The Beach By Ours only just caught our attention as we were putting the very final touches to our first round of reviews of all the best beach clubs in Bali.
And we were quite excited to learn that the menu was put together by the Michelin Star Chef Wes Whitsell and we wanted to see if this would deliver a memorable experience for all the right reasons.
So, given that Pecatu isn’t too far from our usual stomping grounds, the team was swiftly assembled and then slowly slogged through the Bali traffic to see if this is “Bingin Beach Bali’s Premier Beach Club Destination” as it claims to be. This is what they learned during their visit to The Beach By Ours.
Introduction – Getting To The Beach By Ours
Bingin Beach is on the Bukit Peninsula and while it’s not too far South, it’s far enough that if you’re getting here from Canggu, Seminyak, Kuta, Ubud, etc. that you will need to brace yourself for the Bali traffic.
What ought to be a relatively short journey is going to be complicated by roads that move at a glacial pace, so if you’ve booked a seat at The Beach By Ours, you will need to set off much earlier than Google Maps suggests you might.
If you arrive using the services of Grab or Gojek, you will have no problem getting dropped off at the door and if you arrive on your own transport, they have convenient onsite parking for you.
Overall, it’s not the worst place to get to and the spot on Bingin Beach is very attractive and makes a very positive first impression of The Beach By Ours.
On arrival, you will be greeted by the door staff and then shown to your seats, assuming that you have made reservations, otherwise you will need to negotiate for your seating first.
Where Is The Beach By Ours? Pecatu, South Kuta, Badung Regency, Bali
Website: The Beach By Ours
Opening Hours: 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, except Nyepi
What’s Inside The Beach By Ours?
This is a bar and restaurant facility with some daybed style seating on the beach. The majority of the seating is, as they refer to it, “high chairs” (standard restaurant-style seats). There is no pool here and no other facilities common to beach clubs.
Our Review Breakdown For The Beach By Ours
All of our reviews on this site follow the same process and that’s to ensure we treat all the beach clubs in the same way, in order to be fair to the owners and staff.
It’s also to ensure that every review is in the same format, so that our readers can easily compare one beach club to another.
That process is as follows:
- The whole team is required to visit the beach club – they may not all visit at the same time or even on the same day
- Each person in the team grades the beach club from 1 (the worst) to 5 (the best) against the criteria set out below during their time in the club and makes notes about their experience
- Once everyone has visited, the team meets up to discuss what they experienced at the beach club and to vote on a final grade in each category
- Then, one member of the team is assigned to write up a review, this must reflect on the discussions between the team members and the final grades agreed upon
- Finally, the review goes live on our website where it will remain for a period of at least one year before the team revisits the beach club and amends and updates scores and comments as needed
Pre-Club Advertising
We are big believers in pre-club advertising. If you want a place to be packed out, and you should because beach clubs are social experiences at their core, then you need to let people know it’s there.
Given that we’re reviewing The Beach by Ours as one of the last places on the island, it’s because of a lack of advertising – we’ve seen nothing online or offline for this place.
Now, given it’s not a huge facility, they may feel that this makes sense, but it wasn’t all that busy when we visited and we think that’s because nobody knows it’s there.
Location
Bingin Beach is a very attractive strip of beach and there’s no doubt that it’s super popular with the surfing crowd.
However, Pecatu is on the Bukit Peninsula and that means it’s a bit of a pain to drive there from much of the rest of the island.
If you do make the trip, there’s no doubt that you’ll find that it’s a lovely spot and there’s a great view of the setting sun to be had on this side of the island too.
Booking Process & Seating Options
Well, on the bright side, they do have a half-decent booking system on their website, though you can’t specify where you want to sit – you just have to agree to one of the 2 hour time slots offered and then, agree to a minimum spend.
However, they don’t mention what the minimum spend is anywhere on their website and we think that’s pretty disgusting. It’s fine to charge minimum spends, we’re big supporters of the practice – but you should be absolutely clear what that charge is.
