• In a recent post, I raved about the riverside Indonesian BBQ stall in Plaza Singapura. This is a stall I have been patronising for 5 to 6 years and I swear to god they have the best grilled chicken anywhere!
After learning that the riverside Indonesian restaurant opposite Clarke Quay (right beside Café Iguana) has a direct affiliation, it scored the top spot on my list of “restaurants to check out”.
I went there for the first time recently and found that the restaurant serves very similar food to its smaller counterpart, except with much wider variety. Besides selling ala carte items, they also combine different kinds of grilled food into combo sets, including their bestselling grilled chicken, calamari, snapper fish, prawn, stingray, etc.
S$38 + $3 (to swap fish for stingray)++
Rating:
We wanted a combination with grilled chicken, satay and stingray. So we went for their $38 combo set with snapper fish, grilled chicken, satay and calamari, and added $3 to swap the fish for sambal stingray.
Even though we realised that what we ordered was a 2-to-4-person share, it didn’t prepare us for the large amount of food that came eventually. That plate was huge! Seeing all our favourite food spread over the entire plate was an utter joy! I was in awe!
Let’s go over each individual food item in there, shall we?
Rating:
I loved the stingray, especially since it was caked in a very thick and sumptuous layer of sambal chilli. Firstly, the stingray was very fresh with really tender flesh! More importantly, the sambal chilli was deeelicious! Sure, this was no rong guang stingray, but for a place that doesn’t exactly specialise in stingray, I thought they did a good job.
Actually I would have preferred the sambal chilli to be spicier, but I guess they do have to cater to the tourists that frequently patronise the restaurant in large groups.
Rating:
Our combo included two large grilled chicken drumsticks. I had very high hopes for the chicken due to the fact that I have never been disappointed by the one from its Plaza Singapura stall.
Gotta say that I was slightly disappointed. The restaurant’s version of the grilled chicken wasn’t as good, largely because the chicken had not been grilled thorough enough. Also, not enough of the wonderfully sweet black sauce was used! That sauce is what makes the grilled chicken a hot favourite with customers!
Rating:
The same black sauce is used for the grilled calamari. People who like the grilled chicken would generally have a liking for the calamari as well. It was okay for me, except that I found the calamari to be a tad chewy.
Rating:
Six sticks of satay were included in the platter – three each of mutton and chicken. I only eat chicken and I thought the chicken satay was pretty decent. The meat was tender enough, but the peanut gravy was a little watered down. (whoa, I am becoming more of a food critic than a food reviewer, aren’t i?)
This little pink flower was a nice touch to an overall very well presented food platter; we spent a good five minutes taking pictures before we actually tucked in! Still, despite how impressive it looked at the start, I thought it didn’t exactly deliver. This is not to say that the food wasn’t good; I simply wasn’t blown away!
Also, the riverside Indonesian restaurant is one hell of a tourist magnet! No wonder that prices here aren’t exactly cheap, especially since they also charge a lot of ‘extras’ in the bill. For example, the keropok (prawn crackers) cost an additional $2. The rice cost $1 per person. The wet paper towels were 30 cents each.
It is not that I mind paying for these things. But I know I would feel much better if restaurants could be more open and forthcoming about any extra charges that customers would incur, rather than have us find out for ourselves only after we have already been charged for it.
When it comes to dining, this is one of those things about a restaurant that would annoy me, along with the ones that simply refuse to serve water.
30 Merchant Road
#01-04 Riverside Point
Singapore 058282
Tel: +65 6535 0383
Service:
May 17, 2007
2
hey.. u should try the tauhu goreng there.. its a little spicy and a little sweet but a serious fav of mine..
May 17, 2007
3472
Thanks! I’ll keep this in mind.
May 17, 2007
3
did you eat up the flower. i used to enjoy them when i was a kid…hahaa
May 17, 2007
3472
Hahaha no we left the flower alone. I do remember eating those flowers (found on cakes) when I was little.
May 17, 2007
1
Ha. i’ll give it a try someday after school!
May 18, 2007
3472
I hope you get to try the stall at Plaza Singapura Kopitiam!
May 18, 2007
3
Mmmm… i love stringray.
May 18, 2007
5
Would have loved to have eaten here. :D Love indo bbq chicken…
May 18, 2007
5
When u going again? :D
May 18, 2007
3472
Maybe not the riverside restaurant, but I go to the stall at Plaza Singapura all the time!
May 19, 2007
27
Wow! My mouth’s watering. You don’t get all these nice food over here in China :( Though they do serve tea and water at all restaurants automatically.
May 24, 2007
6
looks great! must try next time when im in that area. :)
Nov 13, 2007
1
i’m doing a project about indonesian food now. I need help about indonesian food names. May someone give ideas of it,please!!!
Nov 22, 2007
27
Patronized this restaurant a few hours ago (had a class dinner and my friend chose this restaurant) and then remembered that you had an entry about it so here I am again. :)
I didn’t know they charge for the rice and paper towels! My friends and I only knew about the Keropok.
And I totally agree about the black sauce (or lack of it).
Dec 24, 2007
1
its a nice restuarant…i love to eat that flower thing..food is nice and tasty pls go try it out !!!! 5 stars rating….
Aug 3, 2009
1
Hey does anyone know whether they are closed for good and not reopening elsewhere?
Nov 25, 2011
1
They are closed for good , however they have a food court version in Plaza Singapura Food court