Seminyak: a gourmet guide to Bali’s food hot spot

If neighbouring Kuta is a party-lover playground, then this sun-kissed town on Bali’s beach-strewn south west coast is a gourmet paradise. Seminyak has long played host to great restaurants and buzzing bars – sunset cocktails at Ku Te Da are an essential experience – but there are a few perennial favourites and new openings that deserve a moment in the spotlight. Expedia’s Kiwi travellers spend 5-6 nights in Bali and that’s plenty of time to work up an appetite. Here are our favourite food and drink spots in Seminyak.

French pastries and comfort food: Livingstone Bakery

This recently opened bakery and café at 88 Jalan Petitenget is huge, with two light-flooded floors and a chilled outside space. From croissants to cookies, everything is baked in-house. The menu – from brunch staples and burgers to pasta, pies and steaks – has real comfort food appeal. Wooden fittings and pretty pot plants add to the casual atmosphere. It’s only been open a few months, but already there are plans for pop-up music performances, a scone and sparkling wine afternoon tea menu, and upstairs exhibition space.

Asian street food with a sophisticated twist: Mama San

The 1920s-colonial-Britain-in-Asia aesthetic gets a contemporary makeover at this two-storey warehouse on Jalan Raya Kerobokan. It’s not just the striking mural of gentlemen’s club madam Mama San or the pumping upstairs cocktail bar that sees this place regularly book out – it’s the food. From an Indian lamb and chana dahl curry to a grilled Thai beef salad, roasted Peking duck and Vietnamese spring rolls, the menu confidently roams the continent giving classic dishes a modern twist.