Balangan · Bukit · Bali

Where to Eat in Balangan

The day at a glance

Monday the room closes at 16:00. Every other day it runs until ten.

Breakfast in Balangan, 08:00 to 14:00

Breakfast is the reason a lot of people come up off the beach in the first place. A few to know:

• Shakshuka: eggs baked in matbucha with mozzarella and sourdough (Rp88,000)
• Arabian Breakfast: eggs, hummus, baba ganoush and warm flatbread (Rp70,000)
• Salmon and Avo Toast: spinach, poached egg, sun-dried tomato on sourdough (Rp115,000)

There are lighter options too, from smoothie bowls to porridges, and coffee runs all day, including the halva latte the place is known for (Rp45,000).

Brunch in Balangan, 10:00 to 14:00

From ten the table turns to brunch: sparkling wine, sharing plates, the breakfast menu still running until two. A few of the plates to pass around:

• Hummus: with tomato or lamb on top for a little more (Rp62,000)
• Babaganoush 2.0: the smoked-aubergine classic, done properly (Rp48,000)
• Stracciatella: with smoked fig and crispy basil (Rp138,000)

To drink, a glass of prosecco, an Aperol Spritz, or a cold pressed green juice.

The hour that makes brunch here work is noon. The breakfast menu runs until two and the full menu opens at twelve, so between twelve and two you can put shakshuka and grilled octopus on the same table without anyone negotiating. Around Balangan that overlap is rare: most places have switched over by then, or have not started.

What a table usually looks like: hummus at 62k and babaganoush at 48k in the middle, masala falafel at 70k, warm pita to push it around, and then whatever anyone wanted from breakfast still arriving. Stracciatella is 138k if the table is feeling generous. To drink, prosecco and Aperol spritz, or the halva latte at 45k for whoever is not drinking.

It is a long table sort of meal rather than a quick one. Nobody moves you along, and the rail seats stay in shade until early afternoon.

Coffee in Balangan

The coffee is a reason to come up on its own, plate or no plate. Specialty beans, pulled through the whole day: a clean flat white, an espresso tonic over ice when it is hot, a coconut coffee, an affogato after lunch, and the halva latte the place is known for. Order a cup, take the terrace, and let the morning run long.

• Halva Latte: the one the place is known for (Rp45,000)
• Flat White: hot or over ice (Rp35,000)
• Espresso Tonic: iced, for the middle of the day (Rp39,000)
• Coconut Coffee: iced (Rp45,000)
• Affogato: after lunch (Rp45,000)

Tea, matcha and hot chocolate run alongside, and the kitchen keeps cold pressed juices going all day.

Dinner in Balangan, 14:00 to 22:00

When the lanterns come on the kitchen turns fully to wood and fire. This is where dinner in Balangan gets serious. A few from the fire:

• Grilled Octopus: baby potato and burnt romano (Rp138,000)
• Arabic Style Lamb Neck: marinated chickpeas and black banana cream (Rp145,000)
• Grilled Beef Steak, aged and fermented in house (Rp205,000)

Alongside there is pasta and risotto, wood-fired pizza off the stone, a short well-chosen wine list, and cocktails from a Negroni to an Espresso Martini.

Dinner starts at two, but the room changes at six. That is when the light goes over the rooftops, and it is the hour people book for. After dark the chandelier and the lanterns take over and the terrace goes quiet.

What comes off the coals: grilled octopus with baby potato and burnt romano at 138k, Arabic style lamb neck with marinated chickpeas at 145k, duck breast at 142k, lamb kebab at 115k, and a beef steak aged and fermented in the house at 205k. From the stone, pizza from 95k and flatbread with slow-cooked beef at 85k. For a table that does not want meat off the fire there is melted duck pappardelle at 115k and mushroom risotto.

Dinner runs until ten, Tuesday through Sunday, and until four on Monday. If there are six or more of you, say so when you book and the table will be put together before you arrive.

Mediterranean, cooked over fire

The plates lean Mediterranean: hummus, babaganoush, masala falafel, shakshuka at breakfast, lamb neck and lamb kebab off the fire, a proper Greek salad, grilled octopus. If you have been looking for this kind of food on the Bukit and coming up short, this is where it is, in Balangan.

