Ayam Goreng Sri -- Good

Ayam Goreng Sri is a traditional fried chicken restaurant right outside Surabaya. Before the toll booths and the Lapindo sea of mud, people from Surabaya would drive for 40 minutes just to eat here. This restaurant is huge yet it was always packed. Now people don't come as often because traveling here became inconvenient. If you are going to Batu, make sure to stop by this place.

The fried chicken here is not crispy but very tender and sweet. The meat just falls apart in your mouth. The texture is more like steamed chicken than fried chicken. I can't find a restaurant in Surabaya that serves chicken in a similar style. Since Indonesians love sweet foods, naturally people would flock here. Even the sambal is sweet and mild. I can eat a cup of this stuff every day.

Tofu fried with eggs. Meh, general fare.

The dawet is quite good. Green rice flour jelly is served with coconut milk and palm sugar. Refreshingly sweet.

The catfish are standard, but the price is anything but standard. Grossly overpriced.

Seriously, if you come here, just eat the fried chicken. Don't bother with anything else. You came here for the chicken, which are amazingly delicious.

Ah Yat Abalone -- Excellent

Hello everyone! I figured I should comment on techniques and ingredients used to prepare some food (or at least my best guess) so the home-cooks can try new things. I updated older posts  to reflect these changes.

I am somewhat torn about Ah Yat. Ah Yat serves the best dim sum in the city, but quality seems inconsistent. The last time I went there, the dumplings were already cold. The one before that, the dumplings were fresh except for the bao. Maybe the dumplings are fresher on the weekdays? Well, try coming here during a weekday for a 50% discount and fresher dumplings if you can. This way you also avoid the crowd, as you may need to wait in line during the weekends, even though the restaurant easily seats 300.

Fried shrimp wontons with mayo. From my observation, this is a big hit with the kids. Kids love crunchy stuff coated in sweet mayo. If you want to make this condiment at home, mix store-bought mayo with sweetened condensed milk. Add Sriracha and you get the spicy mayo found on sushi rolls.

Hargow, thin rice skin with crisp shrimp. If you want to make your shrimp crunchy like this, let the peeled shrimp sit in a bowl of water and baking soda (not too much or it will turn bitter!). The higher pH firms up the flesh.

Fried mashed taro with meat filling. Like a fancy croquette but less savory. Instead of rich mashed potato, you get mashed taro which is a lot milder and tastes slightly like coconut milk.

The famous bo lo char siu bao. A combination of pork bun and pineapple bun. The pineapple bun is named that way because the cracked yellow surface resembles pineapple skin. The top is just cookie dough slapped onto the bun, just like melon bread in Japan.

These chicken feet melt in your mouth. They are first deep-fried to puff the skin and then stewed or steamed with the sauce. Skin and cartilage contain a lot of collagen, which turn into gelatin when cooked for a long time.

The dim sum here is overall delicious. There are many other types served here and I will add more pictures in the future. Ah Yat serves a bigger variety of dim sum during the weekends, but everything that matters is served on the weekdays. I forgot to take a picture of the chang fen, but I highly recommend it. It's silky smooth and the sauce is quite sweet. In places like Singapore, chang fen is usually not that sweet or smooth. In this case, I approve of sweetening the sauce.

Last comment about this place: don't order the abalone. I mean, it's good for the novelty if you want to burn some cash. The abalone itself doesn't have flavor, just like shark fin. The flavor resides in the sauce, which Ah Yat is famous for. Then again, it is just really good chicken gravy.

Best Food and Restaurants in Surabaya!

Hi all!

People visit this blog to look for restaurants. You might be a tourist traveling to Surabaya. You might be a local trying to find a new place. Whatever your purpose, it would be better to list all the restaurants I recommend and follow up with individual reviews in the future

Here are the best restaurants according to me. The restaurants are listed in alphabetical order. I will add more restaurants as I remember/find them.

Ah Yat Abalone (Dim Sum)
If you come during the weekdays for lunch, you get a sizable discount, which makes the food really cheap. They're famous for the bo lo char siu bao (baked barbecue pork bun), although lately they don't taste fresh. The chang fen are better than the ones I've had in Singapore: silky-smooth rice wrappers are filled with crunchy youtiao/shrimp/char siu and topped with a sweet and tangy sauce. The fried shrimp wontons will please anyone in the crowd with its combination of crunchy shell and smooth mayo. If you don't want something fried, the hargow is just as good. The chicken feet melt in your mouth. Ah Yat is famous for abalone, as the name suggests, but it's not worth the money. My grandmother cooks tastier abalone using the cheap canned stuff. Frankly, I have never understood the appeal of abalone. It's funny how the expensive Chinese food ingredients are flavorless (like bird's nest and shark fin--better to avoid shark fin due to animal cruelty issues). Scallops taste much better than abalone and are cheaper.

