Category: Indonesian

Traditionally varies between each region of Indonesia. The majoriy of Indonesian food in Sydney is influenced by Western Java and Padang region.

Sagoo Kitchen

Rating:

7.5 / 10 Taste: 7.5/10

Price: $4 per person

Place: 7.5/10

Review:

I fell in love with Sagoo Kitchen the first time I saw it, unfortunately I had had my lunch at that time. The restaurant has a retro feel in it. Once you are inside, you are presented by vintage decorations, very homey ambience and wooden furnitures. There was a little vintage stall as you enter the restaurant.

Since Sagoo Kitchen’s specialty is Nasi Goreng (Fried Rice), we ordered three different kinds of fried rice. You can ask the level of hotness of your nasi goreng. You might know it by now I don’t fancy spicy food, so I ordered the one without chilli. Nasi goreng Sagoo was my choice for the obvious restaurant-named dish. It had an interesting presentation: volcano-shaped with beef jerky in the middle. It was complemented by the usual suspects for fried rice: shredded omelette, pickles and prawn cracker.

The second nasi goreng might only be enjoyed by some people since it had beef tripe and it was pretty spicy. Nasi Goreng Babat Semarang was said to be originated from central Java. It was presented much-less gloriously with a generous serving of beef tripe and fried onions. The last one was Nasi Goreng Tempo Doeloe, literally translated ‘fried rice from the old days’. It was cone-shaped fried rice with the usual extras and ebi (dehydrated shrimp). Unfortunately, this one lacked the punch, over-shadowed by the other two.

Beehoon Goreng Rawit Sagoo was the one I didn’t get to taste since it contained the ultra hot green chilli! However, the next dish was so good that we had to order the second one. They called it Tahoe Kopjok Telor (tofu in fried egg). It was a combination of savoury tofu dish with sweet and sour soy sauce. I really loved the sauce, it was so tasty and when combined with the tofu and some pickles, it was unbelievable!

There are assortments of desserts and assortments to choose from the menu but since I already had limited capacity, my choices fell to Klepon and Es Katjang Singapore. Klepon is a native South East Asian dessert which is a glutinous rice ball dipped in pandan essence with liquefy palm sugar and coconut. It had a chewy texture with melted palm sugar filling. Es Katjang Singapore isn’t actually an Indonesian dish but I just couldn’t help it with the Green and Red syrups.

The final verdict for Sagoo Kitchen

Sagoo Kitchen is definitely one of the restaurants you must visit in Paris Van Java. In addition to them being nice and clean, the food was also excellent.

Did you know?

Don’t go to Paris Van Java on a weekend! The traffic is really bad that Jakarta’s traffic is like a walk in the park!

Details:

GL-D-05, Jalan Sukajadi 131-139, Paris Van Java, Bandung, Indonesia

+62 22 8206 3754

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sagoo-Kitchen/88725198134

Jul 20, 2012
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
Dome Coffees

Rating:

7 / 10

Taste: 7/10

Price: <$15 main course

Place: 7.5/10

Review:

We started off our Indonesian food journey with a stop on Dome coffees. I know this is not strictly Indonesian food – as a matter of fact it’s actually a franchise from Australia. However, Dome coffees in Galaxy Mall presented a unique experience of café with truly edible choices of food (i.e. it’s not just sandwiches and cakes!).

Espreski is Dome’s signature drink. Indonesian-version of espreski is quite different. It is still a blend of espresso, ice cream and crushed ice, but it has different flavours. The most interesting one is Avocado Espreski. The combination of Indonesian avocado and Espreski was truly out of this world. It’s a shame that their Latte(s) are not the normal style (with the coffee on top).

Zuppa soup is probably the most ordered dish in this restaurant. Its massive size (for a soup) and round pastry top should be enough to entice onlookers. You can choose to enjoy the soup and pastry separately or mix the pastry together. I suggest you do the latter one. The combination created reduction for the soup and enhanced the pastry’s taste. Zuppa soup is one of the few soups that I would order in a restaurant (without being given to me freely as a package).

For light snacks, our choice would be the Deep Fried Mushroom since it was crispy and soft with a side of mayonnaise. I don’t really recommend the Cheese Sticks. They were pretty average and didn’t go together with the sauce.

Our first main dish was Peking Duck Pizza, although I’m pretty sure the term ‘Peking’ is used loosely here. It was a pretty unusual topping for pizza, but (upon searching in the all-knowing Google) there were quite a few restaurants serving this dish. Although it looked quite pale, the base was actually quite thin and was supported by additional crispy topping. They also put hoi sin sauce for the topping to enhance and complement the duck flavour (a no-brainer really given the strong taste of duck).

Cordon Bleu has always been one of my favourite dishes, I’d order when there is one. This one was an okay one. It was slightly small, but it has a nice mushroom sauce and crispy coating. The better main dish of the night was John Dory Fish. The fish was surprisingly fresh, considering this is a ‘plaza restaurant’. Then there was the sauce, lemon and capers. It further refreshed the overall taste of the dish.

The final verdict for Dome Coffees

There’s an overall standard to its quality at Dome Coffees. Being a coffee shop, their drinks were fabulous and everything on their Espreski line was nice. Most people ordered Zuppa Soup to accompany their drinks and I think that made the perfect combo.

Did you know?

Dome Coffees Galaxy is (supposed to be) part of an Australian café chain. However, when I looked at the website, ALL of the Indonesian cafes are not listed there. Furthermore,none of the menu listed on the website resembles the menu on these Indonesian ‘branches’, not even its signature drink – Espreski. The only activity I can get from Dome Indonesia is through its twitter @DOME_cafe

This Dome Coffees café also offered free WiFi for its patrons. This service seemed to be the standards for café business in Indonesia these days.

