The Best Restaurants in Sanur, Ranked by What’s Worth the Price

If you have one dinner in Sanur, book Three Monkeys. If you have two, add Massimo for the carbonara and the gelato out front. If you have a week, here’s the rest of the catalogue, ranked by what’s actually worth the price. I’ve eaten my way along Jalan Danau Tamblingan more times than I can count, and Sanur quietly does food better than anyone expects from the calmer end of south Bali. The street is short, the choices are plenty, and the prices are nothing like Seminyak.

A note before we start. The original Bianco Restaurant that lent its name to this URL doesn’t appear in any current Sanur dining guide and has no live website I can find. If you turned up looking for it, treat it as closed and pick from this list instead. Sanur has gained more than it has lost on this front, especially since the new ICON Bali mall pulled L’Osteria and Curry Traders into town. The food scene here in 2026 is the strongest it has ever been.

How to read this guide

I’ve sorted everything by tier, not by alphabet. Three Monkeys, Massimo, and a couple of resort-restaurant picks sit at the top because they earn the booking. The mid-tier covers the beachfront spots where you’ll spend most evenings. The casual tier is where I eat when I’m not in the mood to dress up. Real prices in IDR with USD in brackets the first time, then IDR only. Reservations matter at the top tier in high season; you can wing it almost everywhere else.

One thing I learned the hard way. The Sanur sunset window runs about 5:30pm to 7pm and every beachfront table fills in that hour. Book ahead or eat at 8pm. The food is the same; the wait isn’t.

The top tier: book these in advance

Three Monkeys Sanur

The icon. Three Monkeys on Jl. Danau Tamblingan is the one restaurant in Sanur that everyone agrees on. The original Three Monkeys is in Ubud (since 2000); the Sanur outpost opened in a beautiful tropical-modern courtyard with koi ponds and water features and has been packed ever since. The kitchen does Mediterranean and modern Indonesian, both done seriously. Open daily 11am to 11pm.

What to order. The duck confit (a long-running favourite), the lamb shank, the seafood linguine, and any of the rotating fish specials. The Indonesian side of the menu is genuinely good too, not the token Western-friendly nasi goreng you get at most fusion places. Mains run about Rp 180k to Rp 350k (about $11 to $22), starters Rp 80k to Rp 140k. A bottle of decent Indonesian wine is around Rp 450k, imported wines climb fast.

What matters. Book two or three days ahead in season for sunset; a week ahead at Christmas and New Year. The booth seats at the back are quieter than the courtyard tables. They’re also one of the few Sanur restaurants that handles a fussy table well, I’ve watched a kid order plain pasta with butter and the kitchen sent it out without a sigh.

Massimo Italian Restaurant

Sanur has the largest long-resident Italian community in Bali, which is why it has so many Italian restaurants and why one of them, Massimo, has been in the same spot on Jl. Danau Tamblingan since 1996. Chef Massimo Sacco is from southern Italy. The pasta is made in-house; the gluten-free menu is a separate full menu, not a sad afterthought; and the gelato counter at the front is the best in Sanur and arguably the best in south Bali.

Order the carbonara (Rp 95k), the seafood linguine, the pizza only if you must, and the homemade gnocchi when it’s on the specials board. Skip the imported steaks unless you’re feeling flush. After dinner, walk to the gelato counter and try the stracciatella, the pistachio, and whatever the daily special is. A scoop is around Rp 30k; four small scoops in a cup is Rp 30k to Rp 40k and feels indecently cheap for the quality.

Open 9am to 11pm daily, last orders 10:30pm. The dining room books up at 7pm so come at 6 or 8:30. If you only want gelato, the counter has its own queue at the front and you can grab a cone without sitting down.

The Restaurant at Tandjung Sari

For a date night that earns the spend, eat at the on-site restaurant of Tandjung Sari, one of Sanur’s oldest and most loved hotels. The dining tables are scattered across the sandy bay under huge palms, the lighting is candle and lantern, and the menu is modern Indonesian done with care. The signature is the rijsttafel, the colonial-era rice table, a feast for two with about a dozen small dishes around a central pile of rice. It’s about Rp 750k for two, which is a lot for Sanur but the most memorable Indonesian meal you’ll have on the trip.

