Diskus Cafe is a bright and airy coffee shop located above a very busy food court in the middle of a residential complex near Maranatha Univesity. When we visited it was extremely popular with the university crowd.
We tried a hot red velvet latte and a cappuccino. The cappuccino was strong, full of flavour, good temperature, but a little off on milk texture. But this is a very minor criticism. The coffee was still very good.
The red velvet latte was pretty standard and enjoyable, but nothing different to what you get everywhere else in Bandung. I mean, what else can you do to a red velvet latte?
The fitout is really good. The room gets a lot of light and there are lots of clean bright white walls which come up great when you overexpose them in your photos.
The little section with 3 tables and cushions on the floor is a popular spot for people who like to sit on the floor. It’s also where most people are getting their instagram photos.
All in all a good hang out spot with good coffee. They also serve food. Wifi was 10mbps down and 10mbps up when we were there, but we suspect it would be much faster in an empty cafe. Still, it’s fast.
Diskus Cafe & Bites
Jalan Terusan Babakan Jeruk 1 No. 109-111, Bandung
(0815) 6155 2403
Instagram: @diskus_cafe
Opening Hours: 09:30 – 22:00
Red Velvet Latte: Rp19.000
Cappuccino: Rp18.000
* No added tax! (yay!)
I had a magic and it was quite good especially since it’s brewed manually and the milk is steamed on a stove. You actually wouldn’t know if you didn’t see them do it.
Wifi here is fast with 14.5mbps down and 14.5mbps up. If you need to upload something big like a YouTube video, come here!
All in all this is a small coffee shop great for hanging out with friends. Especially if you like to smoke while drinking coffee.
My cappuccino was a good one — strong, hot and well textured. Not much I could complain about really. Susan had the jahe madu which was gingery as expected. It’s nice to have a drink like that made from real ingredients unlike many of the powder-based drinks these days.
We also had a nasi goreng which was pretty good. Nothing to note really. But it was a nice.
Wifi here is fast and we clocked it at 23mbps down and 6mbps up. Definitely fast enough for most people and easily fast enough to download some movies or upload your lastest YouTube video.
All in all a good cheap and small coffee shop. Don’t come here for selfies.
Susan had the iced Thai tea which was pretty standard. My cappuccino was good, but not awesome. Funnily enough, we came here just after The Larder @ 55 and the coffee at Sensys was much better. Surprising really, as the coffee at The Larder is usually very good.
Aside from that, the fit out is simple and cozy with a few lounges and a few tables.
Worth a visit, but very little here to distinguish itself from other good coffee shops in Bandung. (Except the price which is fantastic!)
Located about halfway down Jalan Pantai Berawa, Satu-Satu is a popular modern cafe serving typical Canggu cafe food and coffee in a concrete & brick building with a large open air area out the front.
The coffee here is as to be expected — excellent. The food is an eclectic mix of bowls, healthy plates and even some pasta. We didn’t try the food, but it looked quite good so it’s probably worth a try.
When we entered this cafe, it felt more like an Internet cafe than a place which served food and coffee because every single table was taken up by at least one person, and sometimes two people, using laptops. And as customers queued out the door and stood around looking for a seat, those on laptops tapped away.
One of the reasons this place is popular with the digital nomad crowd is because the internet is incredibly fast. But the coffee here is also excellent and one of the best I’ve had in Bali so far.
Whatever the case, the coffee is great and internet really fast. Come here if you’re a digital nomad or want a quick coffee. And get here early if you want a good seat.
Co-located with MyWarung® on Jalan Batu Belig, The Moose Espresso Bar is touted as the place to come to enjoy great coffee in a warung environment. Truth be told, it feels like a normal cafe to us and the prices are high even by most Bali cafe standards. That said, they do offer a breakfast packet which is what we had.
For a place wanting to be known for coffee, they were off to a bad start. Almost the whole outside of my cup was coated in spilt milk. Somehow someone had made the coffee really badly and didn’t bother to clean it up before serving. The flavour of the coffee was good and I quickly forgot the spilt coffee issues, despite having sticky hands every time I picked it up.
The breakfast packet they offer is reasonable value. A coffee, breakfast (eggs, pancakes, smashed avo), fruit juice and fruit platter all for Rp80.000++. The fruit plate is tiny, but enough. My pancakes were dry, quite simple, but tasty all the same. I didn’t really enjoy them.
When you enter Livingstone, you’re immediately interrogated about numbers of people, inside/outside and then ushered towards a table. If you want to sit where you want, just ignore the person at the door — it’s an attempt at good service which is horribly grating.
