Best Cooking Classes and Food Experiences, Gili Islands 2026

Most people come to the Gili Islands for the beaches and the diving. I get it. The water here is absurdly clear and the coral reefs are some of the healthiest in Indonesia. But after spending months hopping between these three islands over the past few years, I can tell you that the food scene has become a genuine reason to book the trip in the first place.

And I'm not just talking about finding a good restaurant for dinner (though we have a whole restaurant guide for that). I'm talking about real culinary experiences. Cooking classes where you learn to make sambal from scratch with a stone mortar. Open-fire beachfront BBQs where the whole evening revolves around food, music, and good company. Wine tastings on the sand as the sun drops below the horizon. The kind of food moments you remember long after the tan fades.

The Gili Islands have quietly become one of the best culinary destinations in Indonesia, and these are the experiences that prove it.

Learning to Cook Indonesian Food

If you've ever sat down to a plate of nasi goreng and thought "I need to know how to make this at home," the Gili Islands have you covered. Indonesian cooking classes have been growing steadily across all three islands, and the best ones go far beyond just following a recipe.

Traditional Sasak Cooking Workshops

The local Sasak culture has incredible culinary traditions that most visitors never encounter unless they actively seek them out. Several small-scale workshops on Gili Trawangan and Gili Air offer half-day sessions where you'll learn to prepare traditional Sasak dishes like ayam taliwang (spicy grilled chicken), plecing kangkung (water spinach with chili sambal), and beberuk terong (a spicy eggplant dish that will change how you think about aubergines forever).

These classes typically start with a trip to a local morning market where your instructor helps you pick out fresh spices, vegetables, and proteins. You'll learn the difference between the various types of chili used in Lombok-style cooking, how to grind a proper sambal using a cobek (stone mortar), and why fresh galangal tastes completely different from the dried stuff you find in supermarkets back home. Most sessions end with a big communal meal where you eat everything you've cooked, which is honestly the best part.

Warung-Style Home Cooking

For something more intimate, some local families on Gili Air open their homes for small-group cooking sessions. These aren't polished, Instagram-ready experiences. They're real. You sit cross-legged on the floor, help prepare ingredients, and learn recipes that have been passed down through generations. The dishes tend to be simpler and more rustic than what you'd find in restaurants, but that's exactly what makes them special. Think fragrant coconut curries, hand-rolled rice balls, and the kind of sambal that makes your eyes water in the best possible way.

Check out the cooking class activity page for up-to-date listings and booking information.

Open-Fire Dining and Beachfront BBQ Nights

The Gili Islands have embraced open-fire cooking in a way that feels completely natural for a place surrounded by ocean and blessed with incredible seafood. Some of the best culinary experiences here don't happen in traditional restaurant settings at all. They happen on the beach, gathered around flames, with sand between your toes and a drink in hand.

Pomona's Sunday Beach BBQ

If you only do one food event during your time on the islands, make it Pomona's Sunday Beach BBQ on Gili Meno. Running every Sunday from 3pm to 8pm, this is the kind of afternoon that turns a good holiday into a great one. Pomona is a South American-inspired beachfront venue that sits right on the sand, and their approach to food is built around sharing, open fire, and bold Latin flavours.

The BBQ showcases everything from freshly caught seafood to slow-cooked meats, all prepared over open flames with the kind of care that makes each plate feel intentional. The Pomona menu is entirely gluten free, which sounds like a limitation until you taste the food and realise you never noticed. Their Ceviche Mixto with white fish, prawns, octopus, and leche de tigre is worth the boat ride to Gili Meno on its own. And the Picanha Steak, a 250g Black Angus grass-fed rump cap with chimichurri, stewed black beans, and plantain chips, is the kind of dish you think about weeks later.

But it's not just about the food. The Sunday BBQ has live music, the sunset over the water is ridiculous, and the whole atmosphere feels like a celebration. People show up as strangers and leave as friends. It's genuinely one of the best weekly food events in the Gili archipelago.

