There aren’t that many Indonesian restaurants in town, so when we heard of IndoChili (open just opposite Great World City), we jumped at the chance to sample their brand of Javanese, Balinese and Padangnese food. The latest project by the Java Kitchen Group (which has a big presence in Indonesia as well as two Singapore branches at VivoCity and Tanjong Katong), it’s a calming space outfitted with red banquet seats, antique-looking lamps and tropical motifs.
There’re plenty of crowd-pleasing fried appetizers on offer, of which the Dutch-influenced rissoles ($5.80)—filled with assertively nutmeg-y white sauce—stands out. Less successful is the tahu telor ($7.80): a clumsily-constructed mound, soggy with too much sweet sauce. But the real heart of the menu is the seafood grills. If you have a big group, opt for the combo bakaran ($42.80) a heaping serve of grilled pomfret, squid, prawn, satay and chicken all covered in sticky kecap manis (sweet soy sauce): it’ll give you a good idea of what the restaurant has to offer. The dish is a real solid choice but we like their less common specialties such as rawon complit ($9.80)—beef soup enriched with buah keluak—and flavorful tempe with petai (bitter beans; $8.80) even better. They go great with the restaurant’s range of house-made sambals like tangy green mango sambal mangga ($4.80) and shrimp paste-based sambal terasi ($1.80).
A tight selection of milky sips such as fresh avocado juice ($5.80) and drip coffee with condensed milk ($3.80) are on hand to quell the fire if you over do the spice. Though the food isn’t perfect, this smart joint offers a wide enough range of options to keep you full and satisfied.