The flat white I had here was a good one and definitely worth a stop if you’re on your way past. The energiser was awesome with lots of mint and ginger to freshen up your day. A decent cafe, but feels a little fake Western for us.
What a fantastic concept for the Instagram generation! For the crowd who loves avocado, this place is everything you could hope for. All menu items feature avocado, but they’re more than just avocado dishes.
Avo chocolate mousse, incredible avo burgers and nasi campur with avocado. The burger was brilliant, soft bun, tasty bacon and just enough avocado.
Coffee here is also very good and worth coming for on its own. We couldn’t get on the WiFi because of the ridiculous sign-in procedure, so we don’t know how fast it is. Despite WiFi issues, this is a fantastic cafe!
If organics and superfoods are your thing, then Vida is your place. A wonderful menu of bowls, salads, pancakes and burgers greets you when you arrive and it all sounds fantastic.
We tried the French toast and burrito and both were quite good, but not without some problems. The burrito was super bland, but also super healthy. The French toast was loaded with way too much fig paste, but was otherwise pretty good.
The coffee here is also top notch and worth stopping in for.
Copenhagen is quite different to many other cafes in Canggu in that it has a tiny menu, a small seating area and isn’t too close to where most tourists are staying when in town.
The coffee here is excellent and it’s extremely strong. But not bitter. Just strong. They often have a deal which combines a yummy cinnamon scroll and coffee for Rp35.000 which is a great way to have afternoon tea.
A funky little place away from the madness closer to the beach. We love it!
With the success of Nook in Umalas, the same group has opened up a bigger establishment in Canggu and it’s a beauty.
A lovely airy building with massive deck overlooking a rice field greets visitors and it’s easy to spend a few hours here with friends drinking coffee and eating smoothie bowls.
And it’s one of those typical Canggu menus with breakfasts, bowls and burgers. The smoothie bowl was excellent, but we were a little disappointed with the coffee. It was OK, but steamed to within an inch of its life and miles below Bali standard these days. At dinner, we had ribs and some tapas and most of it was excellent.
It’s a fantastic cafe to open a laptop in and WiFi is reasonably fast, even though the cafe was near full when we were there. Definitely a favourite in the area.
Located on the road to Pantai Berawa, this tiny cafe is something of a hit with those living and staying nearby. Every time we’ve been, it’s been packed to the brim with people sipping on coffee and
The coffee here is strong and excellent. Certainly worth coming for. We haven’t eaten here before, but the meals we’ve seen other people have look good.
The crowd here seems a little older than the Echo Beach crew and we even spotted some non-white people which was refreshing.
Tables here are limited the WiFi was broken last time we visited. No matter what the staff did, the WiFi wouldn’t come back on again. Probably not a great place to open the laptop.
With mediocre ricefield views and a menu of breakfast, bowls and burgers, Cinta (pronounced chinta) Cafe is funky little cafe reminiscent of many other cafes in the area.
We enjoyed our coffee here and loved the speed of the WiFi. Better still, it never really felt crowded and we would be happy to come here with a laptop for a few hours of work and definitely for another coffee (don’t order the Charcoal Chai! Great for Instagram, awful taste). Definitely worth a visit when in this part of Canggu.
Once a secret spot, this place is a secret no more. It’s got a good reputation for serving up healthy raw food, vegan fare and a whole bunch of bowls. If you’re into healthy food, you are going to love this place.
We love the fit out of this tiny little vegetarian cafe, especially the upstairs area where you have a choice of indoor or outdoor seating. Kick back on a lounge or tiny table and enjoy yourself. It’s a fantastic space. But don’t expect to pull out your laptop and get any work done. It’s not that kind of place.
Our drinks here were excellent and we recommend coming for a coffee if you need a caffeine hit, but also for some clean food if you’re feeling bloated from too much nasi goreng, burgers and pancakes from other eateries. Prices here are slightly lower than average for this kind of place.
Located on a small road on the way down towards Echo Beach, The Shady Shack is possibly the hippest cafe in Bali right now. Persistently full, the service is often slow and inattentive.
If raw, vegan, vegetarian, gluten free, dairy free is your thing, The Shady Shack is your place. We don’t have dietary restrictions and usually head for the tastiest item on the menu, but at Shady Shack we struggled for something to get our teeth stuck into. It’s a massive menu of bowls, breakfast, kale and fruit which has its place, but is extremely niche in its appeal.
We ordered a lot of stuff and most of us were a little disappointed with what we got with flavours that underwhelmed. But it’s all healthy! And if you’re in need of healthy food, this might just be the place for you.