If you don’t want the full feast, the nasi campur (mixed rice plate) is around Rp 165k and gives you the same flavours in one plate. Book ahead, outside guests are welcome but the tables on the sand go first. Sunset reservations on Friday and Saturday are gone two weeks out in July and August.

The mid-tier beachfront: book once, walk in twice

Soul on the Beach

If I had to pick one beachfront restaurant for daily use, it’d be Soul on the Beach at Sindhu. Tables sit on both sides of the boardwalk; the sand-side ones are the prize. It opens at 7am for breakfast and runs all day, which matters in Sanur because most beachfront places don’t really get going until lunch. The breakfast deal is Rp 60k for coffee and a croissant or egg muffin, cheaper than most Canggu cafes for a much better view.

The menu is loose Mediterranean: tapas plates, pizza, pasta, salads, a big seafood section, and a few decent local dishes for when you want a nasi goreng without leaving the beach. Happy hour runs 4 to 7pm with cheap cocktails and house wines, which is when the place fills up. Mains land Rp 110k to Rp 220k. They have showers and towels for guests, so you can swim before dinner without a guilt trip. Book for sunset; lunch and breakfast are walk-in.

Moreno

Three doors down, Moreno is the slightly more grown-up sibling of Soul. Same beach, slightly more careful cooking, and a covered terrace that’s actually cool during the heat of the day. Mediterranean and Italian crossover menu, patatas bravas (worth ordering twice), big sandwiches with proper bread, handmade pasta with truffle carbonara, and a hanging-rib-eye thing on a skewer that comes with a little bit of theatre. Mains Rp 130k to Rp 280k.

I’d come here for a long lunch when you don’t want to sit in direct sun. Open 7:30am to 10pm daily on Jl. Segara Ayu 42, just back from the beach.

L’Osteria at ICON Bali

The Italian-tavern chain L’Osteria opened a Sanur outpost in front of the new ICON Bali mall in 2024, right on the beachfront. Stone walls, low wooden beams, a terrace facing the water, and a kitchen that takes Italian food more seriously than most Bali Italian spots. The pumpkin-and-sausage risotto, the ragù arancini, and the homemade gnocchi alla Sorrentina are the picks. The tiramisu is genuinely the best in Sanur. Mains Rp 130k to Rp 250k.

One catch. It can feel slightly mall-like in the entrance area because of where it sits. Once you’re on the beachfront terrace it doesn’t matter. Walk past the front and ask for an outdoor table.

Costa Beach Restaurant

The number-one ranked Sanur restaurant on TripAdvisor (TripAdvisor rankings are an imperfect signal but the local consensus tracks) is Costa, sometimes called Costa by Monsta. It’s the Insta-perfect beachfront spot in Sanur, bleached wood, white linen, hammocks, a curved bar, with a Mediterranean and Italian fusion menu and pricing that sits at the higher end of the mid-tier. The truffle burger, the seafood pasta, and the cocktails are the right orders. Mains Rp 150k to Rp 300k, cocktails Rp 130k.

It earns the rank, but the food itself isn’t a level above Soul or Moreno. You’re paying for the look, the service polish, and the feeling of having booked the right table. If aesthetics matter to your trip, book a sunset slot. If you just want dinner, the food is the same at lunch and the photos are better.

The atmospheric picks: pick by mood, not menu

Café Smörgås, the Scandinavian holdout

Sanur has a long Scandinavian community alongside the Italian one. The most visible expression of that is Café Smörgås, which has been doing proper Scandi café food in Sanur for two decades. It’s the only place in Bali I know of where you can order a proper smørrebrød (the Danish open sandwich) on rye, with herring or pickled salmon or beetroot, and have it taste right. The cinnamon buns, the cardamom buns, and the chocolate cake are all baked on site. Breakfast and lunch only, closes around 4pm.

It’s not a date-night place. It’s a 9am-after-the-beach-walk place. Coffee is good, the orange juice is fresh, and there’s a small patio at the back that’s quieter than the main room. Plates Rp 65k to Rp 130k. Cash and card both fine.

