I stumbled across the gem that is Sea Circus on a previous trip to Bali on its opening night.

Their launch party, about two and a half years ago now, took the form of a 1920s circus on acid.  A fancy dress party to rival all others, costumes were extremely weird and extremely cool: I remember someone wearing a full-on horse’s head, shirt, tie, braces and shorts talking animatedly to a guy dressed as a ballerina-ringmaster, sporting along with his tutu, a whip and a curled moustache.

Obviously, after that introduction I have been unable to stay away from this place: a hip Bali beach shack restaurant with vintage vibes and good food.  Charlie (English girl and lovely) owns and runs it, along with a business partner, and they serve up easy, low-key food inspired by their global wanderings, washed down with a great choice of very decent, mainly Australian, wine.

A convenient hop, skip and a jump away from where we are staying at Kayana Villas – which is somewhere in between the W Hotel and Ku De Ta – we had a reservation here for dinner last night.

Food has evolved from when I came last and now seems to be based around dishes to share.  There was fried calamari (delicious), tuna carpaccio, tacos, steak…and more. All of it good honest grub, well cooked and not overly fancy.  Perfect if you don’t want a blow-out dinner (if you do, come here for lunch instead). It reminded me a lot of Singapore’s Raw Kitchen before it moved and became Kilo, in atmosphere as well as menu. 

Oh, and if you do ever make it here, don’t miss their very cool unisex loo…

Good food and a great loo is not a pairing that happens often enough!

Images, with the exception of Sea Circus text and ‘Reserved’, are courtesy of Sea Circus