On her third night here, I took my cousin here for dinner and I told her not to order from the Indian menu, not that what they serve here is not good…but she can get those stuff very easily in Kuching (there are a lot more Indians and a lot more Indian eateries there) and they’re more or less the same, all nice.
In the end, she had this fish dish from their Indonesian menu…
…and according to the waiter, they get their fish fresh from the market in the morning and marinate it through the day.
My cousin enjoyed that – one just can’t go wrong with fish, deep-fried, as long as it is fresh…and she asked for extra tempeh and her request was duly granted…
I think normally, they would just give one slice of that only. She did comment that their sambal was not hot at all though so I guess anybody dropping by there for this should ask for extra spicy, if they are thus inclined.
I thought my missus would order their seafood curry that she loved so much the last time we were here but instead, she asked for the kalio chicken…
…and was disappointed to find it a little too salty for her liking.
I ordered this dendeng dish…
…to try – I did not know what that was and expected something like our Malaysian beef rendang. According to Wikipedia, “dendeng is thinly sliced dried meat in Indonesian cuisine. It is preserved through a mixture of sugar and spices and dried through frying process.” No wonder! The meat certainly was dry and hard and definitely not to my liking. I don’t think I would want to order that again the next time I drop by the place.
I asked for their gado-gado as well…
…as we had never had that here before but unfortunately, it got the thumbs down all round. The peanut sauce was dark, obviously burnt…and there was so little of it. The keropok (prawn cracker) was limp and of course, we did not like it, considering that usually, we would get our own that would be a whole lot better than this, being homemade and made-to-order…and other than that, I did think that they could slice the raw cabbage a little bit more thinly and give less of that – there was a bit too much and there wasn’t enough sauce to toss it all with…
All in all, I did not think dinner was all that great – we had had better before and if we had known that would be the case, we would have come here instead for some of their other nice dishes that we did not order the first night my cousin was in town. That night, we adjourned there for dessert and my cousin and missus had their jelly pisang…
…while I had their kahlua ice cream…
…and of course, we enjoyed them to the max…and that certainly made up for the not-that-great dinner which we had had earlier that evening.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
yet to have a good indo food over here in KL or anywhere in Msia… even the best one here still lose out to the mediocre one over there… Their dendeng and gado gado are good!
Of course lah!!! Want to eat kampua, must come to Sibu – anywhere else, 2nd class one…not as nice.
The kalio here is usually very good, all the times we had it before – except this time, it was too salty. The fish was good too…just the dendeng – maybe it is like that and it’s not something I like. Like Sibu dianpianngu’s not my favourite. Hey!!! You did not try that that time you came hor… High time you all come again lor!!!!
Fresh catch of the day is always good, the ice cream looks sinfully good either. We hardly find some nice gado-gado here in penang too
Used to have those at the salad bars at most KL hotels and elsewhere. It’s like our local rojak…and we do have pretty good ones around – the sauce that is…but not the one here – so dry and black/burnt. Our local ones could do with a lot better ingredients though, other than the fritters and bean sprouts and cucumber. 😦
ooo, this makes me crave indonesian … i don’t think i’ve had any indonesian dishes so far in 2014 😀
Haven’t tried any in KL. Used to love nasi padang in Singapore in the 70’s – Rendezvous…but it’s now a 5-star hotel, don’t dare to drop by, 5-star prices X 2.6 *faints* and I bet it is not as nice as before… *sour grapes mode*
The fried fish with rice looks good.. Like you said, nothing can go wrong with fried fish (with nice sambal to go with).. Oh thanks for explaining on what “dendeng” is, was about to ask when I saw the word “dendeng”, but you quickly explained it in your next paragraph..Jelly pisang? From the picture, it looks like banana with (red) agar-agar, topped with vanilla ice cream?
Oh no, it’s not agar agar – that’s a FAILed imitation at another cafe here. It’s jelly – cherry. Another place here uses strawberry and it is way too sour, not nice. Originally, it is served with bananas, sugar syrup, evaporated milk and shaved ice – here, they add vanilla ice cream instead of the ice – very nice, very compatible. Everyone who has tried loves it!
The fish is plated so prettily.
Yes, nice presentation…all the dishes here.
I like that deep fried fish. They put lots of kunyit? Cos the fish was pretty yellowish.
Nothing will go wrong having dinner at this place huh? I havent had the privilege to dine here. Haha. Seldom eat out at night but hope to drop by this outlet one day. Soon, I hope.
The Malays do it like that too – very nice, I like…and they give you one whole fish!!! It opens lunch time too so you can always drop by to try. Just skip the gado-gado…and I don’t know if the dendeng is something you would like – I didn’t. The kalio’s usually very good, just a bit too salty this time around.
