Category: Surabaya

Surabaya is definitely the best city in Indonesia. It has a whole range of culinary experience for our food review with a lot less traffic than Jakarta.

Sate House Bogowonto

Sate House Bogowonto Review:

This week’s review is from my hometown back in Surabaya, Indonesia. The restaurant is called Sate House Bogowonto. As the name would suggest, their menu heavily involves meat on a skewer.

Sate Kambing Muda (Daging) – Rp 37.5k / 5 skewers – Special lamb satay in Sate House Bogowonto style, most favourite menu

The lamb satay was the hero dish in this restaurant. It comes with either peanut sauce, sweet soy sauce with chilli, or a combination of both.

Sate Kambing Muda (Campur) – Rp 70k / 10 skewers – Special mixed lamb satay consists of meat, served with soya / peanut sauce

Basically this is still the lamb satay. However, instead of just the meat part, you get an assortment of ‘other’ things like liver, kidney, or even lamb fat.

Quite a lot of Indonesians actually enjoy this option more than just the meat, including myself.

Sate Ayam – Rp 37k / 10 skewers – Chicken satay

It’s probably not the best chicken satay in Surabaya. However, it was quite acceptable.

Gule Kikil Kambing – Rp 56k – Lamb leg Gulai cooked with special recipe from Bogowonto served with Mlinjo crackers

When you are eating a lamb satay in Surabaya, gule is usually its pairing. Gule is a kind of Indonesian curry with a consistency in between a clear soup and a thick curry paste. Seriously, warm rice + satay + gule = happiness!

Jamur Tiram Goreng Crispy – Rp 22k – Deep fried oyster mushroom with chilli sauce

I must say this is quite an unusual dish to be served at a satay house. However it’s a welcome addition for me as it added the crunchy element to my dining experience.

The final verdict for Sate House Bogowonto

Sate House Bogowonto serves quite a nice chicken and lamb skewers. However, their price is more on the expensive scale for a satay in Surabaya.

Did you know?

There were two items on the menu that we were really interested in ordering: oven-baked lamb and goat head curry. Unfortunately (or probably fortunately for you), they were not available at that time.

Rating for Sate House Bogowonto:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: Rp 37k / 10 skewers for chicken and Rp 70k / 10 skewers for lamb

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

Jalan Musi No 37, Surabaya

+62 31 9901 4963

Sate House Bogowonto on Facebook

Jul 18, 2017
Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ Restaurant

Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ Restaurant Review:

When I get back to Indonesia, I always ask my friends and families to recommend me a new restaurant to try. This year, my brother recommended me to go to this week’s restaurant, Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ. There are quite a few of them in Indonesia already and we tried the one in Tunjungan Plaza 4, Surabaya.

They have three types of menu: a la carte, standard, and premium all you can eat. The premium all you can eat costs almost twice as much as the standard one. However, it does come with wagyu beef, prawn and soft shell crab. On this occasion, we chose the standard one because almost all of their main dishes are included in the standard version, at around $23++ (tax and services).

Meat

The standard version came with three types of beef cuts, two types of chicken and assortments of sausages. The more important thing to order here is the condiments that accompany these cuts. They have spicy miso, garlic and butter, and cheese sauces. They really enhance the flavour of the meat.

Staples

We usually stay away from rice and the likes in an all-you-can-eat restaurant. However, if you really must order, they have four different kinds of rice, a ramen, and a few soups. We tried the Gyu-Kaku rice because the menu mentioned it should go well with karubi beef.

Cooked for you

They have a few deep fried stuff, vegetables, and quite a lot of salad.

Seafood

The seafood section is almost non-existent in this restaurant. The standard menu only has squid and the premium one has soft shell crabs, prawns, and fish cakes.

Desserts

Milk pudding and vanilla ice cream are the desserts for the standard version. There is only an extra sweet potato for the premium version.

The final verdict for Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ Restaurant

Their standard buffet menu is a great value for money. The quality of their meat was pretty good and the condiments made it even better!

Did you know?

Gyu-Kaku is apparently an American restaurant chain. Looking at the American website, their menu is significantly different than the ones offered in Indonesia.