We followed the booking process all the way through just to see if it would, at least, include the number in the terms and conditions of the booking, but no.
That’s really poor practice and bragging that there’s no minimum spend for your “high chairs” doesn’t fix that.
Entry Fee
In common with the best practices of beach clubs, there’s no entrance fee at The Beach By Ours, and frankly, we’d have been very aggrieved if there had been.
With no pool, no entertainment, etc. there’s absolutely no reason to charge people for the privilege of walking through the door and seeing if they like the vibe of the place.
So, in this category, we’re happy to award The Beach by Ours full marks.
Minimum Spend
The minimum spend is reasonable, it turns out, at just 300,000 IDR ++ (so, that’s really 360,000 IDR as ++ means you have to pay tax and service charge on top) per person.
We’re not sure why you’d hide that from people when they book, it’s $20 USD or $30 AUD and given the menu prices, we can’t imagine anyone leaves The Beach by Ours after spending less than this.
However, what’s not so reasonable is that this only secures you a 2-hour spot on your daybed, and once that 2 hours expires, they want you off to make room for somebody else.
Yes, we understand that this isn’t the full beach club experience, but if you want to act like a beach club with the use of a minimum spend, you ought to deliver a better experience than 2 hours.
Welcome And Security
You will receive a warm welcome at this beach club and the staff seemed to be very enthusiastic about making sure you got where you were going with the minimum of fuss.
However, there are no security checks or bag checks at this beach club and as our readers will know, we feel that these are an essential part of keeping the island safe.
While incidents at beach clubs are something of a rarity, security checks help to ensure they stay that way. It’s not hard to implement a basic bag check nor is it expensive.
Inclusions
There are no inclusions at this venue except the right to sit on a daybed for a couple of hours if you’ve agreed to their minimum spend requirement.
Given that there is no pool, this shouldn’t come as any kind of surprise. After all, why provide a towel if there’s nowhere to swim?
Service
The service wasn’t the most attentive that we’ve had in Bali, but it wasn’t actively bad, either. We found the staff to be friendly and approachable.
One thing you won’t learn from the staff until you’re in the venue though is that most of the venue has no sea view.
Only the daybeds along the shore give you sight of the ocean, that’s pretty disappointing and it might help people decide to agree to the minimum spend if they knew that in advance.
Entertainment
This is very much a straightforward restaurant experience and as such there’s no entertainment in this venue of any kind.
That’s OK by us, not every venue needs to be party-oriented.
Pool Quality
There is no swimming pool at The Beach by Ours and that means you can’t go swimming unless you opt to bring your own towel and head down the beach to the ocean.
Menu/Drinks Pricing
They offer breakfast, lunch and dinner at The Beach by Ours and we think it’s fair to say that they’re all a little on the expensive side compared to the average beach club.
However, they are in line with the kind of prices you will find elsewhere on the Bukit Peninsula particularly in Ungasan.
It must be the “menu designed by Michelin starred chef” that facilitates these prices.
The drinks are more reasonably priced though still a little on the high side compared to other beach clubs.
Food And Drink Quality
The disappointment is that the food is very good, but it’s definitely not Michelin league and it’s not the best food that we’ve had at a beach club in Bali, either.
Given that this is The Beach by Ours’ big pitch for your business, we really did expect better. Sure, it’s tasty and the portions are decent size, but we wanted to be blown away, and we weren’t.
The drinks were strong enough though and nicely presented.
Sunset View
This part of the island has a wonderful view of the sun setting over the ocean and it’s everything you could hope for.
However, as with the ocean view, you only get the best sunset view if you’ve agreed to the minimum spend for the on-beach seating.
Music And Ambience
There is piped music in this venue and it was very much unobtrusive and unmemorable. We don’t mind that.
It serves as a decent backdrop for conversation with friends and family without ever becoming the dominant feature of your time at The Beach by Ours.
Payment Options
You can pay by cash or card in this venue without a problem, but we didn’t see any signs advertising QRIS.
