WArOeng PodjOK

Ilustrasi

3rd floor, Plaza Senayan
Jl. Asia Afrika no. 8
Jakarta Selatan
Tel. 572 5567

That best known waroeng-style restaurant inside a shopping mall, Waroeng Podjok, is keeping on, despite ups and downs and increasing competition. While its renditions of soto Betawi (beef soup with meat, offal, tripe and potatoes), soto Bandung (beef soup with fried soybeans, daikon radish and lemon grass in a clear broth) and lontong cap gomeh (compressed boiled rice with vegetables and chicken in spicy coconut milk gravy) are slightly disappointing, ubiquitous home-style dishes such as tempe loaded down with sambal and fried bean sprouts and salted fish with runner beans, tomatoes and green chilli peppers are tasty.

Steer away from the nasi gudeg (a Yogyakarta, Central Javanese specialty that’s a sweet mishmash of jackfruit cooked in coconut milk with eggs and soybean cake, served over rice with a piece of boiled chicken and a hard-boiled egg in a spicy sauce), the soto mie (a popular Jakarta vendor fare of beef noodle soup with tomatoes and cabbage), the nasi ayam ketumbar (rice served with fried chicken in coriander sauce), and most of all, the ikan patin, for all its weight-watcher hype. But the karedok (a Bogor, West Javanese specialty of fresh, raw vegetable salad tossed in peanut sauce, strongly flavoured with kencur, or lesser galangal, a pungent rhizome of the ginger family) is so stellar it knocks you off your seat.

Hitches aside, the restaurant pulsates with energy and enthusiasm, and people are forever tussling for tables. You can watch staff prepare rujak (raw, tart fruits tossed in a spicy sweet sauce of shrimp paste, tamarind, palm sugar, dried crushed shrimp and chilli peppers), gado-gado and other mortar and pestle vendor-type fares or secretly ogle the tempo doeloe paraphernalia that, despite its kitschiness, define the space. Expect all sorts of refreshing iced drinks and desserts.

Price range: Around Rp 150,000 for 2
Operating hours: 10:00 – 22:00
Dress code: casual
Atmosphere: upscale warung with tempo doeloe paraphernalia
Alcohol: N/A
All major credit cards accepted
Reviewed: April 2007

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POsTEd bY : aRMStrOng_PRODuct@YAHoO.co.ID