Boncafe Steakhouse and Bon Ami Bakery
A classic steakhouse in Surabaya. The steaks here are cooked well-done but the meat is always tender and the gravy is so smooth and luscious. Make sure to ask for extra gravy and drown the meat and potatoes. The crispy chicken skin makes an excellent appetizer. The bakery has always been a childhood favorite. They make some of the best mushroom croquettes in the city. The smooth, slightly cheesy mashed potato goes well with the meaty mushrooms and crispy panko breading. Put some relish on each bite and you'll come back asking for more.

Golden Rama (Chinese)
This place is somewhat overlooked. They serve excellent Chinese food and steamboat for reasonable prices. The Lumpia Seafood sounds ridiculous: cabbage, shrimp, squid, and mayo wrapped in a thin crepe, breaded, then deep-fried. When I first saw this, I was disgusted by the amount of fat, but then I took a bite... and another... and another. Wow. Their mayo tastes so good. Also get their fried rice with salted fish. Oddly enough, the other fried rice on the menu taste horrible, but this one is so light and fragrant! They also serve delicious steamboat, but I prefer the a la carte menu.

Gudeg Bu Har (Indonesian)
Highly recommended for tourists. Rice served with tender chicken, jelly-like cow skin, young jackfruit, tofu, and egg, topped with savory coconut milk. You can get a combo with pecel, a traditional salad topped with spicy peanut dressing. Gudeg originated in Jogjakarta, but the recipe has been so heavily altered that we can call this part of Surabaya's taste. The gudeg in Jogja is cloyingly sweet and looks darker than the Surabaya version. I definitely prefer our version.

Hotel Majapahit (Pastry)
They make the best mousse cakes in town. I suggest the Mocha Latte cake if you want something light and fluffy (though the chocolate flavor is anything but light!) and the Choco Terrine if you want a denser mousse. The Tiramisu is famous but I still prefer my homemade version. If you come after 6 pm you will get a 50% discount.

Holland Martabak Terang Bulan (Snacks)
Terang bulan is like a giant pancake with the filling of your choice. Many others come quite close, but they suffer from being too chewy or too dense. I think that Holland does it just right. They are expensive though, considering that many hawkers sell terang bulan for a fraction of the price. Don't pay extra for butter since it makes no difference. If you like savory, get a thin one with cheese. If you like sweet, get a thick one with chocolate and peanuts/sesame seeds. I suggest getting martabak somewhere else since many hawkers make better versions for a fraction of the price.

Jade Imperial (Chinese)
Food done right. I love the care they put into each dish. Meats are tender and juicy. The sauces are perfect with rice (but too salty on their own). If you order a hotplate, they pour the sauce on your table so you can hear the sizzle. Even the onions are uniformly and thinly sliced! The noodles (la mian) are springy and are relatively cheap for lunch! In some malls like Galaxy Mall, the food here isn't much more expensive than the ones in the food court.

Layar (Seafood)
Fresh seafood all around, from clams to fish to crabs to shrimp. Their tomato-based sauce is extremely tasty, especially with fish or prawns. Their salted-egg crabs are famous, but they're too oily and grainy for my taste. To each their own. Layar is hailed as one of the best seafood restaurants in Surabaya, so it's definitely worth checking out!

Lemper 168 (Snacks)
Every tourist should try this traditional snack. Chicken is slow-cooked in coconut milk and herbs. They are then shredded and wrapped in glutinous rice. Intensely sweet and savory! These are incredibly cheap for the amount of chicken you get. In fact, my complaint is that they put too much chicken! The proportions are a little off; I'd prefer less chicken and more sticky rice. However, this is the best version in Surabaya since the others suffer the opposite problem: too little chicken and too much sticky rice.

Pasar Atum (Snacks)
If you are a tourist, make sure to visit this mall! Pasar Atum is one of the oldest shopping centers in the city, so it has some historic value. Many well-made traditional snacks have been sold here for decades. My personal favorites are Cakue Peneleh (fried garlic dough), Pastel Go (fried pastry stuffed with sweet noodles), Ronde Kitty (glutinous rice balls filled with peanuts), and the different versions of bubur Madura (Madurese porridge) sold throughout. Notable mentions include the crispy char siu in the food court and the lontong mie on the second (?) floor.