For Instagram, this place is heaven. Beautifully presented dishes, clean ingredients and lots of colour. It’s every Instagrammers dream. But for us, it’s mostly smoke and mirrors with the dishes looking far better than they taste.
We’re not fans of this place due to lack of flavour in the food, but this opinion is not a common one. The Shady Shack is extremely popular, especially with the health-conscious.
Motion Cafe is a Canggu special with an ultra modern menu of healthy food, vegetarian meals and the odd burger with real meat. There’s no doubt who the target market is here with all-day homemade granolas, protein waffles, paleo plates and lots of salads.
The coffee here is excellent as it has to be in Indonesia these days. There is no room for bad coffee.
Another cafe for the Instagram crowd (of which we are reluctantly members of), Parachute has gained a reputation due its incredibly photogenic canopy made out of an old Australian Army parachute. So is this place another triumph of style over substance? In many ways, yes.
But the food. This place is apparently run by a former 3 Michelin star chef. If that is true, I cannot for the life of me understand what is going on here with the food. It doesn’t make sense.
The coconut & granola parfait was equally disappointing with soggy granola on top from it sitting in the fridge for too long — the crunchy bits had soaked up all the moisture in the fridge. The flavours were ok.
Maybe we were unlucky and maybe lunch and dinner meals are better. But at this point in time, we just don’t buy the Instagram hype. Come for a coffee and perhaps a donut, but leave it at that.
Located so far from the beach that few people think to visit, Machinery is a quiet cafe which attracts a few people with laptops and not much else.
Tables here are perfect for setting up a laptop on and the WiFi is reasonably fast. Coffee prices here are around average and the quality is good.
We also checked out a pork wrap which hit the spot nicely. What we really liked about this place is that it wasn’t trying to be the next Instagram sensation and not trying to be a one hit wonder like many cafes in Canggu. This place has substance and does good coffee, tasty food, is unpretentious and isn’t likely to win any Instagram awards. Hoo-fucking-ray!
This large cafe is extremely popular with a large outdoor seating perfect for the masses as they chow down on fantastic gluten free options, big breakfasts, burgers and bowls. It’s a pretty standard menu which tries for substance over style. In other words, don’t come here looking for the latest instagrammable dish — come here for flavour.
The coffee I had here was mediocre and nothing compared to the best in Canggu. But if you’re looking to set up a laptop, there’s plenty of space and the internet is stable, but quite slow due to how many people are using it. So a coffee while surfing away on your laptop is not a bad thing despite the deficiencies in the coffee department.
The rosti stack was excellent and the rest of the menu looked equally appealing. It’s not instagrammable in the ultra-modern sense, but you can still get good photos without sacrificing flavour like you often have to do with good-looking food.
Gypsy is a little bit of an anomaly as far as cafes in this part of Canggu go. They shun style over substance and go all in on good food. And even though their focus is on taste, you can still get a few instagrams here.
The breakfast menu here is a bit light on options, but things really open up at 12 when a bunch of fantastic burgers and sandwiches are served. We tried the French toast, mille crepes and hash browns and were pleasantly surprised with how good they were.
Coffee here is fantastic, the WiFi fast and there are a few places to work from. Because it’s a small cafe, it’s probably best to limit your time here on laptops anyway. One of our favourites in the Echo Beach area.
If you happen to pass through the station on your travels around Kaohsiung, you’re bound to see people pointing their cameras upward trying to get a shot of the awesome artwork. For me, I got to see it multiple times because 
How to get here: Dome of Light is on level B1 of Formosa Boulevard metro station near exit 2, 4, 5, 7. 
Even though it’s an interesting market to walk around, I found it difficult to find a full meal here that took my fancy. I did, however, find the banana roti and black pepper bun which I wrote about in my post about 
So what is there along the beach on Cijin Island? Well, there are two main objects: a Giant Shell a a thing called the Rainbow Church. Apparently the giant shell is there because it’s next to the shell museum, but I had no interest in visiting a shell museum so I didn’t go inside.
The Rainbow Church actually isn’t a church. It’s just a bunch of colourful sticks representing an art installation which provides a good backdrop for some Instagram pics. There are 2 installations next to each other: one square shaped and the other similar to a chapel which you might see on the beach in somewhere like Bali. And of course they’re both full of colour hence the name “Rainbow”. Simple, but worth visiting!
