I’ve wanted to come here for ages but it was always closed when I was out. I heard the food is good and they serve both Indonesian and Indian cuisine – thus Cafe Ind. My good friend Arthur came over and dropped off some of his muesli cookies…
(which I’ve almost finished, eating them as a midnight snack)
…and we headed out to check out the curiously named Cafe Ind(dehouse).
Nasi Pecel (RM 14)
Nasi pecel is one of the unique Javanese rice served with pecel (cooked vegetables with the classic Javanese spicy peanut sauce) and warm plain rice (nasi putih). It tastes best when eaten with fried tempeh and the traditional cracker called peyek. In reality pecel has a lot of versions and ours has it’s own uniqueness. It’s served with chicken satay on a lemongrass stick and herbal boiled egg.
I got that from the menu liner notes and it doesn’t leave much to the imagination. It’s a really good dish where every single one of the sides tastes good. Arthur ordered this one and I tasted the tempeh, which I didn’t think was tempeh at first.
It’s not deep fried but cooked so flavourful that it made a convert out of me. I like the way they skew the chicken stay onto lemongrass stalks too!
Nasi Tumpeng (RM 15)
Nasi Tumpeng is traditional Indonesian rice platter served during special events such as birthdays, weddings, or any other occasions. It’s somewhat a Nasi Lemak for big occasions. Our aromatic rice, served on a bed of banana leaf, is complemented by several different which varies daily. You have the honor to have the Tumpeng as the mark of an achievement!
That semi-garbled bit of liner note in the menu describes my dish perfectly. It’s santan (coconut milk) rice with with a nice hat made of banana leaf on top – cute! 🙂
There’s a side of kangkung, which goes very well with the peanut sauce from Arthur’s Nasi Pecel. The chicken kurma is superb too! Choice, tender cuts in a flavorful and creamy curry. I also like their spicy beef and the otak otak that’s made in-house.
Indian Ginger Tea (RM 6)
This is an iced ginger tea which is rather diluted from the vast amount of ice they put inside. It would have been much better if it had been thicker.
Butter Curry Chicken (RM 14)
This is something we ordered from the Indian menu. They have three menus – one for Indonesian food (which is what we had for mains), one for Indian food, and one for beverages. There are three (3) pieces of chicken inside, including a drum. I thought it was delicious!
We also went to the new Payung Mahkota and had the Mulu Ice Cream. It’s the best ice cream I’ve had in Sibu! Very complex textures with the cake, ice cream and muesli sprinkled on top. I said this would be national level ice cream – it’ll be great even in KL! One of the best ice creams I’ve ever had. It’s hands down the best dessert on their menu.
The liqueur ice cream is pretty good too. There’s Kahlua and Blue Curacao. The former needs to introduction, being the most popular coffee liqueur around but if you’re not familiar with the latter, it’s used in cocktails for it’s blue color. The refinishing citrus taste from Blue Curacao comes from the laraha fruit, which is a predecessor to Valencia oranges.
The orange juice I drink back when I was studying in Melbourne uses Valencia orange concentrate around winter if they have a severe shortage of Australian oranges – it’s 100% orange juice squeezed daily otherwise and they’ll tell you when it’s not by stating it on the label – a very transparent move I love in Australian products.
Dinner at The Cafe Ind is great! I had a lot of fun talking to Arthur about everything. Thanks for getting the desserts! 🙂
I like the service there – the waitresses are knowledgeable, speaks English and will take the initiative to ask if there’s something they don’t know (which a lot of Sibu and KL restaurants don’t do).
I asked her about the tempeh, which doesn’t seem like the usual deep fried ones I’ve had. This is much better.
The Cafe Ind charges for water though – RM 2 for a glass of RO water and RM 4.50 for mineral water. However, the meals are very reasonably priced and dinner came up to a little over RM 55 for the both of us. I love the ambiance too, Cafe Ind would be perfect if they turned off the flashing lights and pop music.
You have the honor to have the Tumpeng as the mark of an achievement! 