In Jakarta there are two types of Gyu-Kaku restaurants, the normal one and Gyu-Kaku prime.

Gyu-Kaku’s interesting feature is its grill that sucks up smoke and pushing it downwards. So, less smoke sticking on your shirt!

Rating for Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ Restaurant:

8.5 / 10

Taste: 8.5 / 10

Price: $23++ / $40++ all-you-can-eat

Place: 9.0 / 10

Details:

Tunjungan Plaza 4 Level 5

Jalan Basuk Rachmat 8 – 12, Surabaya 60261

+62 31 546 8349

Indonesian Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ Restaurant’s facebook page

Jan 31, 2017
Hotel Bumi All You Can Eat

Review:

This week, we review a restaurant that has been generating quite a buzz in my hometown, Surabaya – Indonesia. I think most people just refer it to as ‘Hotel Bumi All You Can Eat’. It is a new-ish concept that they introduce by combining two restaurants into one gigantic all you can eat eatery. I am actually tempted to just say ‘Don’t read this and just go to the place’. You’ll know why…

We actually arrived at the Japanese wing of the restaurant. It used to be known as Kizahashi restaurant. There are three big stalls in this restaurant: Tempura, Teppanyaki, and assorted Japanese stalls. The tempura stall also serves udon, whilst you can get Japanese fried rice and okonomiyaki from the Teppanyaki stall. The other stall is the most exciting. You can get sushi, sashimi, sorbet, Japanese salad and some desserts. When we were there, they ran out of salmon sashimi and there was only a white fish sashimi and crab stick.

Japanese Tempura

Japanese Teppanyaki

Sushi, Sashimi and Salad

We now move to the Indonesian wing of the restaurant. I think officially they still use the restaurant name, Arumanis. The stall I was interested in the most was rujak cingur. It’s a traditional dish from Surabaya that use cow’s nose as one of the ingredients with vegetables and peanut-and-shrimp-based sauce. In addition to that they also have other Indonesian and Chinese-Indonesian dishes.

Rujak Cingur

Assorted Indonesian

The fun actually starts outside of these restaurants. They have more than a dozen of small stalls. The two things that I love to try when going to a new Indonesian restaurant (if available) are chicken satay and sop kaki. I am sure you should know about Indonesian chicken satay. Sop kaki is a bit more exotic. They are predominantly a soup made of cow’s leg and other innards (or you can always have the meat part).

Chicken Satay

Sop Kaki

Another dish that I always try to find when in Indonesia is Tahu Tek. It is a traditional fried tofu with egg and peanut-based sauce. It is usually enjoyed with rice cake and crackers. You can also find Shawarma in one of the stalls. However, it didn’t look to exciting for me. You could also find Kikil (a different version of cow’s leg soup) and martabak.

Tahu Tek

Shawarma

Kikil, Martabak and Nasi Bakar

Last but not least, we also tried a few nice desserts. The lightest of all is crepes with sprinkled cheese and chocolate. My favourite, although it doesn’t look apetising in the picture below is sweet martabak. They are very lovely! You can also have an assortment of drinks like Malaysian’s Teh Tarik and Indonesian ginger-based drink called Angsle.

Crepes

Martabak Manis

Teh Tarik and Angsle

There are also some stalls that I did not go to (just because I already felt really full!). Some of the food that I did not get to try: Soba, BBQ chicken, dumplings, steamed stuff, traditional drinks, ice cream, es teler, Javanese fried rice and noodles, and soto.

I have also included pictures of all of the stalls that you can try in Hotel Bumi All You Can Eat.

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The final verdict for Hotel Bumi All You Can Eat

Overall, it might not be the best restaurant in Surabaya. However, the vast number of dishes you can try at Hotel Bumi all you can eat was overwhelming, to put it mildly.

Did you know?

This all you can eat package is actually done by two different restaurants merged together.

Hotel Bumi was formerly owned by the Hyatt group.

Rating for Hotel Bumi All You Can Eat:

8.0 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $20 all you can eat

Place: 6.5 / 10

Details:

Jalan Jend. Basuki Rakhmat 106 – 128, Surabaya, Indonesia

+62 31 531 1234

http://www.bumisurabaya.com/

Jan 12, 2016
Ria Galeria

Review:

Ria Galeria is famous in Surabaya for its vast array of dishes in their arsenal. It is one of the few good restaurants in Surabaya that doesn’t consist of only one champion dish. Established in 1985, Ria Galeria is trying to live up to its slogan ‘authentic taste’.