Getting a photo here is free, but there are sometimes queues of people wanting to take photos. When I arrived, there was no queue at all so we had the place to ourselves for a good 10 minutes. But then a bunch of people turned up out of nowhere and started lining up to get a shot. And they were polite! No pushing and shoving and standing in other people’s photos. That’s one of the beauties of Taiwan. The people are so damned polite!
Aside from the spots alongside the beach, there are a bunch of other interesting spots around Cijin such as Cijin Star Tunnel, Cihou Lighthouse, Cihou Fort, Tianhou Temple, flower park near the beach and Windpower Park. Tip: prepare one full day if you want to explore Cijin Island properly as there is lots to see and do.
How to get to Cijin Island: Take metro Orange Line, get off at Sizihwan (R01), take exit 1, turn left and walk about 10 minutes to the ferry port. Buy the ferry ticket on the spot. (NT$25 per person, use exact money). Ferries depart every 10 to 15 minutes. 
Entry to the park itself is free and well worth a visit because there are lots of cool things to see. In other words, lots of instagrammable spots. A word of warning that busloads of tour groups tend to buzz through every now and then causing the place to become extremely crowded and noisy. But not long after they arrive, they depart again.
One of the highlights of the Lotus Pond is the pair of towers known as the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas with one of the pagodas having an entrance in the shape of a dragon and the other having an entrance in the shape of a tiger. What’s cool is that there is a rule where you have to enter through the dragon and exit through the tiger. The reason being, according to Chinese culture, that if you enter in the correct direction, you’ll draw good luck to yourself. Seems too good to be true!
Each pagoda is 7 storeys tall and contains a spiral staircase in the centre allowing you to reach the top where the views are pretty special. And there are quite a few other temples around the lake as well such as the Spring and Autumn Pavilions, Confucius Temple and a few palaces. If you want to visit them all, you’re going to need quite a few hours as the distance between them is quite far and will require more or less a full circuit of the lake on foot.
How to get here: Take the train in the direction of Zuoying (where the high speed rail station of Kaohsiung is), get off at Zuoying and walk 20 minutes to the Lotus Pond. The other option if you’re too lazy to walk is to catch a bus: Red Line #35 from in front of Zuoying station which drops you off at the twin pagodas..
A few of the foods I tried: grilled marinated chicken, taro milk (made from freshly steamed taro and then blended to order), deep fried octopus and bubble tea filled toast! So if you can, try and visit this particular night market because the food is really interesting. Just make sure you arrive on an empty stomach.
If you have more time in Kaohsiung, there’s actually plenty more to explore around Kaohsiung such as Kenting National Park, but you’re probably going to need a car and driver to do it. FYI, there are direct flights from Singapore to Kaohsiung these days meaning you don’t even have to go to Taipei at all if you don’t want to (
This first one isn’t really taiwanese specialty food, but it’s worth trying anyway at the Liuhe Night Market. I waited in line with a bunch of other people who were also waiting for the Banana Roti. It looks like a tourist friendly cart because of the 4 languages which are on display: Chinese, Korean, Japanese and English. The ordering process is really simple as you’d expect and you’re allowed to choose a topping: caramel (syrup), condensed milk, chocolate (syrup), sliced almonds, cotton candy and raisins.
I was curious about these blackpepper buns since seeing them at Raohe Night Market in Taipei. At that time there was a single counter with a massive line just to get these tiny blackpepper buns. Being someone who can’t stand waiting in long lines for food, I skipped the blackpepper buns at Raohe. So when I saw them for sale at Liuhe Night Market there was only one thing on my mind. MUST EAT BLACKPEPPER BUN!
I stumbled across this dessert accidentally when walking around the Pier 2 Arts Center and was impressed! From the front, the cafe itself looks really interesting and the fact that there is an English sign out the front invites you right inside. The cafe itself specialises in serving ice desserts containing fig jelly in the shape of roses — so weird! Who on earth comes up with these ideas?
I really love cakes and pastries and if I find a bakery or cake shop in a new country, I have to try it. Simtree Coffee isn’t just a coffee shop as the name might suggest, but also a cake and pastry shop — I’m in heaven! And the pastries on offer aren’t just sweet ones, they also have a range of savoury ones making it a decent spot for lunch.
If you’re searching the internet for coffee in Kaohsiung, you might run into OH! cafe. Unfortuntely, the cafe is more of a grab and go kind of place and not really built as a sit down place. The reason is that it’s right out the front of the ferry terminal leading to Cijin Island. So yeah, lots of people want to order a coffee in a paper cup and drink it on the ferry which is a shame as the coffee is really good!