Genius Cafe, the digital-nomad lunch spot

If you’ve spent time in Canggu, you’ll recognise the format. Genius Cafe on Mertasari Beach is Sanur’s answer to the laptop-and-smoothie-bowl scene, a beachfront café with strong Wi-Fi, sit-up bar tables for working, a healthy-leaning menu (poke bowls, açai bowls, smoothies, big salads, plus burgers and pasta for the unconverted), and a constant rotation of yoga, sound bath, and breathwork events through the week.

It’s the only Sanur café I’d actually open a laptop at. Mains Rp 90k to Rp 160k, smoothies Rp 65k. Open 7am to 11pm. Mertasari is the southern beach in Sanur, less crowded than Sindhu or Segara, with paid parking (Rp 5k for the day). The cafe sits inside a small shoreline strip; you’ll spot the white signage from the boardwalk.

Fisherman’s Club at Andaz Bali

If you’re staying somewhere else and want a hotel-restaurant experience without the chain feel, Fisherman’s Club at Andaz Bali is the pick. It’s gated, beachfront, set inside the lush Andaz garden, and does a clean Italian-leaning seafood menu with a charcoal grill out front. Wooden boat-shaped private dining cabanas if you want to splurge; long communal teak tables otherwise. The grilled snapper, the seafood platter, and the negronis are the right call.

It’s pricier than the boardwalk spots, mains Rp 200k to Rp 400k, the seafood platter is around Rp 850k for two, but the set lunch (around Rp 350k for three courses including a glass of wine) is a value-for-money play. Open 11:30am to 11pm; happy hour 3 to 5pm. Reservation recommended for sunset, walk-in fine for lunch. The gated area also means no boardwalk dogs, which makes a difference for some travellers.

For the broader story on luxury hotel restaurants in Bali, see the rundown at Bali luxury hotels, the Oberoi’s restaurant in Seminyak is the closest equivalent at a higher price point.

Casual but worth it

Shotgun Social, craft beer, NYC pizza, family-friendly

Shotgun Social is Sanur’s craft-beer taproom and one of the few places in Bali doing local craft beer at scale. The beer list rotates through Stark, Kura Kura, Bali Brewing and a few imports, pints around Rp 70k to Rp 95k. The food is loose American: NYC-style pizza by the slice or whole pie, mac and cheese croquettes, fried chicken sandwiches, tacos. Pizza is the order. The pumpkin-and-sausage slice is the sleeper hit.

It’s a family-friendly venue with a kids’ play area, which is why you see actual local families eating here on Sundays. Live music two or three nights a week, weekly traditional Balinese dance for the kids on Tuesdays, and a quiz night that’s better attended than you’d guess. Open afternoons through late evening; it gets busy on event nights, so check their schedule.

Curry Traders, bold spice and gin cocktails

The Sanur outpost of Curry Traders opened in 2023 after the original built a name in Nusa Lembongan. It’s a stylish, dim, slightly-theatrical Indian-Sri Lankan-Southeast Asian fusion spot with a gin-heavy cocktail list and a knack for sharing plates. The butter chicken is good, the spicy gunpowder potatoes are very good, and the lamb biryani for two is the right call when you’re properly hungry.

The fun stuff is the small plates: water bubble shots (savoury pastries with a mint-sauce shooter), crispy pastry cigars served in a cigar box, and a paneer dish that arrives smoking. Mains Rp 140k to Rp 280k, cocktails Rp 130k to Rp 170k. Book ahead on weekends.

Jepun Sanur, pan-Asian for groups

If you’re with a group of mixed eaters, Jepun is the easy answer. It’s a converted Joglo (Javanese teak pavilion) with a wide pan-Asian menu, Indonesian classics like nasi goreng, soto ayam (chicken soup) and beef rendang, plus Pad Thai, Indian curries, dim sum, burgers, pastas, and chicken parma for the cousin who only eats chicken parma. The Indonesian dishes are the strength; the pulled pork pancakes are a sleeper hit.

It always has a fun atmosphere with live music or a band a few nights a week. Mains Rp 95k to Rp 180k. Walk-in usually fine; book if you’re more than four people.

