Surabaya food in KL?? Got… in Dataran Sunway Mentari!

According to an Indonesian foodie, Selba, Indonesia food is an exciting, tongue teasing medley of flavours. Surabaya is East Java, with its cuisine predominantly salty/savoury, Yogyakarta is Central Java, usually sweeter on the palate while Bandung is West Java, neither sweet nor salty (huh?) & the ever famous Balinese food that we KL-ites have come to know of  (thanks to the same company that runs Ole Ole Bali, Bumbu Bali & The Waterlily – I call it unfair monopolisation! )  is spicy and pungent.

While I am still on the hunt for fellow foodies to try The Uma at The Strand (which is non-halal), I was alerted about a new restaurant in town. Some excited mentions on Twitter got my interest, and a further link send to my Facebook gave me all the details I need. Social Media, how would one live without it, especially now.  Heck, recently I have been hijacking recipes by copying someone’s tweets 😉

The restaurant was pretty easy to find, even for a directionally challenged individual like me.

RestoSurabaya-Sunway-map

In case you can’t read maps, it is located right in the middle of the row of the shop lots facing the Sunway Pyramid.

The interior is nothing fancy, no knick-knacks of Indonesian arts nor any intricate furniture. Very typical cafe-like set up with cheap looking printed menus.

resto surabaya menu

Indonesian drinks is synonymous with Juice Alpokat (avocado-chocolate shake) & Surabaya Resto’s version is one of those watered, bland versions that doesn’t warrant any positive remarks while the funky pink drink you see below is rose syrup with milk & topped with soda  (cheekily named Soda Gembira on the menu).

resto surabaya drinks

My dining partners who are fans of beef was immediately attracted to the menu’s claim of their Best seller “Rawon Sapi”, a traditional black Iduwak beef soup and BOTH decided to order the same thing (Urghh, so much for hoping for variety!). Anyhow, the description was intriguing. Black Iduwak???

For RM6.90, the set came with mineral water, a serving of rice and a very miserable looking bowl of black broth with some 6-7 chunks of beef (size as you can see below). Ok, I’m not one to judge Surabaya food, since I haven’t step a foot in Indonesia. Authencity is not something I can comment about, but my 2 cents worth of the taste of the soup was it was actually pretty alright. It could be cos I haven’t tasted such preparation before & at the very least, this Rawon Sapi is uncommon to my jaded palate. The beef wasn’t as flaky as I would have prefered, but the accompanying chilli is a must to perk up the tongue.

resto surabaya Rawan, ikan bakar

For the sake of being different, I decided against the Ayam Bakar and went for the Ikan Bakar Millenium. Somebody at the table made a lame joke of the possibility that the recipe took a millenium to perfect hence the name 😉

Anyhow, I enjoyed my Tilapia. The flesh was flaky & the skin was teeth-cracklingly crisp. The aromatic sauce was an intricate complex paste of God knows whatever mix of herbs & spices. Slightly nutty, non-  spicy, a bit sweet and a bit salty. I scrapped it off the fish & mix it into my rice. Nice!

Our order to share were these sticks of satay (BBQ skewers of chicken), RM7.90 in PORONOGO sauce.  Whatever Pornograph.. I mean Poronogo is, we relished the slightly sweet tender & lean chicken meat, served smoky with SMOOTH peanut sauce, again a refreshing change from the chunky peanut sauce of Malaysia’s satay.

satay

All in all, the meal wasn’t superb or anything, but we appreciated the wallet friendly prices (some of us didn’t get much ang pows ya’know.. ahem..) & the virtual trip to Surabaya (if their website/FB page is to be trusted) even if it’s only for it’s cuisine.

Resto Surabaya
No. 18 – 1 (GF), Jalan PJS 8/2. Dataran Mentari – Sunway
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 46150
Phone:
(03) 5631-0312
Mon – Thurs: 10:00 am – 10:00 pm
Fri: 1:00 am – 10:00 pm
Sat – Sun: 10:00 am – 10:00 pm

A little trivial:

The food served here is supposedly traditional home made cooking, just like how it was back in their country.
The company that manages this outlet is actually the sister company of the main company from Indonesia & other than the Sunway’s outlet (which was opened in Nov 2009 & is the only outlet so far), there are 2 in Singapore, one in Lucky Plaza & another in Far East. The Singaporean outlets are direct franchises from Indonesia.

Other interesting sounding dishes to look out for is Sup Buntut Bakar & the Cumi Bakar! Nasi goreng TEK TEK sounds
wrong ..but .. worth a try?? 😉

This Post Has 20 Comments

  1. Sean

    i haven’t had much experience with indonesian food, but i’ve liked what i’ve eaten (especially sate lilit). have also been very tempted by the uma, but it’s too out of the way for me, heheh. anyways, if some outlet ever brings bali’s babi guling to kl, count me in for a visit! 😀

    1. rebeccasaw

      I been checkin out… no such luck for babi guling so far! The Curve – Bumbu Desa is opening soon but its halal! *wails!*

  2. kruel74

    If the one beside the 7-E then I’ve tried it but didn’t try the satay. So, when is the next outing 🙂

  3. vialentino

    i like their food here…esp the green color drink…forgotten call wat liow…

    1. rebeccasaw

      U eaten here? But their avocado drink was a tad diluted wasn’t it?

  4. peteformation

    Interesting place! Will check out the place if I pass through there!

  5. unkaleong

    A refreshing change from the heaps of Steamboat joints that seem to dot the area 😉

    1. rebeccasaw

      Indeed! somehow now I’m craving steamboat! Ehh..bad influence la u. mention it then i start craving!

  6. ciki

    btw, cumi is sotong! so cute.. cumi was happy to know that he was a SQUID:P (all hands/tentacles.. ahem!)

  7. sophia

    AAAHH! Okay, you need to change your layout, I felt so stupid commenting on your previous ones! No wonder I felt like I’ve seen them before, but I thought that a burger is a burger so that’s why it looks the same…hahaha!

  8. Augustine

    take which pictures that u like…it is my honor that my pics posted in ur blog 🙂

  9. Betty

    Hello! I want to say thanks for an interesting site about a subject I have had an interest in for a long time now. I have been lurking and reading the posts avidly so just wanted to express my thanks for providing me with some very good reading material. I look forward to more, and taking a more active part in the discussions here.

  10. This is very interesting indeed.Would love to read a little more of this. Great post. Thanks for the heads-up…This blog was very informative and knowledgeable.Good Luck to you.
    Surabaya Resto, Sunway Mentari, Bandara Sunway | thenomadGourmand

  11. Ragoya Sheena

    Ooohhh! I like the food actually. You really got a lot of places covered!

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