The Best Restaurants In Gili Trawangan

Last Updated on 15th March 2023

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where to eat in Gili Trawangan for every budget

When it comes to finding the best restaurants in Gili Trawangan for every budget, I’ve got you covered in this ultimate guide below to the best cheap eats in Gili Trawangan, as well as the best places to eat for a more expensive budget!

We spent 10 days on the island of Gili T and apart from a snorkelling trip and a cycle around the island, we didn’t do an awful lot apart from eat and drink (which is just the way I like it!).

With that in mind, I wanted to share my extensive list of the best places to eat in Gili Trawangan for every budget. Whether you’re on a shoestring budget and are looking for the best cheap eats in Gili T, or you’re wanting to splash out a bit more on a fancy meal, there’s something for every travel budget in this post!

P.S. As I’m sure you’ll be able to tell from this post, I will never be classed as a food photographer as my skills are pretty much non-existent when it comes to taking pics of my dinner! I’m good at taste testing though!

Best cheap eats in Gili Trawangan

Gili T is home to so many incredible places to eat, so you won’t struggle to find somewhere to suit your dietary requirements, your appetite and your budget!

Here are the top places to find cheap eats in Gili T!

P.S. The prices throughout this post are accurate according to the currency exchange rate as of September 2019.

Wajan Warung Jaman Now

This place was literally next door to where we stayed in Gili T and we ate here on our first afternoon on the island.

The staff were pretty rude and it wasn’t even a language barrier thing; they just didn’t seem enthusiastic or happy to serve but the food was more than adequate and the cheap price made up for it!

Chicken burrito: £2.57
Crispy chicken burger: £2.29

Enjoy Gili Cafe

We ate at Enjoy Gili Cafe on two occasions and we were impressed with both the food and the price when we went.

The staff here are also incredibly friendly and there are lots of funny anecdotes and quotes dotted all over the walls.

The food was basic enough but it did the trick and their take on Chicken Cordon Bleu was absolutely delicious!

Chicken Cordon Bleu: £2.29
Stir fry chicken: £2.29
Crispy chicken wrap: £2
Chicken fried noodles: £1.71

Warung

As I’m sure you can tell already, Matt and I are huge fans of chicken dishes and apparently so are the restaurants on the island of Gili T! I’d say a vast majority of the meals in restaurants around the island include some kind of chicken dish.

The meal we had at this little Warung (I can’t remember what it was called but there are so many once you get off the main strip and head into the backstreets; which I’d actually highly recommend you do as there are so many amazing places to eat!) was absolutely scrumptious and potentially one of my favourite things I ate the whole time we were in Gili T!

The owner was a bit scammy though, which you can read more about in my post of things you should know before visiting Gili T but I really can’t complain about the food at all!

Lalapan Ayam (fried chicken and rice): £1.42 each

Lava Bar

Lava Bar is a popular place to drink on a night out in Gili T (I’ll have a post all about Gili T nightlife up soon!), especially on Friday nights when they host their famous Rock n Roll Bingo Night!

They offer a special discounted menu on Bingo Nights which is awesome as you can eat for mega cheap, get drunk for pretty cheap and enjoy a fun-filled night of bingo to the sound of rock music!

Pulled pork sandwich: £2.85
Fried chicken and rice: £2.28

Mid-range places to eat in Gili Trawangan

My list of recommendations of where to eat in Gili Trawangan for mid-range travel budgets has something for everyone!

Pizzeria Regina – best restaurants in Gili Trawangan

We ate at Pizzeria Regina on our last evening in Gili T as we’d heard a lot about it online and on TripAdvisor.

To be perfectly honest it wasn’t the best pizza I’ve ever had, in fact, it wasn’t even necessarily the best pizza I ate on Gili T but it was yummy enough and so affordable too!

The menu at this restaurant is also pretty huge and they have tonnes of pizzas, pasta and salads to choose from! I think the main chef is also actually Italian so it feels slightly more authentic too!

Prosciutto pizza: £3.88
Carbonara pizza: £4.57

Ocean Dua

Ocean Dua is a cute little eatery with tables laid out on the beachfront.

The staff were friendly enough but the food was a little basic and while I’d still go back, it wasn’t my favourite meal of the trip.

I ordered the chicken enchiladas which were pretty tasty but there were far too many beans for my liking! Matt had the snapper and he said it was nice enough but it was served with only four potato wedges which certainly isn’t the most substantial!

Chicken enchiladas: £3.43
Snapper: £3.26

Manta Cafe and Chappies Bar

Chappies Bar was one of our favourite places in Gili T, so much so that we actually ate here twice in 10 days.

The food was pretty much just standard pub-like food but the staff were great and it had a lovely atmosphere.

Manta Cafe is also home to the Manta Dive diving school, so many of the people eating there were frequent divers.

I’d definitely recommend the BBQ chicken wings and the mie goreng burrito (such an odd dish but it somehow worked and was so yummy!).

Chicken wings: £3.42
Chicken schnitzel, fried egg and fries: £3.13
Chicken schnitzel burger: £3.42
Mie goreng burrito: £2.85

Juku Marlin

Juku Marlin was another place that had set up its restaurant on the beach. There are tonnes of places to sit and the menu is pretty extensive too!

I went for the spaghetti napolitana (fun fact: I’ve actually had some of the best Italian food of my life since being in Indonesia!) which was so good; especially when paired with the incredibly garlicky garlic bread!

