Indonesian Restaurant 1968 salty and expensive

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  1. #1

    Thumbs down Indonesian Restaurant 1968 salty and expensive

    I wanted to convince some local colleagues that Indonesian food is delicious, so I took them to Indonesian Restaurant 1968 today for lunch.
    Disasterous! We ordered the yellow rice nasi campur, some prawn perkedel and some chicken satay.
    Perkedel: This is usually a dish made with potato, usually with beef in the middle, but the people I took wanted prawn. It was just three salty fried prawn fishballs, a little bigger but definitely NOT perkedel.
    The satay was passable, but the peanut sauce was extra salty.
    The nasi campur had three or four large black lumps of heavily stewed meat. I make rendang myself and the trick is to slow cook it but not stew it. It was ghastly and salty as well. teh yellow rice was served in a cone in the middle of the plate and was tilting in a rubbery mass. Not light and fluffy as it should be.
    The whole thing cost $540 for three people. the decor was quite nice and I wanted to impress. Gosh I should have taken them to the warung where we could have eaten superb Indonesian nasi campur for $35 a plate, but the setting there is a bit basic and as i said I wanted to impress.
    I feel ripped off and embarrassed. On the way out I did politely mention the saltiness and the response "see you next time".
    The food has been " Chinesified" and does not even remotely resemble Indonesian food. I have been to this place several times before. It was ok the first time, and not so good the other two times but today has ended my desire to ever enter that joint again. embarassing!


  2. #2

    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    Hong Kong
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    23,181

    You wanted to impress so you took them to a place where of three previous visits one had made it to OK and two were "not so good"? Seems to me like a pretty stupid thing to do...

    And then you signed up especially to tell us?

    It all sounds a bit unlikely to me.


  3. #3

    I wanted a place with nice seating and more of a restaurant feel whereas the really good place is just a warung. (with great food).


  4. #4

    Join Date
    Jun 2006
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    2,160
    Quote Originally Posted by jennimhk:
    I wanted to convince some local colleagues that Indonesian food is delicious
    Here's the problem

  5. #5

    Join Date
    Dec 2004
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    Where's the warung?


  6. #6

    Join Date
    Oct 2006
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    4,869

    I've never liked 1968 although it's quite convenient. If you want a nicer setting with better food, I'd recommend Bebek Bengil in Wanchai.