The Fire Station, Sunday roast in a humid country

The Fire Station is Sanur’s only proper British gastropub and the only place I’d seriously recommend a Sunday roast in a 30-degree country. They do chicken, lamb, beef, and pork, with proper homemade Yorkshire puddings, red-wine gravy, and roast veg. The truffle cauliflower cheese is the must-add. Sunday roast lunch is around Rp 195k and you have to book.

The rest of the week the menu is pub classics, fish and chips, burgers, pies, plus a few curries and a steak. Sport on the screens for whoever needs it. It’s not the food I’d come to Bali for, but on a rainy afternoon at the end of a two-week trip, sometimes you really do want a roast and a pint.

Cheap and excellent: the warung route

Restaurants are where Sanur shows off. Warungs are where it shows up. The full warung scene is its own thing, and I’ve written it up separately, see where locals eat in Sanur for the deep dive on Warung Mak Beng, Warung Wardani, the Sindhu night market, and the rest. Two quick mentions for the restaurant guide:

Warung Kecil on Jl. Duyung 1 is a great option for a quick Indonesian plate near the beach. Slightly more Western-leaning Indonesian, pick what you want from the counter, served with rice. Plates around Rp 35k to Rp 55k. Open 8am to 10pm.

Warung Umago hidden among Sanur’s quiet rice fields (yes, Sanur still has rice fields back from the beach) is a recent discovery. Small, simple Balinese menu, chicken teriyaki rice bowl is around Rp 35k and incredibly good value. Proper barista coffee, terrace views over the rice. Worth the moped ride if you want a slow late lunch.

For a deeper dive on the dish that defines Indonesian cooking, including where to eat the best version in Bali, see the history of nasi goreng.

Breakfast and coffee

Daily Baguette

The number one breakfast spot in Sanur, and I’ll fight anyone who says otherwise. Daily Baguette is a French bakery with two Sanur branches (one inside ICON Bali, one on Jl. Danau Tamblingan) doing properly good croissants, pain au chocolat, baguettes, and a small all-day breakfast menu. Avo on toast plus a coffee plus a pastry costs about Rp 75k, under $5 for the kind of breakfast that’s Rp 180k at the boardwalk cafés.

The Jl. Danau Tamblingan branch is the bigger one and has the full bread shelf, which matters if you want to grab a baguette to take back to your villa. Open from 7am.

Le Croissant

Smaller, slightly pricier, and very good waffles. Worth a stop if you’re eating eggs Benedict and don’t want to wait in a Daily Baguette queue. Pastries are excellent. Smoothie bowls are decent.

Sala Bistro & Coffee

The vegan-and-lactose-friendly café with a quietly excellent farmer’s omelette. Pet-friendly, big-windowed, fills by 9am. Flat white Rp 35k; the smoked-salmon omelette is Rp 115k. Good first stop after a morning beach walk on Jl. Danau Tamblingan.

Genius Cafe (again)

Already covered above, but their breakfast bowls are also excellent and worth flagging here. The early-morning yoga class plus breakfast combo is a Sanur classic.

The Sanur gelato situation

Because of that long Italian community, Sanur quietly has the best gelato in south Bali. The two you should care about:

Massimo Gelato on Jl. Danau Tamblingan 228, the front-of-restaurant counter at Massimo. Made daily, traditional flavours done correctly, and the queue moves fast even when it looks long. Stracciatella, pistachio, and the daily seasonal flavour are the right picks. Rp 30k a scoop, Rp 30k for four small scoops in a cup.

Gaya Gelato Trattoria on Jl. Danau Tamblingan 192. Smaller branch of the Gaya chain. The hazelnut and the chocolate are the giveaway flavours; both are excellent. Open until 11:30pm if you want a late dessert walk along the boardwalk.

One avoidable mistake. The hotel-pool ice cream stalls inside the bigger Sanur resorts charge Rp 80k for what is essentially industrial gelato. Walk five minutes to Massimo or Gaya instead.

What’s worth skipping

I’ll keep this short. The big-name Italian and steakhouse chains inside the new ICON Bali mall are mostly fine, but they’re priced like Seminyak and they’re not what Sanur is for. The hotel beach clubs have great views but the food is two notches below what the same money buys you at Three Monkeys or Massimo.