From the photos, all look nice (maybe of the presentation) but sad to say most are not to your liking. At times, look can be deceiving. The deep fried fish looks cripsy and yummy.
I would not say most. Just the gado-gado, and the kalio was salty this time around – on all previous occasions when we had it, it was very nice. My cousin loved the fish. As for the dendeng, it’s not what I would enjoy – but I wouldn’t know unless I tried…and I did.
Did you always have ice cream for dessert if there’s ice cream in the menu?
Nope. My cousin wanted the jelly pisang – no good one in Kuching and the last time she came to Sibu, she did not get to try…so I took her for that after our dinner. Of course, she loved it!
All the foods, drinks and dessert looks good, except the gado gado, which the sauce, hmmm…
Yup, should be like nice peanut satay sauce…not so black. 😦
Wow … The fish must be very fresh !! I always love these fresh fish and it usually inky available near the river or seaside.
I had that at the ikan bakar stall at Red Garden in Penang and it was so so so expensive. After that, I just stuck to the ikan parek, the stingray – more affordable.
It seems like a lot of places in Sibu is starting to serve jelly pisang now…
The dessert is making quite a comeback! I know Cafe Cafe serves it, as well as Noodle House! Back when I was working in Sibu, only Tanahmas had it, and Payung a few years after they opened.
Not that I know of. There’s Tanahmas but they use strawberry, I think…as when I went to try, it was extremely sour – not nice at all…and CafeCafe uses agar-agar – that is so so so so wrong. Don’t think they have this at Noodle House. It was every teenager’s favourite at a coffee shop called Ban Chuan in the late 60’s & early 70’s – guess you were not born yet so you would not be familiar with the “real thing”. Like those people who have gone for the jelly pisang at the new CafeCafe outlet in Kuching – they thought it was nice…but people in the know would give it a double thumbs down.
wow, so generous with those extra tempeh!! so were they complimentary or with extra charges?? and desserts way nicer than the dishes, hehe, probably that was because they are “assembled” from readily available stuffs that need no cooking :p
Nope, they did not charge extra for the tempeh so that’s one up for them. These little gestures go a long way in keeping customers happy and getting them to come back again. The desserts were not from this same place.
mmmm…yummy jelly pisang….dont hve it here 😦
Can make your own – very easy actually…
uiks….why awaiting moderation punya geh the comment……since when start moderate comments?
Dunno. You logged in using a different computer or something?
Lookat the ice-cream…. so nice. And the flower decorations makes it look more tempting…
Ya…Payung no less. I love their decor – so simple, yet so pleasant to the eye.
Too bad the food was not up to mark, The gado-gado didn’t look like gado-gado at all! I have eaten dendeng before and it is actually very nice, not hard at all.
Probably over-fried till hard and not palatable at all. I know the Chinese chu-char places, they would deep fry the meat first to seal the juices and the sweetness inside. Yup, the gado-gado was a disappointment – definitely will not order it again.
The ice cream looks awesome!!! Need that to cool down!
Still hot and dry there, poor things! Hope the weather improves soon…
wow…your cousin enjoyed her tempeh. I never like it but it is one of my mum’s favourite.
It’s very nice if it’s nicely fried – not overdone. I am not a fan of that in sambal though.
Yep, deep fried or steam, fish is always my favorite! But also must depends on whether it’s fresh or not…
Of course. What is nice if it is not fresh?
It’s so hot here now the dessert makes me drool! I’ll kill for ice-cream right now! >_<
Grab one tub from the nearest supermarket! And KL’s so nice…has HD, BR and all….Slurpssssss!!!!!
Hmmm..like what my mum said, sometimes the food here is ok, sometime not. Depends on the cook’s mood. Hahahhaha
I want Jelly pisang ice cream!!
We’ll go to Payung for that when you come back, that’s for sure… 😉 Ya, like the kalio was too salty! The dendeng, dunno lah…maybe it is supposed to be like that or the chef over-fried the meat – not really tasty, anyway…so I don’t think I would want to order that again…but the gado-gado is definitely out! Never again.
DESSERTS!! They look so tempting… I want!! With this hot weather now, ice cream is the most welcoming sight!
Hot and dry there hor? And hazy too…poor things!
i want to join in
Come on over, always welcome!
So nice to see the Tempeh! 🙂 Even those I don’t consume…the dessert looks great! 🙂
I guess you can’t have those as well as ice cream is dairy?
Just love the look of the deep fried fish and tempeh (must go with sambal, for me). And desserts very tempting! Jelly pisang? Interesting.
Make your own, not difficult…but you need crushed ice if you want to make the original. Ice cream is good too.