Pisa Cafe (Italian)
The food is decent. I wouldn't come here for the food. I'd much rather make my own pasta at home. However, the smooth and creamy gelato is heavenly! I come here at least once a month for the gelato; the other gelateria simply can't compare because they can't find the right balance of flavor and sweetness. You can keep sampling the different flavors until you find several that you like due to their great service. Never have they made me feel ashamed even after sampling the sixth flavor! My personal favorite is the coffee. They used to mix in cocoa nibs into the gelato, then they stopped doing that. I asked them about it since I missed the crunch and now they mix in toffee into the coffee gelato. Even better! Their signature flavor is the stracciatella (chocolate chip) but I'll stick with my coffee!

Sheraton Hotel (Bakery)
The best croissants you'll ever find in Surabaya. They are light, soft, fluffy, rich, buttery, and oh so flavorful! The plain ones cost the same as the chocolate or cheese ones but I prefer them plain because they're already so good on their own! Come here after 5 pm for a 50% discount. They also have an all-day 50% discount for the ladies on Wednesday, but they are usually sold out by 10 am.

Tong Tong (Japanese)
The Japanese expats love to eat here. The food is expensive but the taste is clean and simple, a characteristic of true Japanese cuisine. Other places tend to skimp on or substitute the expensive ingredients, or cover up the taste of the dish with heaps of mayo, but not Tong Tong. They use real dashi (bonito broth) to impart a delicate sweetness. My personal favorites are the gyoza, loaded with garlic, and the ten oroshi soba, which is their version of tenzaru soba.

X.O. Cuisine (Chinese)
Even though their portion sizes keep dwindling every year, the food is still consistently good. I recommend the pork ribs with Marmite sauce. This doesn't reek of Marmite, which can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your taste. Either way, the umami meter is going haywire. Another good choice is the ikan bilis. These are small fish (like anchovies, but not smelly at all) deep-fried to a perfect crunch and then seasoned with garlic and chili. X.O. used to make the best xiao long bao (they were better than the ones I ate in Shanghai!) but the quality has declined a LOT over the years. Right now they're not much better than 3.6.9.'s dumplings, which breaks my heart. I miss the old xiao long bao.

X.O. Suki (Steamboat)
After X.O. Cuisine became popular, the company opened several steamboat restaurants to great success, even in Jakarta. Now it is the icon of steamboat restaurants in Surabaya. If you want to eat a lot of soup, come here. They also serve a la carte menu

This list is by no means exhaustive and will be updated in the future. I sincerely hope you will find something you love, perhaps to the point of coming back for more!

Paradise Dynasty -- Neutral

The Paradise Group started off in Singapore and it is now expanding into Indonesia. Dynasty is famous for its la mian and xiao long bao. The food items on the menu are inconsistent, with some being delicious while many others are just average. For the price, it's not worth it. However, the food is still undeniably good.

For appetizer we had Szechuan style cow offals. The sauce is just chili oil with Szechuan peppercorns, which is boring. I expected a more complex flavor, perhaps from cinnamon or ginger.

The la mian also lacks flavor. Since the stock is presumably made from pig knuckles, I expected it to be very rich like the stock for ramen. Maybe they didn't use as much pork knuckles, though, as I found a lot of undissolved pork skin in my bowl, which thickens the stock but doesn't add much flavor. The pork and egg are delicious, but the stock could've used more seasoning. Also, the la mian doesn't have enough protein content. Instead of being chewy, the noodles are extremely soft without any bite. Jade Imperial serves better la mian at 2/3 the price.

Cooking tip: if you want perfectly boiled eggs, the trick is to not boil the eggs. Eggs aren't meant to reach 100 degrees Celsius; they're already fully cooked at an internal temperature of roughly 70 degrees. However, most of us don't have the luxury of controlled-temperature water baths. You can place your eggs in a pot of water, bring it to a boil, and then immediately turn the stove off. Let the eggs rest for 10-12 minutes for soft-boiled and about 15 minutes for hard-boiled. The eggs will never be overcooked because the water will have cooled off sufficiently once the entire egg is the same temperature as the water.

This is the famous 8-flavor xiao long bao. The dumplings are full of soup but contain almost no meat. The cheese dumpling is surprisingly the tastiest. The ginseng flavor is quite strong, so your reaction depends on whether you like ginseng or not. The other "flavors" are gimmicky; I doubt they put enough truffle, crab roe, or foie gras to make a difference, if any. For about 10k apiece, this is hardly worth it. The xiao long bao at Depot 3.6.9. is better since it contains more meat and is therefore more filling, and they're sold at 1/3 the price!

The sweet and sour pork have a nice crunch but the batter is somewhat hard. My main gripe is that the batter is thicker than the meat. Overall a delicious dish.

The fried chicken has been brined beforehand, so the meat is very tender and juicy--as good as it can get. The outside is very crunchy, something that Indonesians will certainly love. The dipping sauce is just plain mayo, though, so there's not a whole lot of flavor except for the succulent meat. If they can come up with a tastier sauce, I would definitely come to eat this regularly.