And a flag for closures. Char Ming was a long-running Asian fine-dining favourite on Jl. Danau Tamblingan and gets recommended in older guides. It closed several years ago, multiple Sanur forum threads from January 2026 confirm this. Sand Beach Bar & Restaurant at the ICON Bali beachfront also announced its closure on Facebook in 2025. Bianco Restaurant, the original namesake of this URL, doesn’t appear in any current Sanur dining guide and has no live presence, assume closed unless you can verify otherwise. If you spot any of these names in older blog rankings, treat the rest of that article as outdated too.

How much should dinner cost in Sanur?

Quick price-band reference for planning a week of dinners:

• Warung dinner: Rp 25,000 to Rp 65,000 per person, drinks extra (Bintang Rp 25k). Mak Beng’s set is Rp 50k. You’ll eat well.
• Mid-range beachfront restaurant: Rp 150,000 to Rp 350,000 per person with one drink. Soul on the Beach, Moreno, L’Osteria, Massimo all sit here. The Sanur sweet spot.
• Top-tier restaurant: Rp 400,000 to Rp 700,000 per person with wine. Three Monkeys, Tandjung Sari, Costa, Fisherman’s Club. Bookable special-occasion territory.
• Cocktails: Rp 110,000 to Rp 170,000 at the mid-tier; Rp 90,000 at happy hour; Rp 35,000 to Rp 50,000 at warung-adjacent beach bars.
• Coffee: Rp 30,000 to Rp 45,000 at any decent café. Rp 15,000 if you’re in a warung.

Card payments are accepted at every restaurant in this guide. Most warungs are cash only or QR via QRIS. ATMs are easy to find on Jl. Danau Tamblingan; pick the BCA, Mandiri or BNI ones over the standalone money-changer machines. (For more on managing money in Bali, the broader site has a food and drink section and there’s a separate guide to why Sanur works on the second Bali trip.)

Sanur restaurant booking, what actually matters

A few things I’ve learned the hard way about getting tables in Sanur:

Book Three Monkeys, Massimo and Tandjung Sari at least two days ahead in season. Their websites have direct booking forms. Three Monkeys also takes WhatsApp bookings if you’re already in country, they reply fast. Costa takes online bookings via their site. For everywhere else, walk-in usually works at lunch and around 8pm; the gap is the 5:30pm to 7pm sunset window.

For sunset, request a beachfront table specifically. Most restaurants have indoor seating that nobody wants in the evening. If the host says “all sunset tables are taken” but offers an inside table, it’s worth asking what time the next beachfront slot opens up, sometimes there’s a 6pm and an 8pm seating and you’ve just missed the 6pm.

Sanur is not Seminyak. Most restaurants close their kitchens around 10pm or 10:30pm. If you want late food, you’re looking at Massimo (10:30pm), Three Monkeys (10:30pm), Genius Cafe (11pm), or one of the warungs that runs late around the night market.

Tip 5 to 10 percent if there’s no service charge on the bill. Most mid-tier and top-tier places add a 10 percent service charge plus 11 percent tax, the bill makes this clear. At warungs and at the cheaper cafés, leave round change or a small note.

For the broader area context, what to do during the day before dinner, where to walk, where to swim, see Sanur, Bali: why the slow coast wins on the second trip. The eating is the third or fourth thing I love about Sanur, and it’s the single thing that’s improved the most in the last five years.

The short version

One dinner: Three Monkeys. Two dinners: add Massimo. Three: add Tandjung Sari for the rijsttafel. Four: a Soul on the Beach sunset and a Curry Traders late dinner. Five and beyond: walk Jl. Danau Tamblingan in the early evening, stop at any place where the queue is people who look like they live in Sanur, and you’ll be fine. The street is honest. It tells you what’s good.

Skip the things people will tell you to do that aren’t worth it. Don’t book the highest-priced hotel restaurant for dinner unless you’re staying there, you’re paying for the resort, not the food. Don’t go to a beachfront restaurant in heavy rain if there’s no proper shelter; the boardwalk floods. And if Bianco Restaurant is what brought you here, save the money you’d have spent and split it between dinner at Three Monkeys and gelato at Massimo. You’ll come out ahead.