Details:

Galaxy Mall II, 2^nd Floor, No 249 & 296, Surabaya 14240

http://www.domecoffees.com.au/

Dec 17, 2011
Indo Rasa Restaurant

Rating:

7 / 10

Taste: 7 /10

Price: $12 – $17

Place: 7/10

Review:

This will be my first review of Indonesian restaurant in Sydney and I decided to go to one of the newest, Indo Rasa Restaurant. They face a daunting task of competing with well-established Indonesian restaurants in Kingsford.

Upon entering the restaurant, you felt the décor was more thoughtfully done than the others’. There was a sense of blandness in the middle of the restaurant. There are plenty of foods to choose from the menu. You can either choose the set rice menu or share plates.

In the order of appearance, the first one to arrive was the Lamb Satay with peanut and sweet soy sauce. It’s a rich lamb satay with a nice grilled taste. There’s an optional fresh lime if you want a little taste of sourness. Then came Sambal Eggplants. Though sambal translated directly to chilli, this dish was not hot at all. I think the bright red came mainly from the tomato sauce. The dish was also rather sweet.

The next one was probably one of the better dishes of the night. It was Grilled Squid. This was the only way I like my squid to be grilled. Basted with sweet soy sauce, the squid left no hint of soggy-ness. It was perfectly dry and yummy.

We also had Ca Kangkung (Stir fry water spinach). This and the next one are more like Indonesian-Chinese dish. I particularly like this one because it was half-soupy dish. Then, the very last dish served was Ayam Goreng Mentega (Butter Chicken). I must stress out that this was NOT Indian’s butter chicken. The Indonesian adaptation of butter chicken was actually more like a sweet soy and chopped-onion fried chicken. The highlight for this dish was the chicken. It was mighty tender, yet tasty.

There were a side dish and a dessert that can only be enjoyed with an acquired taste. Fried gizzards dish was basically the complement of chicken’s liver. They had a chewy texture and were usually served plainly on a side plate. Then, there was also Iced Durian. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, Durian had this unique smell that was fantastic (to me). This particular dessert was a combination of fresh Durian fruit and Durian ice cream.

The final verdict for Indo Rasa Restaurant

Indo Rasa is just another Indonesian restaurant. The dishes are all decent and the portions are slightly bigger than other Indonesian restaurants in the area, but nothing really stands out. If I have to choose, my favourite would be the Grilled Squid.

Did you know?

As I mentioned on the first paragraph, there are a lot of Indonesian restaurants in Kingsford area that you can try. I am indifferent towards any of them, since I think nothing stands out and I tend to choose whichever has less people.

Location:

Shop 1, 309 Anzac Parade, Kingsford NSW 2032

Website:

https://www.facebook.com/indorasa.sydney/

May 5, 2011
Layar Seafood Restaurant

Rating:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 8 /10

Price: Rp. 75,000 – Rp. 150,000 =$8 – $17

Place: 7/10

Review:

We concluded the month of Indonesian food journey with one of the best seafood restaurants (in terms of taste) in Surabaya,Layar Seafood Restaurant. I put the bracket there because its table was poorly set; in fact it was only covered with layers of plastics for their ease of cleanups.

Although they have gained considerable amount of fame, Layar still managed not to charge exorbitant price for its menu. You can either pick your food straight from the fish tanks outside, or choose from the plenty choices on their menu. We started the night with the drinks, Lychee Juice and Iced Tea. As with any other Indonesian dinner, we had share plates for tonight as well.

The first two starter-ish dishes were Garlic steamed oyster and Deep fried eels. The oysters are sold individually because of its size. One massive oyster was served on a heated aluminium serving plate. It had a nice taste, although it lacked chewiness due to its size. The other dish was extra crunchy and the dipping sauce created an extra taste of yumm!

The two vegetable dishes that we ordered were Ca Kangkung (loosely translated into stir fried water spinach) and Sambal Eggplants. The water spinach added a touch of freshness to our otherwise ‘greasy’ night. The eggplants were served in a sizzling hot plate with a hint of chilli taste, though not overpowering. They were sort of twice cooked and were quite soft – unlike the hard, grilled eggplants from BBQ.

I must say that the highlight of the night came from the next two dishes. First one was Salted egg yolk Soft-shelled Crab. I must admit that even with the lettuce garnish, it still didn’t look appealing. However, when you had them with your steaming hot rice, they were perfect. The crab’s crunch and coarseness of the egg created a nice combination for us to enjoy.

Then came the ‘actual’ crab, Crab with Padang-style sauce. This was actually a work of art. The aroma, the presentation and the taste were all appetising. Even with all the difficulties of eating a crab, this was still the dish to order. You will be able to choose between, small, female (with egg), or Jumbo (they might sometimes call it Super) crab. Personally I like the ones with egg, because of the added taste of the egg, but if you want value out of your crab, I suggest you order the Jumbo ones. They were all massive and meaty.

The final verdict for Layar Seafood Restaurant

Their Padang-sauced crabs and Soft-shelled crab in egg yolks were dishes to die for. They were absolutely amazing. Feel free to explore the different kinds of fish they have, especially the steamed ones, because unfortunately we didn’t order any this time around.

Did you know?

Layar is possibly the fastest growing seafood restaurant in Surabaya this 00’s decade. It started off as a tiny off-the-street restaurant and grew over the last decade to have two restaurants on major streets of Surabaya. They simply provide one of the freshest seafood with great taste.

Location:

Jl. Manyar Kertoarjo No. 62, Surabaya, East Java

Apr 4, 2011