Indonesian Food Guide: What to Eat, Where to Eat It and What It Costs

Prices are for a warung or street stall; expect two to four times more in an air-conditioned restaurant and five times more in a hotel. Exchange rate roughly IDR 16,500 to the US dollar.

Regional extras worth seeking out: mie Aceh (spicy thick noodles) in Banda Aceh, ayam taliwang (chilli-grilled chicken) in Mataram, tinutuan porridge and rica-rica in Manado, konro rib soup in Makassar, nasi liwet in Solo, rujak cingur (fruit, vegetables and cow’s snout in shrimp-paste sauce) in Surabaya, kerak telor in Jakarta, and papeda sago porridge with yellow fish soup in Ambon and Papua.

The warung is the basic unit: a family-run shopfront or shack with a glass case of dishes cooked that morning, a rice pot and plastic stools. You point at what you want (nasi campur style), eat, then tell the owner what you had and pay, typically IDR 20,000-40,000 with a drink. Warungs serving one specialist dish (bakso, soto, gudeg) are usually the best cooks in town. Kaki lima carts (“five feet”: three wheels and two of the vendor’s) sell a single dish from a fixed pitch after dark, and in Yogyakarta the angkringan cart sells IDR 2,000 rice parcels and kopi joss on a mat by the roadside until 3am. Lesehan means sitting on mats; the lesehan stalls on Malioboro are the classic example.

The rumah makan Padang has its own system and is found in every town from Aceh to Papua. In the hidang style, the moment you sit down the waiter covers the table with a dozen small plates (rendang, gulai, fried chicken, eggs, vegetables); you eat what you like and pay only for the plates you touched. In the pesan style, you point at the counter and the plate is built for you. Either way, rice, cassava-leaf curry and gravy (kuah) are free or near-free, prices are rarely posted and the bill is tallied by eye, so ask the price of rendang before ordering if you are nervous. A takeaway nasi bungkus gives you more rice for the same money. In Padang and Bukittinggi the local variant is nasi kapau, served from tiered pots at Los Lambuang in Bukittinggi’s Pasar Atas.

A restoran or café with air conditioning and an English menu costs IDR 50,000-150,000 a dish, and hotel restaurants IDR 150,000-400,000. Mall food courts (IDR 30,000-60,000 a meal) are a clean, cheap middle ground with dozens of regional stalls, and the Indonesian chains (Sederhana for Padang food, Es Teler 77, Bakmi GM, Solaria) are reliable at the same price. Watch for “++” on a menu: 10% service and 11% tax are added, so the bill is 21% more than the prices shown.

Jakarta: Jalan Sabang in Menteng is the capital’s classic evening food street, with sate, nasi goreng kambing and martabak carts from 6pm; Pecenongan to the north is the late-night Chinese seafood street. Glodok’s Petak Sembilan market in West Jakarta is Chinatown’s non-halal food alley, Jalan Melawai in Blok M is Little Tokyo, and the Gultik stalls on Blok M’s corners sell IDR 15,000 beef curry rice to the post-club crowd. Soto Betawi H. Ma’ruf at Taman Ismail Marzuki in Cikini is the benchmark for the city’s own soup.

Yogyakarta: Jalan Wijilan, by the eastern gate of the kraton, is a row of gudeg houses (Yu Djum, Bu Lies) open from morning until late; Gudeg Pawon opens at 10pm and sells out in two hours. Malioboro’s lesehan start around 9pm, the angkringan by Tugu station run all night, Sate Klathak Pak Pong on Jalan Imogiri Timur is worth the 20-minute ride, and the ground floor of Pasar Beringharjo sells pecel, cenil and jamu for breakfast. Solo, an hour away, has the Galabo night food street by Gladag, Nasi Liwet Wongso Lemu in Keprabon from 4pm, and Tengkleng Klewer Bu Edi, the goat-bone stew sold at the Klewer market gate from 1pm until it runs out.

Bandung: Jalan Braga for cafés, the Cibadak Culinary Night strip for Chinese-Sundanese street food, Batagor Kingsley and Riri for the city’s fried tofu-and-fish dumplings, and the garden restaurants of Dago and Lembang for nasi timbel, grilled gurame and lalapan eaten in bamboo huts.