There are two dishes that we always ordered: Tumis Lurjuk and Sate Sumsum. Unfortunately they ran out of marrow for the satay sumsum this time around. Stir fry ‘lurjuk’ in sweet soy sauce is a rarity dish that you can only find in a handful of restaurants in Surabaya. It is a seafood-based and taste pretty exotic. Read more about lurjuk on the ‘Did you know?’ section below. Seriously, you must order this dish as you would never find anything like it in any parts of this world.

Tumis Lurjuk – Stir fry ‘lurjuk’ in sweet soy sauce – Rp. 42k

Tumis Lurjuk – Rp. 42k

Still from the seafood department, we have Gurami Asam Manis. Gourami is also quite a unique fish from South East Asia. On this occasion, we wanted it to be deep fried with sweet and sour sauce. It’s quite similar to sweet and sauce condiments in Chinese food, but usually Indonesians add shredded carrots to the sauce.

Sweet and Sour Gourami

We also ordered Kepiting Gembos Dadar Telor (soft shell crab omelette) and Deep Fried Calamari. Considering that Surabaya is a port city, there is bound to be loads of fresh seafood products.

Kepiting Gembos Dadar Telor – soft shell crab omelette – Rp. 50k

Deep Fried Calamari

Moving away from seafood dishes, we have Sate Ayam Ria Galeria. They claimed it to be the ‘special’ chicken satay. As I have been eating it for a very long time (every time I visit the restaurant), I have grown accustomed to its unique taste. From the beef department, we have Sop asam-asam Iga, loosely translated into spicy sweet and sour ribs soup. Although the name is sweet and sour, this version incorporates quite a distinct flavour compared to the gourami one above.

Sate Ayam Ria Galeria – Special “Ria Galeria” Chicken satay – Rp. 55k

Sop Asem-asem Iga – spicy sweet and sour ribs soup – Rp. 65k

They also have varieties of green vegetables and bean sprouts which I would normally care less about. The important thing about eating all of the dishes above is when you eat them with steamy rice and ‘sambal pencit’ (for those of you who eat spicy stuff).

Nasi Putih and Sambal Pencit

Last but not least, it’s the refreshing taste of Es Siwalan Special. Most people mistaken Siwalan as ‘young coconut’ but, it is a very different fruit altogether.

Es Siwalan Special – Sweet young coconut drink – Rp. 35k.

The final verdict for Ria Galeria

Ria Galeria put decent efforts in keeping up with its ‘authentic taste’ slogan. They also offered several hard-to-find dishes originated from East Java, such as Lurjuk.

Did you know?

Tumis lurjuk is quite an interesting delicacy native of Surabaya and Madura island that is pretty hard to find in restaurants even Surabaya. Some said that it derived from ‘kerang bambu’ (bamboo clam), but I don’t think it’s quite right as lurjuk is typically a lot smaller than that.

In addition to the dish above, people deep fried lurjuk for snack!

Rating for Ria Galeria:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $3-5 for main dish

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

Jalan Bangka 2 – 4, Surabaya

+62 31 5030181

Sep 9, 2014
Ikan Bakar Cianjur

Rating:

6.5 / 10 Taste: 6.5/10

Price: <$5 per person

Place: 6/10

Review:

Ikan Bakar Cianjur was one of the few Indonesian chain restaurants that was available in a lot of places all around Indonesia. Since ikan bakar meant grilled fish, one can only deduce that their specialty was fish.

Since all of their dishes were pretty simplistic, I decided to write this review whilst promoting one of Indonesia’s infamous slogan ‘4 Sehat 5 Sempurna’ (4 healthy, 5 perfect). This was meant to promote healthy and balanced meal for the whole family.

The first element of it is Carbohydrate. In Indonesia it has always been associated with rice and/or rice cakes for the Javanese.

