Longtime Berawa: A Year In And Better Than Ever
There aren’t many dishes I’d risk Bali’s gridlock for, but Longtime has one that always gets me in the car. From Legian, the drive can be a breezy fifteen minutes or a gruelling hour. Yet the pull of this dish (and the promise of a cocktail) makes the whole ordeal worth it.
The dish? Fried pork belly bites with tamarind caramel. Think sweet-and-sour pork reimagined: crispy, sticky, tangy, piled high with herbs and chilli. It’s not even the dish most people talk about here, but it’s the one I keep coming back for. Chef Tyler Preston has a way of making simple things unforgettable. With a CV that travels from Chin Chin Melbourne to Bang Bang Byron Bay, his food here pulls in flavours from across Asia but keeps one eye firmly on comfort.
The Signatures That Built a Following
If the pork belly is my personal obsession, then the Curious Burrata is the restaurant’s unofficial mascot. Creamy, crispy, tangy and served with their house-made roti, it appears on almost every table. And then there’s the prawn toast: golden bread fingers loaded with juicy prawns. Forget the stodgy versions from your local Chinese takeaway — these are crisp, delicate, and dangerously moreish. The perfect bar snack, or the warm-up act for a night that usually runs much longer than planned.
Over the past year, a handful of dishes have built Longtime’s cult following. Think Massaman Beef Cheek Curry, meltingly tender fish dishes, a crispy Vietnamese-style Lamb Terrine, and a moreish Crispy Duck. The menu skips between Hong Kong, Bangkok, Ho Chi Min City – always with signature flair. People return because they know their favourites will be waiting — and because the vibe is always switched on. When I dropped by for their first birthday, the energy in the room was pure celebration. The founders were in attendance, the cocktails were flowing, and the crowd reminded me why this place has carved out such a loyal following in record time.
Meet the Crew Behind It All
Longtime isn’t an accident; it’s a carefully built good time. The restaurant is the work of Jordie Strybos and Pablo Fourcard (of Milk & Madu fame), alongside seasoned operator Randa Assi, whose hospitality career zigzags from Melbourne’s Lucas Group to global openings with Gordon Ramsay. Add in Tyler on the pans and you’ve got a team who knows how to run a room, feed a crowd, and keep the drinks moving.
The concept? Simple: build the kind of place they’d want to eat and drink in themselves. And they nailed it.
Cocktails With Personality
That’s where Vitale comes in. Beverage Manager, host, entertainer — is the reason a dinner can turn into a night you’ll talk about for weeks. I was happily sipping a French rose when he appeared with that grin: “You need a cocktail.” For research purposes, I agreed. After a quick chat — “sour, never sweet” — he shook up a gin gimlet. Normally, gin is not my spirit of choice, but this was different: softened with his own lemongrass cordial, bright, balanced, and poured into the kind of crystal glass that makes you hold it a little longer.
Next came the Longshot, his signature creation. “Sip it, don’t knock it back,” he advised. Silky smooth and impossible to decipher, it was gone too soon. CEO Randa swears she hired him on the spot, and I can see why. He’s the glue that keeps the fun flowing.
The original cocktail menu was curated by Longtime friend and bar consultant Jacob Sweetapple from Vancouver, giving Vitale a solid base to play with.
Dessert: Sweet Surprises, Asian Twists.
When it comes to dessert, I’m never one to say no — especially here. The menu is playful, nostalgic, and just a little cheeky, each dish carrying an Asian twist. The Peanut Butter Parfait is like the rich cousin of an ice cream sundae, layered with crisp peanut crumble, coconut gelato, and palm sugar foam. Then there’s the mille-feuille — a Longtime classic — stacked with vanilla cream rice pudding and miso caramel. But, I stuck with the tart theme and ordered the Yuzu Pie: zesty, sharp, topped with toasted meringue and sesame praline. Think lemon meringue pie with a passport stamp.
And because it felt rude not to, I called Vitale back for another cocktail. Dessert deserves company, right?
Why Longtime Stands Out
Canggu has no shortage of modern Asian restaurants, but Longtime has a spark that others miss. It’s unapologetically itself: the food is playful yet grounded, the drinks serious but not pretentious, and the vibe sits perfectly between neighbourhood hangout and destination spot.
Inside, there’s an open kitchen at one end, a long bar anchoring the other, and a dining room dressed in polished wood, leather booths, and two blush-and-gold canvases by Riz Riz Riz. By day, natural light floods in; by night, DJs turn up the energy, and the space shifts from dinner to after-hours. The outside terrace is prime for people-watching while inside, the communal high table or cushy booths make it equally good for groups or couples.
The crowd is as eclectic as the menu: expats catching up over cocktails, locals celebrating birthdays, travellers stumbling on what feels like their best find. Everyone’s here for the same thing — a night that doesn’t need to end early.
One Year On
In just a year, Longtime has become more than a restaurant. It’s a ritual. A place you drop into for prawn toast and a beer, or settle into for pork belly bites, cocktails, and whatever the DJ is playing after midnight. It feels as though it’s always been there, filling a corner of Berawa with good food, good drinks, and a good time.
The name really does say it all.