Surabaya and East Java: Rawon Setan on Jalan Embong Malang from early evening to the small hours, Rujak Cingur Ahmad Jais, Sate Klopo Ondomohen (coconut-coated beef sate), the Kya-Kya night market in Chinatown at weekends, and Bakso President beside the railway in Malang. Semarang’s Pasar Semawis (Friday to Sunday) is the north-coast Chinatown market, and Lumpia Gang Lombok its famous spring roll.

Sumatra: Medan’s Jalan Semarang fills with Chinese seafood stalls after dark, Tip Top on Kesawan has served since 1934, and Durian Ucok on Jalan Wahid Hasyim sells the fruit all night in season. In Bukittinggi, eat nasi kapau at Los Lambuang in Pasar Atas, and stop at Sate Mak Syukur in Padang Panjang on the road to Padang. In Palembang, Pempek Candy and Pempek Vico are the pempek houses locals argue over.

The east: Makassar’s Jalan Datu Museng has the Lae Lae seafood houses, Coto Nusantara and Konro Karebosi are the soup institutions, and the Losari waterfront sells pisang epe (pressed grilled banana in palm sugar) at sunset. In Manado, Jalan Wakeke is a whole street of tinutuan porridge cafés for breakfast; the Tomohon market in the hills is notorious for bushmeat and worth skipping. In Labuan Bajo, the Kampung Ujung stalls on the harbour grill the day’s catch from 6pm. In Bali, briefly: Ibu Oka’s babi guling in Ubud at lunchtime, the Gianyar night market from 5pm, Jimbaran’s beach seafood at sunset, and Pasar Badung in Denpasar for the real market experience.

Indonesia is the world’s fourth-largest coffee producer and drinks most of it as kopi tubruk: coarse grounds and sugar stirred into hot water, grounds left to settle, IDR 5,000-10,000 at a warung. Ask for kopi pahit if you do not want sugar. The modern form is es kopi susu gula aren, iced milk coffee with palm sugar, from chains like Kopi Kenangan, Janji Jiwa, Fore and Tomoro at IDR 20,000-30,000; specialty cafés in Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta and Bali pour single-origin Gayo, Toraja, Kintamani and Flores coffees at IDR 35,000-60,000. Yogyakarta’s kopi joss drops a glowing coal into the cup, Aceh’s kopi sanger is a condensed-milk coffee pulled through a cloth filter, and the kopi luwak sold on Bali plantation tours comes from caged civets and is best skipped.

Tea is the everyday drink: es teh manis (iced sweet tea, IDR 5,000-8,000) arrives with almost every meal unless you say teh tawar (unsweetened), and Teh Botol Sosro is the national soft drink. Es jeruk (fresh citrus), es kelapa muda (young coconut) and the ice desserts cendol, es campur and es teler cost IDR 10,000-25,000. Jamu, Java’s herbal tonic tradition, is sold by jamu gendong women carrying bottles in a basket and in jamu cafés: kunyit asam (turmeric and tamarind) and beras kencur (rice and galangal) are the friendly starters at IDR 5,000-15,000. Hot wedang jahe (ginger) and the Sundanese bajigur and bandrek are the highland night drinks.

Alcohol is legal from age 21 and expensive. Bintang is the national lager, IDR 40,000-55,000 for a 620ml bottle in a Bali warung or supermarket and IDR 50,000-90,000 for a small one in a Jakarta bar; Bali Hai, Anker and Prost are the alternatives and Bintang Zero is everywhere. Wine and spirits carry heavy import duties, so a glass of imported wine is IDR 120,000-200,000 and a cocktail IDR 120,000-250,000; Hatten and Two Islands make Bali wines at about half that. Traditional drinks are tuak (palm wine), Bali’s arak and North Sulawesi’s Cap Tikus. Aceh bans alcohol completely and Yogyakarta restricts it to licensed bars and hotels. Bottled water is IDR 4,000-8,000; tap water is not drinkable anywhere.