The second element is lauk pauk, or main dishes (Google translate somehow showed side dish). We ordered Gurami Goreng (fried carp) and Steamed Snapper. Gurami goreng was extremely crunchy and was peeled to make a wavy pattern. The Steamed Snapper on the other hand was smooth and flavoursome. Funnily, tofu is also part of this element, so I have to include Fried Tofu on this list.

The third element is vegetables. On this occasion, it was represented by Baby Cabbage. Once again, it was just pure stir-fried veggies.

I would like to mention the type of fruit juice that might only be available in Indonesia (or an Indonesian restaurant), Avocado Juice. Fruit and milk would be the last elements of ‘4 Sehat 5 Sempurna’. This was one of my most favourite drinks of all time. It was a simple mixture of avocado, milk and coffee syrup. The Indonesian avocado had a different consistency and feel to that of Thai’s.

The final verdict: Ikan Bakar Cianjur provided an overly simplistic dish with a decent touch of traditionalism. Nothing was practically outstanding except for the avocado juice and steamed snapper.

Did you know?

This restaurant used to be one of the nice restaurants in Surabaya. However, it was downgraded into a common restaurant because of the numerous newcomers and/or competitions from household names in the seafood restaurants.

It also appeared that this chain also had discrepancy in taste. Its biggest branch in Mayjend Sungkono remained the most crowded IBC in Surabaya and seemed to have a more vibrant vibe to it.

Details:

Jalan Jemursari 76, Surabaya

Jan 22, 2012
Loving Hut

Rating:

7 / 10

Taste: 7/10

Price: <$12 main course

Place: 7/10

Review:

This week, we are reviewing one of the rarest restaurants in Surabaya, Vegan Cuisine. Loving Hut is the newest restaurant that I discovered out of curiosity. The restaurant is filled with plenty of vegan celebrity pictures and some of its campaigns against meat – which was a bit of a turn-off for me.

Deep fried wonton was our first dish of the day. Six golden brown wontons were laid on a bed of lettuce with a simple sauce of chili and tomato. I was pretty pleased with the likeness to the more meaty wontons. With almost similar components the Fried Enoki was served. The mushrooms were wrapped in seaweed and coated in thin savoury crisp. It was the perfect combination of crispy coating and soft mushroom.

From the vegetable lines, we also ordered Chili Eggplant and Asparagus Soup. Beside the sauce, the eggplants were pretty spot-on. The Asparagus soup was also pretty average. They also served mixed rice dishes, like this Seven Seas Delight with Rice. It has a combination of mock-meat katsu and green veggies. I reckon this would be enough for a simple dinner or big lunch.

For the next one, we ordered Fancy Nut Satay. Although, it was supposed to be fancy nut, I could only taste peanut (which was not considered ‘fancy nut’). This factor aside, the satay was great. It was also grilled like the real deal! Tamie Capcay was our next one and it looked like a massive bird’s nest. It was very thin noodles, deep-fried and served with Chinese-style stir-fried vegetables and seafood.

We also ordered Len Phan Deluxe, I ordered because it was the most expensive dish in the restaurant. When it arrived, we were pleased not only for its size, but also the variety of it. There were six components if you look at the picture. On the right hand corner was what looked like grilled chicken, (then moving clockwise there were) chicken katsu with sweet chili, seafood stick with sauce, calamari and mayonnaise, and bitterballen (meatballs) with chili sauce. Len Phan Deluxe was arguably the most comprehensive and best dish of the night. All of its elements were wonderful.

The final verdict: If no one tells you that it’s vegetarian, you would think that it’s the real deal, especially Len Phan Deluxe! The overall taste for Loving Hut was nice but nothing really mind-blowing.

Did you know?

Loving hut apparently is also a chain restaurant. Its business model is pretty unique. Each of the restaurants has its own menu, completely different menu. I find it pretty strange since the basic foundation of a chain restaurant is uniformity of menu. Therefore, this review is only relevant to the one in Surabaya, Indonesia.

I know one more restaurant that used to have better vegetarian dishes in Sydney but unfortunately that restaurant was brought down to receivership.

Details:

Jalan Sumbawa 37, Surabaya

+62 31 5012990

http://www.lovinghut.co.id/

Dec 25, 2011