Pomona also runs events throughout the week that are worth planning around. Pomona Sessions every Friday from 5pm brings together food, cocktails, and a curated soundtrack for a more relaxed evening gathering. And Plus+1 Tuesdays from 7pm is built around the idea of bringing someone along, whether that's a travel buddy, someone you met at the hostel, or a new friend from the beach. Each event has its own energy, but the food stays consistently excellent across all of them.

BASK Restaurant's Open Kitchen

Over on Gili Meno's western shore, BASK has built its entire dining philosophy around fire, flame, and the art of cooking with intention. The open kitchen sits at the heart of the restaurant, and watching the chefs work is an experience in itself. Bread is baked fresh every single day. Proteins are cooked over open heat with real skill. Dishes are finished with precision but never fussiness.

Dining at BASK feels like being close to the process in a way that most restaurants don't allow. You can see the flames, smell the smoke, and watch your meal come together right in front of you. The menu blends Western and Asian influences with fresh fish delivered daily, flame-cooked steaks, and wood-fired pizza that comes out of the oven with perfectly blistered edges. The evening service moves into something more refined as the sun goes down, with shared plates and cocktails that match the shifting atmosphere.

The setting plays a huge part in why this works so well. You're eating beachfront, overlooking the ocean, with a 35-metre infinity pool stretching out toward the sea. For such a small and unspoiled island, the calibre of food and the quality of the experience rival dining destinations many times its size. People often describe Gili Meno as what happens when the Maldives meets the Greek islands, and sitting at BASK with the sky turning orange over the Lombok Strait, it's hard to disagree.

Wine Tasting on the Beach

You probably don't associate the Gili Islands with wine culture, and honestly, neither did I until I tried it. BASK offers curated wine tasting experiences hosted by experienced sommeliers in small, intimate groups. The tastings explore international wines with real insight into provenance, varietals, and craftsmanship.

What makes this special is the context. You're tasting exceptional wines in one of the most beautiful settings in Southeast Asia. The combination of a carefully selected flight, warm ocean breeze, and the sound of waves creates something that a conventional tasting room simply can't match. Private sessions and bespoke pairings can be arranged in collaboration with the culinary team, which is perfect if you're celebrating something or just want to go deeper into the world of wine.

It's the sort of experience you wouldn't expect to find on a tiny coral island with no cars and no paved roads. And that surprise is part of what makes it memorable.

Cocktail Craft at Rosalee

Hidden beneath the main level at BASK, there's a cocktail bar called Rosalee that feels like discovering a secret you weren't supposed to find. You descend into a candlelit space where the lighting is low, the sound is curated, and every detail has been considered with real care.

Rosalee treats cocktails as culinary creations rather than drinks on a menu. The bartenders use flame-finished garnishes, unexpected flavour pairings, and a level of precision that feels closer to a chef's kitchen than a typical bar. One of the most striking design details is a glass-lined pool wall that reveals fleeting silhouettes of swimmers from the pool above, adding this subtle, almost dreamlike quality to the atmosphere.

This isn't a place to order a basic gin and tonic (though they'd probably make you an incredible one if you asked). It's a place to sit down, tell the bartender what flavours you're drawn to, and let them craft something you've never tried before. If you appreciate the craft behind a great cocktail, this is a must.

Seafood Markets and Fresh Catches

On Gili Trawangan, the morning fish market is one of the best food experiences hiding in plain sight. Local fishermen bring in the night's catch around sunrise, and you can watch as fish, squid, and shellfish are laid out on the sand for buyers. Some restaurants on Trawangan will let you pick your own fish from the market and have it cooked for you that evening, which is about as reef-to-table as it gets.

The night market on Trawangan is another essential stop. Stalls line the waterfront each evening, each one grilling skewers of fresh seafood over coconut husk fires. You pick what you want, choose your sides, and eat at communal tables alongside other travellers. It's cheap, it's social, and the food is excellent. There's something about eating grilled barracuda at a plastic table on the beach with people from six different countries that just works. Read more in our night market activity guide.

Coffee Tasting and Indonesian Bean Culture

Indonesia is one of the great coffee-producing nations in the world, and the Gili Islands benefit from their proximity to Lombok, Java, and the wider archipelago. Several cafes across the three islands offer coffee tasting sessions where you can sample beans from different Indonesian regions and learn about the roasting and brewing processes that bring out different flavour profiles.