*nudge STP* i wanna try this ar when i’m there! ehehehehehe
Haha! Yup, I’ve been meaning to go to Cafe Ind for a while and their food did not disappoint! 🙂
It’s really good – we ordered from the Indonesian menu and had a shared dish from the Indian menu,
I like how you can customize the spiciness too – just tell the waitress.
Cheers Constance!
I had a really great time, Huai Bin, and a wonderful dinner, thank you so much. Most welcome to the muesli cookies and desserts – always my pleasure. Yup…I get put off when they want to charge for water – 50 sen at Noodle House…and Payung too but for me, at the latter, it’s free – all the water I would like to drink. Hehehehehe!!!!
P.S. No worries, Ant! I’ll take you wherever you want to go.
Likewise buddy! 🙂
Always good to catch up with you. I love the muesli cookies, I’m eating the last of it now. HAHAHA
I’ve been nibbling away at it every single night, I just took the photo when I was writing this! My mom also took some to bring to Singapore too, so I was left with 3/4 of the container. It’s really good!
Yup, lots of restaurants don’t charge for water and make up for it from the menu instead, which I think is the right way to go about things since I always order a drink anyway.
See you for dinner tonight! 😀
Oops! My comment is awaiting moderation again. Your blog doesn’t like me… Sobsss!!!! LOL!!! 😀
Oops! It’s an Akismet problem, happens when there’s a hiccup in my server.
I’ve switched to a higher capacity package though so it shouldn’t happen anymore.
Cheers buddy! 😀
Arthur really gave you the cookies! !! Why didnt he send me one too?? I am so jealous now!
Mulu ice cream has made me drool so many times!
Keep drooling, TM! Hehehehehe!!!!
Good stuff, those muesli cookies! 😀
Haha! Yeah, he was kind enough to give me a container since I was quite taken by the cookies when I visited him during Chinese New Year. 🙂
Mulu ice cream is wonderful! It’s the cake + ice cream combo with a healthy sprinkling of muesli with all the trimmings (raisins, sultanas, nuts) on top to give it a very interesting texture.
I loved the liqueur ice creams too – the Kahlua is done well, they put a healthy shot into it and the coffee liqueur just dribbles into the cracks. 😀
In Sibu? 🙁 Tapao pls.
Yeah, this is in Sibu. 🙂
Tapau which one? Mulu ice cream would be impossible, it’ll melt before it gets there.
I’ve eaten the cookies, the food can be tapau-ed though.
Cheers June! 😀
HB, I only know how to order basic Indian food like Butter Chicken and Tiki Masala and Nann. Most Indian restaurants in San Francisco are run by Pakistan owners but food still very good. I do visit a Indian ice cream shop in the city at time interesting flavors.
Interesting! They’re run by Pakistanis?
Indian food and Pakistani food (which is Muslim) is quite different with different dietary requirements (e.g. no pork for the latter but okay for the former, no beef for the former but okay for the latter).
Indian ice cream sounds good. 🙂
hungry~ >.<~
It’s good stuff mate! 🙂
this mulu ice cream is becoming legendary, thanks to fans like you and arthur! the day it arrives in KL (hopefully some enterprising cafe will offer a version here sometime!), i’ll be ordering it (and enjoying it very much, i’m sure) 😀
Cheers Sean!
Or you can always come to Sibu, buddy! 🙂
The Mulu ice cream is really good!
Did you guys booked the whole restaurant? I can only see you both! + the waitress.hahah
Haha!
Most people sit outside at the al fresco area so they can smoke.
We smoke too (not during meals though, but after) and so prefer the inside of the restaurant. 🙂
I think the tempe on the pecel is ‘tempe bacem’ (normally suits a pecel perfectly). Very yummy and flavourful indeed =9
Tempe bacem?
I Googled and it does look like that! It’s very, very flavorful indeed, not like regular deep fried tempeh (which is next to tasteless). I really liked it.
Thanks for the information Amelia! 🙂
so nice of you two to be able to hang out together when in Sibu. And this cafe certainly looks like a good place to indulge in spicy food.
Yeah, it’s always fun to have dinner or lunch with Arthur! 🙂
The food isn’t really spicy but you can request for that if you want a spicier dish!
That’s the best thing about this place – good Indian and Indonesian food.