With Indonesia’s close proximity to Australia, I’m quite surprised there are only a handful of Indonesian eateries in Adelaide. Pondok Daun is the latest to open its doors and offer this type of cuisine, and judging by the ethnicity of it’s clientele, it’s almost safe to say that the food is authentic. Today, I once again caught up with Louise from Willunga Wino, and we both ventured into this place to see how good the food was.

The menu can be broken down into toasts, entrees, soups, grilled dishes, fried dishes, rice, noodles, dessert and exotic drinks. A lot of the dishes look familiar from my visits to other Indonesian eateries, however, others are particularly unique.

The restaurant is set in a long and narrow floor plan with cafe style tables and chairs. Apart from the low hanging light fittings, there’s not much in the way of decor. The frontage has floor to ceiling windows which maximise the amount of natural light that flows through.

To start off, I had the Fried Beef Balls. These are the beef balls used in Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soups and were merely sliced up and fried. I’m not a fan of these beef balls because there are bits of fat in them which become hard and gristly. It came with a sweet chilli sauce which had a lot of kick.

For the main, I had the Fried Chicken with Spicy Sauce. The chicken thigh was considerably large and perfectly fried. It was nice and crispy on the outside and yet tender and succulent underneath. The spicy sauce was really good as well and complemented the chicken quite nicely.

For dessert I had the Sweetened Corn Kernels with Cheese and Chocolate. The combination of ingredients, and even the appearance, are kind of disgusting but this wasn’t too bad. The natural sweetness of the corn kernels complemented that of the chocolate. The cheese really didn’t have any taste but its texture thickened the consistency.

Louise had the Spicy Fried Tofu and said it was very good. From the appearance of the dish, it almost looked like a soup with the spongy tofu sucking up all the juices.

For the main, Louise has the Steamed Mixed Vegetables in Peanut Sauce. Again, I was told this was well executed and very tasty.

Lastly, Louise had the Kaya toast. Kaya is a spread made from coconut milk, eggs and sugar and is very popular in South East Asia. I actually did have some of this and thought it was very nice. It wasn’t overly sweet and was complemented well by the crusty toast. I think I’ve had something similar in Vietnamese cuisine but never knew what it was called in English.

The staff were friendly and the service was good. All the meals came out promptly and plates were cleared as we finished each course. I particularly liked how one of the staff went around to each and every table to ensure that everyone was enjoying their meal.

The food here is very good value for money. The toasts start at $2, the entrees $5 and the mains from $7.90. The food was so cheap, I ordered three courses which came to a total of $16. If you take out the frozen process Beef Balls that I had, it was quite an enjoyable dining experience.

For authentic Indonesian cuisine, you really need to check this place out.

WHERE: 94 Currie St, Adelaide