Anzac Parade, Kingsford is littered with student priced eateries ready to cater for the hordes of students from the nearby University of New South Wales. What it is light on, is a restaurant for the non student, the person whose budget could extend a little further. That’s where Ratu Sari fills a gap, an Indonesian restaurant that looks a bit spiffier than the utilitarian student dives (and please know, I use the term “dive” without malice, there is often great food to be had at these places).

We’ve booked for an early dinner as we are seeing Rose and Ronald off at the airport and need to be in and out fairly quickly. I wasn’t sure if I needed to book but I did a couple of days before for 6pm and even though we’ve arrived at 5.45am on this Saturday evening there are already 3 tables ordering or eating. We sit down and there are 4 waitstaffers rushing about bringing dishes and food from the kitchen. It’s hard to flag one down but where one doesn’t hear us, another hears and summons another to take our order. I ask for some recommendations and we end up ordering a Soto Ayam (Chicken soup $9.50), Prawns Kapitan ($18.90), Ayam Goreng Pemundi ($15.90) and Lontong Salad ($12.90). I can’t resist when I see the name of a drink, the Cherry Blossom drink so I order that too ($5). We let our waitress know that we need to make a flight so she assures us that she will let the kitchen know about this. She’s efficient, if not exactly stop and chat friendly.

Cherry Blossom drink $5

During the next 5-10 minutes, when it’s nearly 6pm, a surge of people arrive and the restaurant goes from having a few tables to becoming completely full with many large groups. The clientele is mixed and consist of larger groups of Non Indonesians to family groups of Indonesians and Chinese. During this time, my Cherry Blossom drink arrives with a layer of syrup at the bottom (raspberry rose flavoured but fairly hard to pin down), a layer of milk with milk ice shavings and then jelly-like basil seeds on top. It’s sweet and refreshingly good and everyone tries some and enjoys it.

Ayam Goreng Pemundi ($15.90)

Read More