Cooking tip: brine refers to a solution of salt and sugar. There are many variations, but I use Alton Brown's recipe for brine: 1 gallon of chicken broth, 1 gallon of water, 1 cup of salt, and 1/2 cup of sugar. Brining unfurls proteins, preventing meat fibers from coagulating unevenly. The meat will also retain more moisture when cooked. If you want to "brine" beef, you can sprinkle a big chunk of beef with salt and leave it for one hour, then wipe the salt with paper towel.

In conclusion, Paradise Dynasty offers many tasty dishes, but some need improvements. You should come here if you just want good food and don't care about the price. I would label this as excellent if the prices were a little lower, but currently it's just not good value for your money. When you eat here, try the xiao long bao and decide for yourself whether you like it or not; avoid the la mian.

Boncafe -- Excellent

Boncafe is a classic steak establishment in Surabaya with many outlets. The prices are quite steep, so prepare to dish out at least 70k per person.

The fried chicken skins have always been my favorite. Sometimes the chef derps and it turns out chewy instead of crispy, but this rarely happens. Easily the best appetizer on the menu.

 

As you wait for the steak, the server will bring you a dinner roll and some butter. The delicate roll comes from its bakery chain, Bon Ami. The steaks come with vegetable and potatoes. The meat here is very tender despite being cooked well-done. (Note: You want your steaks cooked well-done due to the low food hygiene standards in Indonesia. However, I trust Boncafe enough that I'm happy when my steak turns out medium-well.) The picture above is the Tornedo, which has ham wrapped around the steak. The one below is the black pepper steak. Always ask for extra gravy, free of charge. Cover the entire hotplate with gravy; it makes everything taste better.

The desert line is just fine, but it's hard to justify the 25k price tag on the desserts. I'd say skip dessert. Any fancy dessert or drink will cost an arm and a leg at 30k apiece.

Overall Boncafe consistently serves great steak and dining experience.

Shichidon -- Good

This lovely restaurant offers quick Japanese donburi. For the price, the food is really good. They offer a combination of yakiniku, katsu, and curry to go along with your rice or udon. The yakiniku is pleasantly sweet and the katsu uses a nice thick cut of chicken (unlike someplace like Sushi Tei, where the breading is thicker than the chicken...). The curry tastes a little watered down, but I don't mind when I get a lot of meat. The yakiniku curry udon offers the best flavor by enriching the curry with the savory beef. I think the food is mostly reheated, but hey, they still taste good.

 

Update: I came across the Shichidon at Galaxy Mall. In addition to the donburi, they sell ramen. I must say, I was pleasantly surprised. For a fast food joint, the ramen is better than in most full-service restaurants.

The Kambodja by Frangipani -- Good

With the 50% lunch discount throughout Surabaya Town Square, The Kambodja is a good deal for the large portion of food it offers. The restaurant offers a wide selection of traditional Indonesian food including duck, seafood, fried rice, and many others.

I forgot what this is called, but this is delicious. The spicy and tangy sambal will make you salivate while the beef rendang will awaken your sense of smell with the blend of herbs and coconut milk. The rempeyek (thinly fried batter) adds some crunch so you don't get bored with the texture.

The fried rice isn't anything special, but the portion--wow! This can feed two people for around 15k during lunch. The shaved ice dessert has tender young coconut and fermented sticky rice, always a delicious combination.

The soft-shelled crab is covered with many thin films of fried egg and served with sweet and spicy soy sauce. This dish is too oily for my taste, but you can see the amount of skill needed to make this. If they can remove most of the oil, then this dish would be worth ordering.

I previously tried the grilled chicken rice in Frangipani, which is also offered in The Kambodja. The rice is wrapped in charred leaf, which adds more to the presentation than the actual taste. It contains chicken cooked in coconut milk and some anchovies with green chili for a balance of rich and spicy.

Overall, The Kambodja offers decently good food for a good price. You don't want to go out of your way to eat here, but if you're in the area and looking for lunch, The Kambodja is always a solid pick.

De Sushi -- Neutral

I love Japanese food, especially sushi, but let's face it: there's no good sushi in Surabaya. De Sushi is no exception. The sushi served here is just chunks of rice dressed... erm, drenched in mayo in the hopes that it will eventually taste good. I am very partial towards traditional sushi (nigiri, temaki, gunkan) where you can taste the quality of the fish. Here, even if you omit the meat, everything will taste about the same.

This didn't get a negative review mainly because of the exceptionally cheerful and helpful staff. Even if the food isn't that good, if the servers do their best to make you happy, then it's pretty much impossible to hate the place.