This week I found a new restaurant, of all places, in my inbox. This week’s Gravy for Breakfast email, from Southern Foodways Alliance, was all about Warung Indonesian Halal Restaurant. I won’t reiterate the whole article, but this restaurant was born of the pandemic and has included Halal in their name and seen it make a difference in their success.

There aren’t a lot of Indonesian restaurants in Atlanta (according to yelp, today, there are three focused, primarily, on Indonesian food). Many that serve Indonesia dishes label themselves as Malaysian, or Thai or Asian fusion. There is a fairly large Indonesian community here, but there is a much larger Muslim community. Being a halal restaurant that serves Indonesian food brings a much larger potential base. At mid-afternoon on a Saturday, the place was fairly full, with a mixed clientele. Both our meals started with Soto Ayam- a clear broth chicken soup with lemon grass, turmeric, as well as vermicelli, bean sprouts, fresh tomatoes & green onion.

The soup was tasty and the cabbage in it was sweet, which was a surprise. My dear wife chose ketoprak –

made with slightly boiled rice vermicelli noodles, cabbage, and beansprouts, as well as seasoned deepfried tofu and fried boiled egg topped with ketoprak homemade peanut sauce and served with garlic crackers. The garlic crackers reminded us both of papadom and the deep fried tofu was the surprise standout of this dish. I chose the nasi uduk with beef rendang.

This is their signature steamed coconut white rice, with beef rendang. It was served with deep fried seasoned tofu, tempeh, deep fried egg balado sauce, peanut anchovy, and sambal balacan.

This rendang was the highlight of the meal. Tender. Beautifully seasoned. The only thing I could say bad about it was it was the first thing I finished on the plate. The tempeh was also excellent. A delicious dish, all around.