Go beyond the common ayam penyet (fried smashed chicken), bakso (beef meatballs in soup) and nasi campur (mixed rice) and visit one of these hidden Indonesian restaurants where you can find a bevy of other Indonesian dishes.
These restaurants serve up dishes from the different districts in Indonesia so you don’t really have to travel all the way there just to discover the delectable dishes they’ve got to offer.
Find out where they are below:
You don’t want to miss the nasi tumpeng (pictured) here. Originating from the island of Java, this coned-shaped turmeric flavoured and coloured “rice mountin” comes with eight delectable vegetables and meat dishes that symbolise gratitude and good fortune.
Perfect for sharing, you get to sample differrent types of side dishes together with family.
Furama Waterfront, 405 Havelock Road
The popular restaurant returned to Singapore last year with its signature mouth-watering Indonesian cuisine, featuring the fried gurame fish served in various ways and flavours.
#01-26. 902 East Coast Parkway
This heritage restaurant on Kandahar Street started in 1954 specialising Minangkabau (an ethnic group indigenous to the Minangkabau Highlands of West Sumatra) cuisine, such as nasi padang (rice with various side dishes), rendang (spicy meat and coconut dish) and sayur lodeh (soup with vegetables in coconut milk).
18/18A Kandahar Street
Sample a range of home-cooked Indonesian dishes from Padang, Sulawesi and Java at Tambuah Mas (which loosely translates to “add more please” in Padang dialect). Try the tahu telor (fried beancurd with eggs), an original family recipe and the ikan pepes (similar to otah-otah but made of pure seabass fillet).
Various locations
We can’t forget the yummy food from our beloved hawker centres! Over at Block 16 Bedok South Road, we hear this place is the place to the best nasi rawon (rice with black beef soup), nasi jenganan (rice with peanut sauce) and nasi sambal goreng
Block 16, Bedok South Road
Even if you are clueless about Indonesian food, we’re prety sure you’ve heard of ayam penyet. You can find this “smashed fried chicken” all over Singapore even at hawkers centres, it’s a simple dish but it packs a (spicy) punh.
You can aldo replace the chicken with fish, beef balls, prawn or beef steak and even bean curd but you really can’t go wrong with fried chicken.
Various locations.
Everyone’s favourite Indonesian island has a presence in Clarke Quay in the form of Balinese cuisine. Enjoy meat, seafood and vegetable dishes with a touch of tangy freshness at Bayang (which means “shadow” In Bahasa), including its signature dish, bebek betutu (seasoned and baked or roasted duck). We also love their Indonesian-themed decor.
#01-05 Clarke Quay, 3A River Vallery Road
We’ll throw this in the list for good measure. Bumbu (which means seasoning or spices traditional mixed by using a pestle and mortar) serves Thai-Indonesian food and an interesting pick includes pandan leaf chicken.
Various locations
Text: Pinky Chng/The Finder
Additional Reporting: Atika Lim