On Gili Air, the cafe scene leans heavily into specialty coffee, with baristas who genuinely love talking about extraction ratios and bean origins. On Trawangan, a few dedicated roasters source beans from Flores, Sumatra, and Java for small-batch roasting. And on Gili Meno, the slower pace of the island makes it the perfect place to sit with a cup of something special and actually taste it properly without rushing off to the next thing. Browse the full Gili Air cafe and restaurant directory for the latest spots.

Plant-Based Culinary Adventures

The Gili Islands have become a surprising hotspot for plant-based food, and some of the best culinary experiences here are entirely meat-free. Pomona's menu features a whole section called "The Soil" that's fully vegan, with dishes like Jackfruit Carnitas Tacos, Chili con Tempeh, Corn Fritters with guacamole, and a Tropical Quinoa Salad with mango, charred pineapple, and an orange and lemon dressing that proves plant-based food can be just as bold and satisfying as anything else on the menu.

Across all three islands, you'll find cooking workshops that focus specifically on plant-based Indonesian cuisine. Tempeh preparation, coconut-based curries, and fresh sambal making are all popular session topics. The ingredients are incredibly fresh because so much is sourced locally, and the tropical climate means you're working with fruits and vegetables that taste better than anything you've ever bought in a supermarket back home.

Head over to the food and drink guide for a deeper dive into the plant-based scene.

Culinary Experiences Compared: Which Island Is Best for Foodies?

	Gili Trawangan	Gili Meno	Gili Air
Best for	Variety, night markets, and cooking classes	World-class dining, wine tastings, and BBQ events	Intimate cafes and bohemian food culture
Standout experience	Night market seafood grills	Pomona's Sunday BBQ and BASK's open-fire dining	Home-cooking workshops with local families
Cooking classes	Several options from traditional to fusion	Limited but growing	Intimate, locally led sessions
Fine dining	Good variety across many cuisines	Exceptional (BASK, Pomona, Rosalee)	Casual and laid-back
Budget food	Plenty of warungs and street food stalls	Fewer options but still available	Good mix of budget and mid-range
Vibe	Social, bustling, energetic	Unspoiled natural paradise, refined	Relaxed, creative, community-driven

Tips for Getting the Most Out of Gili Islands Food Experiences

Book ahead for events. Pomona's Sunday BBQ and Friday Sessions can fill up, especially during peak season from June through September. Making a reservation in advance means you'll have a spot guaranteed rather than hoping for the best.

Go early to the markets. The morning fish market on Trawangan is best visited at sunrise when the catch is freshest and the atmosphere is most authentic. By mid-morning, the best stuff is gone.

Try everything once. Whether it's fermented fish paste, spicy Sasak sambal, or a cocktail with flame-finished garnishes at Rosalee, the Gili Islands reward adventurous eaters. Some of the best food memories come from dishes you almost didn't order.

Ask locals for recommendations. The best warungs and hidden food spots on each island are often the ones without signs or Instagram accounts. Talk to your accommodation hosts, your dive instructor, or the person renting you a bicycle. They'll point you toward meals you'd never find on your own.

Plan around the food calendar. With Pomona running events on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays, plus the nightly Trawangan night market and various cooking class schedules, it's worth planning your island-hopping itinerary around which food experiences are happening where.

Your Gili Islands Culinary Adventure Starts Here

The food scene on the Gili Islands has grown into something genuinely world class. Whether you're learning to grind sambal in a local kitchen on Gili Air, sipping curated wines on the beachfront at sunset, or gathered around open flames at a Latin-inspired BBQ on Gili Meno, these are experiences that go beyond just eating well. They're the kind of thing that shapes your whole trip.

Gili Meno in particular has emerged as the culinary heart of the archipelago. This quiet, unspoiled island, with its white sand paths, turquoise water, and total absence of motor vehicles, is home to some of the most exciting dining in all of Indonesia. And the beauty of it is that you can experience this natural paradise and eat world-class food without ever feeling like you've left the beach.

Explore restaurant listings for Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno, and Gili Air to start planning your meals across all three islands.