Where the locals eat, a Bingin food guide

Most visitors stay in the cafe loop along Bingin Road. The food is good, but it’s the same food they could get in Canggu, Berawa, or Seminyak. The local warungs in the back lanes are where Pak Wayan eats most nights, and where you’ll have the best 50,000 IDR dinner of your trip.

Six places within 10 minutes of the villa:

1. Warung Mande, Bingin Hill

Nasi campur. Pick four items off the steam-table, beef rendang if it’s there, telur balado, fern tips, sambal matah on the side. 35,000 IDR. Open lunch only, closed Sundays.

2. Ibu Kadek, Pecatu

A side gate behind the Pecatu petrol station. Babi guling on Wednesdays and Saturdays, pre-order through us by 11am. The crackling alone is worth the trip.

3. Warung Local, Padang Padang Road

The new place that’s not new anymore. Run by a young family from Jimbaran. Best gado-gado in south Bali, and they make their own peanut sauce twice a day. Dinner only.

4. Pak Made’s Fish Stall, Jimbaran Beach

Not in Bingin proper, but worth the 20-minute drive. Pick your fish off the ice, snapper or grouper, and they grill it over coconut husks while you sit on a plastic chair watching planes land. Bring cash, 200,000 for two.

5. Drifter Cafe, off Bingin Beach

The exception to the no-cafe rule. Their breakfast is great, but the secret is the smoothie bowls at 4pm before the dinner crowd. Walk down the cliff to Bingin first, swim, then back up.

6. Single Fin warung, behind the bar

Most people don’t realise Single Fin has a separate warung at the back. Same menu as the upstairs bar at half the price. Order the mie goreng and a coconut, sit at the wooden bench, watch the surf check come in.

Tips

Most warungs close by 9pm, Balinese eat early. Pre-order from us the day before for the babi guling and the harder-to-find ones. Cash is king at the smaller stalls. Always carry small notes; nobody breaks a 100,000.

Pak Wayan does an unofficial “warung tour” on request, three places, two hours, one full belly. Ask him at breakfast.