There are loads of restaurants in Taiwan that serve food which is similar to Din Tai Fung and they’re usually named something you can’t understand unless you can read Chinese characters. These “Local Din Tai Fungs” serve up delicious XLBs (pork dumplings with broth inside), dumplings in chili oil as well as lots of vege and meat dishes.
If you’re looking for cheap food, Lu Rou Fan is Taiwanese budget fare which is super delicious! It’s a simple dish of steamed rice topped with soy sauce flavoured pork belly. Yum! I stumbled upon this particular place while on the way back from the ferry terminal to Cijin Island. Simply point to what you want on the menu and out it comes.
I accidentally found this cafe while looking for something for breakfast around 
Chopped chicken on a stick. What could be better as a quick snack? The chicken stick is covered with some herbs and spices and placed on a hot plate where it is slightly burnt/caramelised. The chicken comes off the grill piping hot and super juicy — not a dry piece of chicken to be found! Better still, those spices amp the flavour levels right up giving you a perfectly delicious chicken stick. Simple food done right.
For me, this was one my favourite food/drinks in Kaohsiung. Usually when you drink an ice taro latte or something of the sort, you’re usually drinking a coloured powder mixed with milk. But at this place they actually steam big chunks of taro and then blend them with milk to make a perfectly fresh and original taro milk — so awesome! Just to make sure you’re getting the freshest drink possible, they don’t make it in bulk in advance. They steam each piece of taro on the spot and blend it to order. Definitely something you need to seek out in Kaohsiung.
When walking through Ruifeng Night Market, I had the sudden feeling of being pulled in by these gigantic tentacles, battered and deep fried. Because you rarely see octopus tentacles for sale like this, I just had to order a portion. They even weigh the portion to make sure you get the same amount for the same price every single time. The tentacles are then chopped up again and served with a squeeze of lemon of the top. Sweet, juicy, delicious!
Toast filled with egg, sausage or cheese is pretty standard these days around the world. But at one counter at Ruifeng Night Market you can get toast filled with bubble pearls mixed with earl grey tea jam. So weird, but so good! As weird as it seems, it actually tastes pretty normal as all the flavours really go together — almost like a bubble tea with a bit of crispy bread in it. The bubbles are hot because the bread is toasted in a sandwich press just like you’d make a toasted cheese sandwich. Definitely worth trying out if you’re into bubbles and are looking for something different.
The food situation in Kaohsiung is really quite good as you’d expect. Enjoy your culinary journey in Kaohsiung!
Five large picnic tables serve as the space for sitting and opening a laptop or nongkronging with your friends.
The shared wifi here was extremely slow when we tried it and there were no other customers. 0.5mbps both up and down. But when we tried the Goutte private wifi, it was much fast at 10/1.5. So if you want to work here, make sure you choose the Goutte wifi rather than the communal one.
Other than that, we really liked this place. It’s just a shame that it’s not as popular as it should be.
Lastly, we need to talk about price. This is one of those CHEAP coffee shops. With coffee under Rp20.000 and good wifi, it’s a great place for ppl on a budget.
When you walk in to Please Please Please, you’re immediately presented with a really weird fit out. It’s clearly an old building which has had some renovations done on it, but not everywhere. So in some areas you get a modern feel, in some areas it’s really old fashioned. And old fashioned in a bad way.
Not only that, the old parts of the building haven’t really been looked after with evidence of sticky tape on the walls, window frames and some tables. It just looks like someone forgot to clean it up. The fitout really annoys me.
The coffee tasted brilliant. Two minor gripes. It was luke warm. And it was served in the wrong cup. But I have to say that the flavour of the coffee and texture of the milk made up for these two minor criticisms. It was excellent.
The food was good too. We had the Ho Lee Fuk Rice and Salted Egg Chicken Rice Bowl. Both were tasty and good quality.
So while we really don’t like the fitout of this place, it’s still quite a good cafe to come to. Just forget about all the hype you see on social media as this hype sometimes has the effect of raising your expectations too high. Just come here and enjoy a good meal and excellent coffee.
I had a magic and Susan had a caramel macchiato. The magic was super strong and very enjoyable. It’s what we expect in Bandung these days. Good reliable strong coffee. They do that well here at Wheeler’s Coffee.
They also have a range of dishes to eat here such as ham & cheese sandwich, salad bowl and crispy chicken sandwich. We didn’t try the food.
The fit out of the cafe is pleasant enough with a couple of lounges to sit on and a few tables to work out. There’s and outdoor area for those who smoke.
The wifi here is quite fast. 20mbps down and 4mbps up. I’d be very happy to come here and open a laptop to get some work done.