In Reply to: Bali dancing with dinner? Does anyone posted by joeyrobby on Tuesday, 7. September 2010 at 04:22 Bali Time:
I've ever eaten out in Sanur where there's been dancing, but that's not to say they're not around.
I agree with you about not seeing one through the day as they can be dead boring after the first 20 minutes or so and they'll eat up a good hour or two of your time (and always for a price). In saying that, those sort of performances are always a better quality with more effort put in with staging and costumes etc.
I've found that the more remote areas like Nusa Dua and Tanjung Benoa will offer dinner with 'cultural dance performances' as they're trying to entice tourists to eat in the area rather than venture into the Kuta/Legian strip. The main drag in Tanjung Benoa is littered with so-so restaurants that will immediately offer a discount of between 20 and 30% plus some sort of dance performance in an effort to rope you in. But to be honest, that's a good 45 minutes away from Sanur, and a long hike to some ordinary restaurant serving ordinary food with some poor girl getting up on a makeshift stage and wriggling around for 5 minutes to some tinny Balinese music only to get up and repeat exactly the same routine 10 minutes later.
I didn't have a decent meal in Tanjung Benoa the whole 4 nights I was there, including the renowned Bumbu Bali (which incidentally did not have dancing) so if I was you Jo, I'd go for food quality over discounts and dancing every time.
If seeing a good dance performance is high on your list, then maybe you should consider a dedicated one rather than one over dinner.
Hope this helps
Skiggy