Great Indonesian Food (long) - any other suggestions?

[olken brothers]

Just wanted to recommend two Indonesian places in Queens that we just ate at this weekend.

The first place is "Warteg Fortuna." It is a little hole-in-the wall (quite literally -- maybe 6 counter seats total!) on Roosevelt avenue directly underneath the 52nd street stop on the 7 line. It is a great example of a "warung," a traditional side-of-the-road Indonesian food restaurant. Like all such restaurants in Indonesia, they make the most of the food in the morning (though some things, like the sate and fried rice (nasi goreng), could be made to order), and then give you a great plate filled with all kinds of dishes. The speciality is classic Javanese food (the person who cooks and runs the place is from Malang, in East Java), such as sate, nasi pecel (similar to gado-gado), soto ayam (curry-based chicken soup), and opor ayam (chicken in light curry and coconut milk.) The opor ayam was probably the best thing we had - very tender and flavorful - though the sate was also excellent and everything was good. This place definitely seem to be regularly frequented by the Indonesian community in the area -- there are signs in Indonesian for people looking for roommates, etc. This place is *VERY* cheap -- $3.75 for a plate with rice and three dishes, enough for a hearty meal.

The second place is a new restaurant called "Upi Jaya", at the corner of 76th and Woodside. This place is much more of a restaurant (maybe seats 30-40 people), and specializes in the Padang cuisine, a regional Indonesian cuisine from West Sumatra that can be found throughout the archipellago. Padang specializes in spicy curries, such as rendang (a beef dish in a spicy sauce) and gulai (a bright orange curry that goes well with chicken or vegtables, or just over rice). The food is *excellent* - the rendang was the best rendang I have had outside of Indonesia, with a flavorful sauce and meet cooked to the right chewy texture. They also have a full range of Indonesian ice-based dessert drinks - I had the mixed ice (es campur) which was very tasty. Prices are $9-$12 for entrees, but you can also get "Nasi Rames," which is a plate of rice with a meat dish and a side dish, for around $7.50.

Hope this helps.

[Peter Cuce]

Nice post. Have you tried Padang Jaya in Elmhurst?

[Mike V]

Thanks for the post on Upi Java. I plan to have dinner there soon. There were some very positive posts on this place last year when it opened. I did go one day for lunch but it was closed. Your post was helpful.

[jen kalb]

Its great to get some more input on Upi Jaya - things that they do well.
This was my take from a meal there last month when we were underwhelmed -

it is a pretty place with nice people and the food looks nice but nothing we had was particularly delicious or interesting and the food was overpriced for what it was. They just didint seem to want to try very hard - examples - no sambal - we asked, but they served a commercial sweet chili paste instead. Not just to us, to indonesian parties too. Even if they were out of homemade sambal, they should have had some backup plan.
We ordered a grilled fish with marinade and the guy talked us out of it - said it would take too long - we wound up with a $19 fried fish with some chili sauce (most likely commercial) spread over the top - not cooked together, fish was fresh but basically fried fish - nothing special at all for that price. The two bean curd apps were both totally plain and not worth it - the stuffed bean curd app just seemed to have some bean sprouts in it, the app listed as fried bean curd with green chiles was 4 small cubes of plain fried bean curd with 2 small green chiles next to it on the plate. For $4?? thats when we asked for the sambal and got the commercial chile sauce. Chicken rissoles were nicely made and flavored but bland - some sauce again would have helped.

On the positive side, the beef sate was good (tho a very chewy innard cut), beef rendang seemed correct with the intense coconut and lots of chile , again very chewy, though so while I respected it I didnt love it, chicken in coconut milk gravy was quite good, kale in coconut milk was a very simple very good veg and the second veg offering (rice noodles, bean sprouts etc in peanut sauce was ok.

All in all, Im wondering what the best orders are here - the chicken dishes? the gulais?

[Peter Cuce]

Before it opened to the public, Upi Jaya was one of those quasi-restaurant, get home-cooked Indonesia food from somebody's house operations. Then they made put tables in and made it more restaurant like but didn't have a menu yet. It was still very good back then. My last visit was a little disappointing for the price, as some have mentioned. I find they do all their chicken dishes very well.
For killer fried chicken, try Padang Jaya. The place is very uneven, service sucks, some things are just awful.

[bigjeff]

is Padang Jaya still open? where was that?

[Jay Weedon]

Anyone know a place that does Nasi Padang? My favorite Indo-dish, never seen it in the west.

[fhjkt]

Yeah, but Upi Jaya is very authentic for Padang food. They are generous for spices.

[Woodside Al]

This thread was dug up out of the past, but just so nobody goes on a futile journey you should know that Warteg Fortuna, referenced in the original post, has since closed.

[bigjeff]

reminder (for May 16, 2010): tomorrow is Indonesian Food Bazaar in Astoria. it's the bomb.

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