in Bali: 15 Balinese Dishes to Try and Where to Find Them

The short answer: what to order first

If you only eat three Balinese dishes, make them babi guling (spit-roasted pork), sate lilit (minced satay wrapped around lemongrass) and a proper nasi campur from a busy warung. Add bebek betutu if you can plan a few hours ahead, and finish with a plate of jaja Bali, the island's sticky rice cakes. Everything else on this list is a delicious detour.

Balinese food is not the same as Indonesian food. The fried rice and peanut-sauce satay you see everywhere came from Java and beyond. True Balinese cooking is built on base genep, a pounded spice paste of shallot, garlic, galangal, turmeric, ginger, candlenut, chili and shrimp paste, and much of it was born as ceremonial food. That is why pork and duck play such a big role here, unlike most of Muslim-majority Indonesia.

The 15 dishes worth tracking down

1. Babi guling. A whole pig rubbed and stuffed with base genep, then turned over coals for hours. A plate brings crackling, sliced meat, blood sausage, lawar and a spicy soup. Go before 1 p.m.; the good places sell out.
2. Bebek betutu. Duck stuffed with spice paste, wrapped in banana leaf or areca bark and slow-cooked until it falls apart. Restaurants often need a few hours' notice for a whole bird.
3. Ayam betutu. The chicken version, easier to find and often served by the portion. The well-known Gilimanuk style is fiery.
4. Sate lilit. Minced fish, pork or chicken mixed with grated coconut and spices, pressed onto lemongrass or flat bamboo sticks and grilled. Fish versions are a coastal classic.
5. Lawar. Finely chopped green beans or young jackfruit with grated coconut, spices and minced meat. Red lawar is mixed with fresh blood; white lawar is not.
6. Nasi campur. Rice with small portions of whatever the warung cooked that morning. In Bali it often includes sate lilit, lawar, shredded chicken, fried peanuts and sambal.
7. Nasi jinggo. A fist-sized portion of rice with a few toppings, wrapped in banana leaf. Sold from street stalls in Denpasar, mostly in the evening, for very little.
8. Sambal matah. A raw "sambal" of shallot, lemongrass, chili, lime leaf and coconut oil. Not a dish on its own, but it lifts everything it touches.
9. Sate babi and sate kambing. Pork or goat skewers grilled on roadside carts, glazed with sweet soy or served with Balinese sauce.
10. Pepes ikan. Spiced fish steamed and grilled inside banana leaf, a fixture at seafood warungs.
11. Jukut ares. A soup made from the tender core of the banana tree, usually cooked with chicken or pork. Light, peppery and very local.
12. Tipat cantok. Pressed rice cakes and vegetables in a peanut and garlic sauce, Bali's answer to gado-gado and a good vegetarian option.
13. Serombotan. A Klungkung salad of blanched vegetables with grated coconut and spicy sauce.
14. Jaja Bali. Bright cakes of rice flour, coconut and palm sugar such as klepon, laklak, bubuh injin (black rice pudding) and dadar gulung. Buy them fresh at a morning market.
15. Rujak Bali. Unripe fruit with a sauce of palm sugar, chili and shrimp paste, sometimes in a fish-sauce broth. An acquired taste worth acquiring.

Where and how to eat: warungs

The best Balinese food is cooked in warungs, small family-run eateries often attached to the owner's house. Many have no menu: you point at the dishes behind the glass and the cook builds your plate. Prices are rarely posted at the simplest places, but it is normal to ask before ordering.

A few habits help. Eat lunch early, because many warungs cook once in the morning and close when the food is gone. Look for places full of local workers. If a sign says babi it serves pork; ayam is chicken, bebek is duck and ikan is fish. Tidak pedas means not spicy, sedikit pedas means a little spicy, and both are worth knowing.

For the famous names, babi guling in Ubud has long been associated with Ibu Oka near the palace, and Warung Babi Guling Pak Malen in Seminyak is a favorite with drivers. In Sanur, Warung Mak Beng has served fried fish and fish head soup for decades. In Denpasar, the night market at Pasar Kreneng is where locals go for cheap, honest plates.

What it costs in 2025-2026

Local food is one of Bali's real bargains, though tourist areas charge more. As a rough guide (around IDR 16,000-16,500 to the US dollar):

• Babi guling at a local market stall: around IDR 25,000 (USD 1.50) at Pasar Kreneng in Denpasar; more at famous Ubud or Seminyak warungs.
• Nasi campur at a warung: usually IDR 25,000-45,000 (USD 1.50-3).
• Ayam betutu by the portion: around IDR 45,000 (USD 3) in Seminyak.
• Fish set meal at a seafood warung: around IDR 55,000 (USD 3.50).
• Nasi jinggo or market snacks: often well under IDR 15,000 (USD 1).

Tourist-facing warungs in Canggu, Seminyak and Ubud often add 10-21% tax and service, written as "++" on the menu.

Halal food in Bali

Most Balinese are Hindu, so pork is common and Balinese warungs are generally not halal. That said, Bali has a large Muslim community, especially in Denpasar, Kuta, Jimbaran and along the west coast near Gilimanuk. Look for warungs signed Muslim or halal, Javanese and Padang restaurants (nasi Padang), and the many ayam penyet and bakso stalls run by Javanese families. Ayam betutu and sate lilit made from fish or chicken are easy to find without pork, but ask whether the kitchen cooks pork too.

Vegetarian and vegan eating

Bali, and Ubud in particular, is one of the easiest places in Asia to eat plant-based. In local warungs, ask for tempeh, tahu (tofu), sayur (vegetables), gado-gado or tipat cantok. Two things to watch: shrimp paste (terasi) hides in many sambals and spice pastes, and lawar is almost always made with meat even when it looks like vegetables. Saying tanpa daging (without meat) and tanpa terasi (without shrimp paste) goes a long way.

A few local habits worth knowing

Balinese people often eat alone and at odd hours, picking from food cooked in the morning, so a quiet warung at 3 p.m. is normal. Eating with your right hand is common, and you may be offered a spoon and fork instead of a knife. Tap water is not for drinking, but ice in established restaurants is made from filtered water. And when you see small plates of rice on banana leaf by a doorway, those are offerings, not leftovers. Step around them, then go and find lunch.