You Gotta Love Casablanca

Casablanca Sanur started life as a small bar fitting 40 people just five years ago. On Sunday July 30, just after this edition of The Beat is published, it will be celebrating those five years and opening up a whole new chapter, with a new upstairs section, a new larger stage and a refurbished bar and restaurant that will now seat 350+ guests. That’s no mean feat in a very short time.
Sanur has become a revitalised tourist hub in recent years, with a load more people and options around, and Casablanca is big part of that renaissance.
It had been a while since we had been to the restaurant/bar, so we packed up the car with the kids and took the drive to Sanur to check out the new space and grab a bite to eat.
It was a Friday night and we arrived just after the Pressure Hour promotion, which is on every Friday from 6 to 7pm. That’s where punters drink free beer for an hour unless someone goes to the toilet, leaves the bar or looks at their phone. Then the free flow is over – all bets are off. Needless to say there was a jovial bunch of expats, tourists and locals there when we arrived. It’s all fun and games down at Casablanca and there’s a special promo every night of the week.

The rock band started up as we checked out the menu.
Casablanca serves tasty comfort food that consists of a full range of burgers, pizzas, Indonesian favourites, finger food-style snacks, and a bunch of potato dishes. Exactly what you would expect in any decent rock ‘n’ roll bar. As we ran our eyes over the menu, we ordered some drinks – beers (from 30k), local white wine (from 45k) and a couple of Margaritas (90k).
Since there were four of us we decided to try a handful of dishes and share them together.



La Poutine (39k) is a famous Dutch potato dish with hand cut fries with a choice of being smothered in gravy, or melted cheese and bacon, or the healthier vegie version of onions, mushrooms and melted cheese. They are all delicious and a great snack with your beer in hand.
From the Finger Foods selection we went for the Chicken Wings (39k) and Crispy Fried Tempeh (29k). They were both well cooked with the tender wings, coated their homemade BBQ sauce and the crispy tempeh complementing each other rather well. That led us onto the bigger guns on the menu.
There are seven choices of burger and we chose two to share, The Boss (139k) and the Spicy Chick (69k). The Boss is just what you would imagine with a double patty weighing in at 400 grams stacked with sautéed tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, bacon, onion, lettuce and BBQ sauce. Lucky it is a double patty or you would never get that 400 grams of beef patty cooked through.  The Spicy Chick lives up to its name with sliced Jalepenos and spicy mayonnaise with a bread crumbed chicken fillet wrapped in a bun with lettuce. This is a rock n’ roll bar so don’t expect any fine-dining and such, but it’s definitely tasty and hits the spot when you’re hungry!

The band’s leading into another rockin’ Doors number as the pizza arrives.
We ordered the Casablanca pizza (79k), with each of us savouring a slice. The pizza had mozzarella, tomato sauce, onion, bacon, black olives, paprika and mushrooms all amounting to one scrumptious piece of bar dining. That was the end of our dining experience so we proceeded to order a few more beers to kick the party along.
An evening at Casablanca Sanur can be a load of laughs, fun and it’s a great place to hang out, but don’t forget to drink in moderation and eat to your hearts content – it’s a comfort food haven with a rock ‘n’ roll spirit. And you gotta love that!
[David Trauts]
Jl. Danau Tamblingan No.120, Sanur
0361 287263