More than satay: Three new restaurants that show Indonesian food’s true colours

Scan the menu of almost any Indonesian restaurant in Melbourne, and the outlines are familiar: nasi goreng, rendang and satay are among a small cluster of dishes that have long shaped how the cuisine is understood in our city. But a growing number of venues are widening that frame by focusing on how people in Indonesia actually eat, shifting attention from individual dishes to the formats and rituals that shape them.

There’s a cafe built around Indonesian-style coffee and casual drop-ins, a new restaurant celebrating makanan rumahan – literally “home-style food” – and a third that showcases dishes from across the whole country. Together, they mark a shift away from treating Indonesian food as a monolith.

Kenangan

In 2021, while venues across Australia struggled to stay afloat during COVID-19 lockdowns, the team behind Meet Sando, a Japanese-style sandwich shop in the CBD, began producing Indonesian meal packs at night, delivering them for customers to reheat at home.

Gradually that brand, Kenangan, evolved into a fully fledged restaurant: first on Elizabeth Streetin a corner of Queen Victoria Market in early 2023, and now at a second, larger dining room on Little Bourke Street, which opened on June 24.

“The old Kenangan [now renamed Kenangan Kecil, or ‘little Kenangan’] is more of a fast-casual dining experience, while the new [venue] is a true eatery that still retains a warm feel,” says co-owner Giovanni Sutjiutama.

The business is run by three couples within the same family, who each bring memories and influences from different regions of Indonesia to the menu, which skews towards home-style cooking.

Iga semur is a sticky braise of Angus beef short-rib in a dark and sweet soy-based sauce, while terong balado pairs deep-fried eggplant with a hot red chilli sambal. Ikan pesmol, pan-fried fish in a yellow spicy sauce, introduces something less familiar to Melbourne.

Meals are served in the tradition of makan tengah, where dishes arrive together and are shared across the table, rather than following an entree-main-dessert sequence. Eating becomes a reason to gather. At Kenangan Kecil, the focus is on affordable, single-serve dishes and quick visits.

Drawing on the interiors of the owners’ grandparents’ homes, the new restaurant features woven-straw detailing overhead and mosaic-style tiles in muted green-grey tones underfoot. “Everything was crafted in Indonesia as a celebration of the craftsmanship and talent behind Kenangan,” says Sutjiutama.

400 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne, kenangan.com.au

Roemah

Roemah showcases Indonesia’s own cafe culture, embodied by the country’s kopitiams: traditional cafes centred on coffee, light meals and South-East Asian sweets.

“There has been an oversaturation of European-style cafes in Melbourne,” says Ray Winarto, who opened the South Melbourne venue last October alongside his wife, Cindy Lomo.

A kopitiam typically serves kue basah, moist steamed cakes, in place of European pastries. Coffee is brewed through a cloth filter and served with condensed milk, and the menu will cover simple street-food dishes.

At Roemah, the aim is not to replicate but to adapt the kopitiam to a Melbourne setting. Familiarity and comfort remain; presentation, ingredients and technique are tweaked.

The menu moves between recognisable staples and updated classics. Rendang is made with beef cheek that’s slow-cooked and further tenderised using sous-vide cooking; while a drink of kopi santan Blora reimagines coconut coffee with a creamier flair, finished with a toasted coconut rim.

153 Dorcas Street, South Melbourne, roemah.com.au

Ulam Rasa

If makan tengah is a social way of eating where the meal unfolds collectively across the table, makanan rumahan sits closer to the home itself: the quiet familiarity of everyday dishes cooked and eaten in domestic settings.

“We wanted to serve food that people crave on a regular basis,” explain couple and business partners Jessica Christyanti Sinaga and Tonino Kundjung. They opened Ulam Rasa in the heart of Melbourne in February with a menu geared to repeat visits.

“We’d rather be the restaurant people visit every week than the restaurant they visit once for a special occasion.”

A handful of dishes has quickly become signatures.

Nasi ayam kaldu, galangal-spiced fried chicken with rice, leads the way. Served with rich chicken jus, galangal crumbs and sambal on the side, it’s designed to be mixed at the table.

Regulars also return for nasi jukut, savoury watercress rice paired with a barendo egg – omelette puffed in hot oil until golden and crunchy at the edges. Cireng, the fried tapioca fritters with sweet-spicy tamarind sauce, offer a snack-sized entry point.

295 Exhibition Street, Melbourne CBD, ulamrasa.com.au​