Spaghetti napolitana: £2.85
Chicken, bacon, egg and cheese burger: £3.70

Expensive restaurants in Gili Trawangan

While Gili T has such an extensive range of cheap to moderately priced places to eat, it does have some places that sway towards the more expensive end of the price range, particularly for Indonesian prices.

Check out some of my favourite places to splash the cash when it comes to eating in Gili T!

The Roast House

Being British and being away from home for over 5 months, it’s safe to say that Matt and I were desperately craving a proper Sunday Dinner. So when we heard about The Roast House on Gili T, we jumped at the chance to try it!

We did actually go on a Sunday evening but when we arrived, we were told that they had run out of chicken! In a roast dinner restaurant… On a Sunday…

As we were determined to get our fill of meat and veggies, we headed back the next day and tucked into a hearty plate of half a roast chicken, roast potatoes, carrots, onions and of course, a healthy helping of gravy (we actually ordered more gravy as us Yorkshire folk sure do love to smother our food in the good stuff!).

It wasn’t anything like tucking into a proper home-cooked roast by our parents but it did the job and sated our needs for a roast dinner, at least for now!

1/2 roast chicken, veggies and gravy: £5.13 each

Francesco’s Pizza Gili Trawangan

Francesco’s Pizza resides almost directly opposite the Night Market, down a little alley and it’s definitely one of the most “Western” places in Gili T to eat.

The food here is incredible though, with such hearty servings; many places to eat in Indonesia have much smaller portions than the likes of the UK and USA so we were delighted to find that Francesco’s filled our needs for some indulgent Italian food (especially after a heavy night of drinking!).

I went for the lasagne which was incredibly cheesy (potentially too cheesy if you’re not a huge cheese lover) and incredibly delicious and Matt opted for the bacon pizza which was cooked to perfection. The side of fries we ordered was also a deceivingly large portion; I’d recommend just ordering one to share!

Bacon pizza: £4.84
Lasagne: £5.13

Fat Cats – best restaurants in Gili Trawangan

Fat Cats Gili T where to eat in Gili Trawangan

When it comes to where to eat in Gili Trawangan, I think Fat Cats might be my favourite place, albeit definitely the most expensive!

Matt and I often share our dishes because chances are, we usually want to order the same thing! We ordered the meatball sub and the steak ciabatta and had half each and OMG what a good choice!

Channelling my inner Joey Tribbiani, the meatball sub came out on top for me. It was delightfully cheesy, saucy and oh-so-good. The steak ciabatta was also incredible but it had just a few too many peppers for my liking.

Despite the more expensive than the average price of food at Fat Cats, I really couldn’t recommend this place enough. They even have a swim-up pool with a bar downstairs and they’re also a diving company too!

Meatball sub sandwich: £5.43
Steak ciabatta: £5.43

Scallywags

Scallywags came highly recommended to me by numerous people and while it’s a fantastic restaurant with a beautiful outdoor seating area on the beach, great staff and a brilliant menu selection, our experience at Scallywags was somewhat unorthodox.

I ordered the sausage and mash as I was desperately craving some good old English pub food and Matt went for the battered snapper and chips.

The quality of the food was great but the portion sizes were just far too small (Matt only got 6 chips with his meal) and left us feeling hungry even after we’d eaten!

Neither of us is a huge dessert fan but we were craving something sweet so we ordered the chocolate lovers’ dessert; a heady concoction of brownies, chocolate mousse, chocolate orange truffles and white chocolate ice cream.

For those of you who don’t know, Matt has a severe allergy to peanuts (and a slightly milder reaction to hazelnuts) so wherever we eat, especially in Asia, we have to double-check that the food we order doesn’t contain any nuts. We asked the waiter if the chocolate lovers’ dessert had nuts in and he made it explicitly clear that it didn’t; we really enforced the fact that Matt will be incredibly sick if he eats them, just to drill home the fact that he literally cannot have them.

Even after the waiter’s reassurance, Matt still took a tiny nibble of the dessert and swilled it around his mouth to see if his mouth or tongue swelled up. It was fine, so he swallowed and then, sure enough, he began to feel ill with a tummy ache, dizziness and nausea.

While we can’t be 100% sure that the dessert is what caused his reaction, it seems pretty likely. Thankfully, it was just a reaction to hazelnuts and not peanuts otherwise he would have most likely ended up needing his EpiPen…

As I said, our experience at Scallywags was slightly unorthodox and probably a complete fluke. I can’t really fault the food itself aside from the portion sizes being a little small. My sausage and mash were so delicious and I didn’t struggle too much to finish the dessert myself!

Non Solo Pizza – best restaurants in Gili Trawangan

I think Non Solo pizza was probably my favourite pizza we had in Gili T and while it was a tad expensive for Indonesian standards, it’s remarkably affordable compared to what we’re used to paying in the UK!

Unfortunately, there’s a 15% service and government tax charge at many bars and restaurants in Gili T which racks up the price of your food bill quite a bit.

I still think the food here was worth it though and every time we walked passed, there were plenty of people tucking into something cheesy and carbolicious!

Ham and beef pizza: £4.58
Chicken pizza: £4.67

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Have you ever been to Gili T? Do you have any recommendations for the best restaurants in Gili Trawangan? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter at @imjustagirl_16.