Hello, friends especially foodies!
One saturday, both my husband and i should go to the office because it was our shift to be in the office that day. Luckily when we went to office on Saturday it means that we only should be in the office for half day. So we could have lunch outside before we were going home together. That saturday, we had appetite to have Padangnese food for lunch. I am sure if you already visited our country, you probably already known that Padangnese food (well known here as Nasi Padang - Padangnese rice) is a popular tasty food. And our visit that day was not just an ordinary Padangnese restaurant, why? Because it is the oldest and most delicious one in my city which was recommended by my late mother.
That’s why that Saturday i asked my husband how about trying this restaurant, and he said yes. So there we went…
It was almost 1 pm when we arrived there… Here it was PONDOK DJAJA.
Located in a quite large street, this restaurant is easy to find plus it has some parking areas at its' front.
Not like other ordinary Padangnese that would serve all the menus you want on the table, there in this restaurant, they showed them all in a table (wrapped with the plastic). Then we should choose what we wanted to order there, so they would only serve to our table the dishes that we already ordered.
The menu that showed there were beef rendang, chicken gulai, balado tengiri fish, cassava leave in coconut milk soup, fried lung, perkedel (potato fritter), gulai shrimp, balado shrimp, jackfruit in gulai, cow’s brain gulai, balado egg, cow’s liver rendang, chicken liver in gulai, cucumber, egg gulai, and tauco tofu. Because it is actually a chinese padangnese food they had tauco tofu that you would never find in other restaurant. Oh yes, they also had famous fried chicken which fry right after you order it.
Here was the place where they prepared the dishes for us.
Even they have operated since 1969, but they still have the customers until now. Over decades they could maintain the restaurant well. The dining area itself was not too large and they only had simple modest tables and chairs. Even so, the customers still enjoyed their lunch there much. Although modest, this restaurant already had air conditioners so it was still comfortable to dine in there.
Lucky for us, the nearest table was just left by the previous customers, so there we sat. Not long time of waiting then our orders came.
What we ordered were beef rendang, fried chicken, tauco tofu, potato fritter, and balado shrimp.
One of one the flavour, the first one was their beef rendang.
It was so soft but the rendang spices well absorbed inside. It had sweet, savory and a bit spicy flavour. The typical of rendang that had dark brown color, so flavorful and tasty. My husband even said it as the best beef rendang ever.
Next, their best seller fried chicken.
It is one of their authentic menu. It had different texture with different padangnese restaurant fried chicken. The tendency was it had crispy yet dry texture. The flavor of it was savory and it made us remember with the fried chicken from chinese food restaurant. Perfect!
The one and only tauco tofu.
The tofu served with the soup which contained coconut milk, other ingredients and of course tauco. Tauco is fermented soybean paste, which is a savory, salty, and earthy condiment made from yellow soybeans. It usually used to cook chinese food, but there they used it for tofu. It had savory flavor, so rich with coconut milk. Unique and so delicious too!
Their potato fritter like this..
Normally some Padangnese restaurant combined the potato with sweet potato but there they used 100% potato which made it tastier. The texture was smooth with light savory flavor. Simple but i loved it because it was tasty.
Now let’s talk about my favorite, Balado Shrimp
Colored red, it was so appetizing. The shrimps were fresh served with special balado paste and of course stinky beans. The shrimp had tasty sweet, savory and spicy flavor. It was flavorful and i was not the only one who adored it cause so did my husband.
Well, this padangnese restaurant’s menus were not cheap but we must admit that it is one of the best padangnese restaurant ever. So, why don’t you try it yourselves?
PONDOK DJAJA
13B, KH Hasyim Ashari street
North Petojo, Gambir
Central Jakarta
Operating Hours: Everday 11 am-4pm
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All of the pictures were taken with Samsung A52 5G android phone.
She works in a bank but she interests in CRAFT (CRaft, Art, Food and Travel). To pursue her art passion she does the cross stitch, embroidery, handsewing, crafts, crochet and also draws. Find hers in
https://de-creartique.redbubble.com and https://decreartique.threadless.com/designs. Also find her cute collectibles pixel cat pictures here https://opensea.io/collection/pixelcryptocat .