If you eat vegetarian, 23 dishes here are marked for it, from falafel and hummus to a jackfruit stroganoff, and the vegetarian menu lists them all with prices, plus what the kitchen can do for vegan guests.

• Masala Falafel (Rp70,000) and Hummus (Rp62,000)
• Greek Salad: the proper one (Rp98,000)
• Lamb Kebab off the fire (Rp115,000)
• Pizza Margarita off the stone (Rp95,000)

Is Balangan part of Uluwatu?

In the way people actually speak, yes. On paper Balangan sits in Jimbaran, in the South Kuta district, and Uluwatu proper is the temple on the far southwestern tip of the peninsula. Almost nobody uses the word that narrowly. For most visitors, and for most people living on the Bukit, Uluwatu means everything up the hill from Jimbaran: Balangan, Dreamland, Bingin, Padang Padang, Suluban, Melasti. Ask anyone for a restaurant in Uluwatu and you will be pointed at places spread across that whole stretch of coast.

So if you are looking for somewhere to eat in Uluwatu and you land on Balangan, you have not gone wrong. Shaffa is at the near end of that stretch, on Jalan Pantai Balangan: about eighteen minutes from Padang Padang, nineteen from Bingin, twenty-five from Uluwatu Temple itself, and twelve back down to Jimbaran bay. Close enough to belong to an Uluwatu day, far enough up the road that nobody is queueing at the door.

One honest distinction. Much of what gets recommended for Uluwatu is built on the cliff edge, with the drop and the surf below and a price that reflects it. This is not that. The terrace here is upstairs over jungle, with a long line of ocean past the rooftops, and the kitchen is the reason to come rather than the parapet.

Balangan Beach itself

Balangan is a long strip of pale sand under a limestone cliff, with a reef break that peels left and draws surfers from first light. The warungs sit right on the sand, the cliff path comes down in steps, and by late afternoon the whole bay turns gold. It is quieter than Padang Padang and less built up than the cliff end of Uluwatu, which is most of the reason people keep coming back to this stretch.

What the beach does not have is much in the way of a proper sit down meal. That is what sends people back up the road when the sun gets high or the hunger arrives.

Why eating well around here takes a plan

The Bukit is generous with views and thin on kitchens that run all day. Around Balangan most of what is open early is coffee to take away and a plate on the sand, which is exactly right after a session and less right when you want a table, a proper breakfast and bread that came out of an oven that morning.

The same goes later. A glass of prosecco or an Aperol at eleven, a table of sharing plates, a dinner that runs into the evening with wine worth drinking: none of that is impossible on the Bukit, but it usually means a drive down to Jimbaran or out to the cliff end of Uluwatu. In Balangan itself the list is short, and that is the gap Shaffa sits in. One room, from eight in the morning until ten at night, without moving the scooter twice.

The room holds 4.7 out of 5 across 558 Google reviews, which is the closest thing to an honest verdict on a place: it is what the people who actually ate here said afterwards.

The terrace and the view

The room is open to the air, set over jungle with the ocean beyond, and at night it runs on lantern light. For anyone spending a few days around Balangan it tends to become the daily anchor: coffee and breakfast in the morning, a long brunch, a dinner that turns into the evening. It works for a quiet start alone or a full table.

The beaches from the door

Shaffa sits right on Balangan Beach Road, so the sand is the easy part, and the rest of the Bukit's best beaches are a short ride away. Driving times on a clear road:

Come up for breakfast before the surf, or roll in for dinner once the light goes.

Finding it

Shaffa is on Balangan Beach Road, Jalan Pantai Balangan, between Jimbaran and Uluwatu Temple, a few minutes up from Balangan Beach. In the way the word is actually used, this is Uluwatu: the whole stretch of the Bukit above Jimbaran. Booking a table is the safe move for dinner and on weekends. Driving times from Canggu, Seminyak, Kuta and the airport, along with parking and sunset times, are on the getting here page.

Drive times from the beaches, parking and the sunset hour are on the getting here page. Every dish and price is on the full menu. This piece lives in the journal.

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Questions people ask about eating in Balangan