Bali, the Gili Islands and Labuan Bajo run 30-50% above these figures; Java and Sumatra outside the tourist areas run below them. A cooking class is IDR 350,000-700,000, a whole grilled fish on Jimbaran beach IDR 200,000-400,000 per kilo, and a durian in Medan in season IDR 50,000-150,000.

Indonesians eat with a spoon in the right hand and a fork in the left to push food onto it; chopsticks appear only in Chinese noodle shops. Eating with the right hand is normal in Padang restaurants and at home, and the bowl of water (kobokan) on the table is for washing fingers, not drinking. Never pass or eat food with the left hand. Wait to be told silakan (please, go ahead) before starting when you are a guest, and expect the question “sudah makan?” (have you eaten?) as a greeting rather than an invitation. Sambal comes with everything: say tidak pedas (not spicy) or sedikit pedas (a little) when ordering, because the default heat is set for Indonesian palates.

Nearly 90% of Indonesians are Muslim and food is halal by default, which also means almost no alcohol in ordinary restaurants. Pork appears in Hindu Bali, among the Christian Batak around Lake Toba, in Christian North Sulawesi and Flores, and in Chinese-Indonesian restaurants, where it is labelled “B2” or non-halal; “B1” on a Batak or Manado menu means dog meat. During Ramadan, warungs in Muslim areas close or hang a curtain during daylight, though malls, hotels and tourist areas keep serving; do not eat or drink on the street in daytime. Tipping is not expected at warungs or carts; in restaurants without a service charge, leave 5-10% or round up, and where “++” is on the menu the service charge is already included.

Vegetarians eat well: tempe, tahu, gado-gado, pecel (vegetables with peanut sauce), urap (vegetables with spiced coconut), sayur lodeh, karedok and nasi goreng sayur are everywhere, and Ubud has one of Asia’s densest vegan café scenes. The catches are terasi (fermented shrimp paste) in most sambals and chicken stock in soups and fried rice, so ask tanpa terasi and tanpa kaldu ayam. Kecap manis contains wheat, peanut sauce is on half the menu and shellfish hides in sambal and krupuk, so allergy sufferers should carry a card in Indonesian: saya alergi kacang (peanuts), udang (shrimp), gluten.

Street food in Indonesia is as safe as the stall is busy: choose vendors with a queue and food cooked to order or kept hot. Ice in cities comes from licensed factories and is mostly safe; the cylindrical tube ice with a hole through it is factory-made, while hand-chipped block ice at remote stalls is the one to skip. Drink bottled or refilled gallon (galon) water and brush your teeth with it. Raw lalapan vegetables are fine at established Sundanese restaurants and riskier at roadside stalls; peel fruit yourself, and be wary of glass-case food that has sat in the afternoon heat for hours (morning is the time for nasi campur).

Bali belly, the traveller’s diarrhoea that hits a good share of visitors in their first week, usually passes in one to three days with rest and fluids. Pharmacies (Kimia Farma, Guardian, Century) sell oral rehydration salts and Norit charcoal tablets without prescription; see a doctor if there is fever, blood or no improvement after three days. Hepatitis A and typhoid vaccinations are recommended, and rabies is present on Bali, so do not feed monkeys or dogs at eating places.

Bali has the most polished classes: Bumbu Bali in Tanjung Benoa (founded by Swiss chef Heinz von Holzen, with a dawn visit to Jimbaran fish market), Paon Bali in Laplapan village near Ubud and Casa Luna in Ubud (Janet DeNeefe, author of Fragrant Rice) all run morning classes at roughly IDR 350,000-700,000 ($21-42) including lunch. In Yogyakarta, ViaVia on Prawirotaman runs Javanese cooking classes with a Beringharjo market walk. Jakarta and Bandung have fewer formal classes, so book an evening food walk of Jalan Sabang, Glodok or Braga instead, typically IDR 500,000-900,000 for a dozen dishes. Choose any class that starts at a morning market: learning what galangal, candlenut, kencur and torch ginger look like is the half of Indonesian cooking you cannot get from a recipe.

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