COCONUTS HOT SPOT — Bright colors, a funky retro design, and a giant sugar skull logo make the new cafe on the road to Balangan Beach kind of hard to miss.
Not going to lie, it was the thought of soaking in their little cafe-side pool before and after eating that finally got us to try lunch at Cafe La Vida.
It’s been open for about three months according to one of the Jakartan owners and now that we’ve taken a dip ourselves, we can now report on why they’ve been getting so much buzz on the likes of Instagram and TripAdvisor.
Other than the nice graffiti art on the wall and the hip design, the first thing that struck us was the relatively low prices for a cafe in South Bali—especially for a place that has so much cheese on the menu.
Um, 35k for creamy fettuccine alfredo with a poached egg and 30k for a quesadilla?! Heck yes.
The pizzas are in the 50-65k region which is pretty average as far as prices go, but the portion is GRANDE and the Mexicana Pizza straight up #nailedit with its mozzarella, paprika, pineapple, homemade chorizo, and jalapeño toppings.
The cafe has a wide selection of cold press juices and coffee drinks and even caught our attention with its iced red velvet, but it was the iced green tea lattes that we landed on to refresh in the afternoon heat—which turned out to be a smooth choice.
The staff is really friendly and even offered us towels as soon as we emerged from the pool, but it’s clear the cafe is still figuring out how to get things running as they had no clue what any of the desserts in the fridge display were. Luckily one of the owners quickly jumped into help and we ultimately chowed down on a slice of lemon yoghurt poppyseed cake which was delicious and thankfully very moist (sorry for those that can’t handle that word, but we can’t handle dry cake!).
Despite not listing that it serves dinner on its sign, the cafe is open daily until 10 pm. And, one of the owners assures us the cafe is rolling out a new dinner menu over the next couple of weeks, which you can be sure we’re keen to try.
Update: After previoulsy having such a good experience at Cafe La Vida, we went back on Sept. 2, 2015 only to discover our little hot spot has become a booming success and has already created a new menu and significantly raised up prices. The breakfast fettuccine with a poached egg (pictured) was scraped from the menu as well. Given these changes, we will still visit Cafe La Vida since it’s become a lively spot on the way to Balangan with good food, but now it’s more of a splurge than a bang-for-your-buck place. The owner also tells us we can expect a new delivery service with a special menu in the coming weeks.
FIND IT
Cafe La Vida
Jl. Pantai Balangan
Saturday-Sunday 8am-10pm
081238109228
Photos: Julianne Greco
