Melissa Hoyer
A must to put on your next-time-I’m-in-Bali list. And if there’s one thing the Mexicola Group has never been accused of, it’s restraint. This month, the empire behind Seminyak’s original fever dream and Canggu’s Yucatán-flavoured follow-up is opening a third act on the limestone cliffs of Uluwatu – bigger, brasher, and this time chasing the ghost of Baja California rather than Mexico City.
The pitch is that Baja and Uluwatu already speak the same language: waves, sunsets, seafood eaten five metres from where it was caught, and evenings that start innocently and end somewhere near midnight with a mariachi band you didn’t order.
The mega popular Motel Mexicola in Bali is owned by The Mexicola Group, founded by Nicolaza Que Pasa, who remains the brand’s public face. Adrian Reed is also a co-owner, linked to well-known Sydney venues like Icebergs and Da Orazio. The group runs Seminyak and Canggu locations too.
Two years in development, which in hospitality terms is roughly a geological era, architect Carlos Cole is back for round three and has taken Baja’s Spanish mission architecture and gone full cathedral, kitting out the 2,500-square-metre site with 65 custom tile designs, stone archways and a 21-metre bell tower that houses two bars.
Capacity opens at 215, with room to swell to 350 and the food end is in the hands of new Culinary Director Manuel Santos (ex-Barrafina) and Head Chef Manuel Bernal, working a three-metre asador fuelled by rambutan and coffee wood – the kind of detail that exists purely so you can mention it to whoever you’re dining with.
Whole charred snapper in salsa verde, Tijuana-style lobster in pipián rojo, and an Australian flank steak doing its best carne asada impression all compete for asador (live fire) real estate, while the taco program leans on birria beef cheek and beer-battered mahi mahi.
Drinks-wise, expect margaritas dialled up with mango and chamoy or grilled corn and burnt butter, a mezcal-spiked Paloma, and a back bar stocked with 45 Mexican spirits, sotol included for anyone wanting to sound informed at the bar.
But Motel Mexicola has never done subtle, and Uluwatu – a place that already runs on waves, sunsets and questionable 2am decisions — feels like exactly the kind of accomplice this hospo project needed.