QRIS is one of the most convenient ways to pay for locals and expats and it’s always a shame when it’s not supported.
Exit Process
This isn’t a very big place and you just follow the way you came in back to the front door in order to leave. The staff will give you a warm farewell as you go.
Transportation
If you parked at the beach club, you can grab your vehicle and go easily enough. If you need to wait for a Grab or Gojek then you may need to wait a while for a ride.
Pecatu isn’t isolated but it’s more spread out and less busy than the major beach towns and there are often delays getting a driver.
Social Media Presence
For a place with so much aspiration, we can’t get over how empty their social media presence is. This is an easy way to build customer trust and it doesn’t require spending any real money, either.
If you can afford a Michelin-star chef to design your menu, you can afford to take a few pictures of people enjoying themselves too.
Other/General Comments
The Beach by Ours is not a beach club and its attempts to be one seem to interfere with the business of running a perfectly pleasant restaurant.
Our Overall Opinion Of The Beach By Ours
Well, we were a bit disappointed by our trip to The Beach by Ours, we felt that this venue could be much better playing to its core strengths of being a restaurant.
While the food wasn’t bad, by any means, it didn’t feel Michelin-grade and that let everything else down too.
So, overall, if you’re passing by, you might want to check it out, but we can’t in good faith recommend travelling very far for this place.
FAQs
Can You Swim At The Beach By Ours?
Yes, sort of. There is no swimming pool at The Beach By Ours, so you can’t swim in the pool and the venue does not provide towels or changing facilities (or showers for that matter).
However, this venue is directly on the beach and there’s nothing to stop you from deciding to go for a swim in the ocean here.
If you do decide to do this, make sure to take your own towel and be warned, it’s generally recommended to swim at the low tide as it reduces the intensity of the waves and you can take shelter from the currents in the coves here.
At high tide, the coral reef becomes extremely slippery and it’s very difficult to exit the waters.
You should also be aware that Bingin Beach is one of the most popular surfing spots in Pecatu and Uluwatu and you need to be aware of surfers and the waves they are riding, particularly during the peak hours of the day.
What Can You Do At The Beach By Ours?
You can eat and drink at The Beach By Ours, while it bills itself as a “beach club”, it’s really more of a restaurant by the sea and there is no pool and there are no entertainment facilities or live music options.
They do have some comfy daybeds that you can enjoy chilling on by the sea, however, we should note that despite their minimum spend requirements, you can only reserve these seats for a couple of hours before you are expected to vacate them for the next guests.
Is The Beach By Ours A Family-Friendly Venue?
Yes, children are welcome at The Beach By Ours, however, this venue has no special facilities for children of any kind.
That means you will need to ensure that you keep a careful eye over your children, particularly if they are playing near the shoreline as there are no lifeguards on this beach.
You are also expected to ensure that you children don’t annoy any of the other guests at The Beach By Ours.
However, given that this place is really only set up for you to come in, eat and leave. This probably won’t be a problem.
Who Owns The Beach By Ours?
The Beach by Ours, as the name suggests, is part of the “OURS” hospitality group which is a larger chain here in Bali. The ownership of this group is not entirely clear but it seems likely that it is a cooperative effort between expatriate and local businesspeople.
Final Thoughts On The Beach By Ours
The Beach by Ours could really use clearing up its identity. It’s not a beach club and having pretensions to be one just makes what could be a charming beachside restaurant feel like a money-grabbing effort.
We’re not outraged by a 300,000 IDR minimum spend, except for the fact that they’re offering very little in return for it – 2 hours of seating and then get chased out of it? It’s a restaurant, most restaurants don’t force their diners to leave.
And while the menu may have been designed by a Michelin Star chef, it’s overpriced for what it is and the service is definitely not at a Michelin Star level.
And all of this is a shame, if they doubled down on being the best restaurant in Bingin, we’re pretty sure that they could turn The Beach by Ours into something special.
But for now, you might want to check it out if you’re passing by, but we can’t recommend that anyone travels any real distance to spend time here.
