Pinangsia is an area in West Jakarta in Indonesia. It sounds more like the name of an exotic bird to me. I’d heard that Pinangsia Noodle House has some rather strange opening hours, just Wednesday and the weekends. I thought surely not, how on earth can they remain competitive with hours like that? So I rang them on a Wednesday night and sure enough, they’re open Wednesday and the weekends but with Friday throw in as well. I ask the friendly voice on the other end whether it’s cash only or credit card and she says that it’s cash only. “Our meals are usually $7 to $8 so they wouldn’t meet the credit card minimum anyway!”. Being on Anzac Parade, Kingsford, it caters for Indonesian students from the nearby UNSW as well as the occasional food loving non Indonesian.
Walking in, we see that there is a large central share table as well as side tables seating 4. There’s a self serve fridge of drinks and a section with help yourself condiments and water. There are small gold framed pictures of the dishes high up on the wall and of course, tissues boxes on every table to serve as napkins. It’s about half full at 7pm this Wednesday night and we choose a table and sit down. Our menus are quickly brought to us, with 2 pages of pictures and the rest in Indonesian with English translations underneath. It’s a little confusing but I am guided by the helpful “thumbs up” icon designating which dishes are recommended.
We order the Mie Ayam karet thick (or thin) chicken egg noodles with meatball soup (or fishball) $8, the Ayam Goreng Bumbu Bali (grilled chicken Bali style) $7.50 and 2 fried meatballs ($1.60 each). They ask us whether we want white or dark meat and while I usually like white meat, dark meat is much more moist so we choose dark as I find that chicken can sometimes be dry in Indonesian cuisine. We also order a Murtabak to share with the peanut, chocolate and cheese filling ($5.80).
Mie Ayam Karet thick (or thin) chicken egg noodles with meatball soup (or fishball) $8
Before we even know it, that is, 2 minutes later, our Mie Ayam Karet arrives. We are stunned. It’s so quick! We dig in hoping that we haven’t gotten someone else’s dish or last minute change. The noodles are thick and toothsome with a light soy brown sugar stock sauce.
There is a tumble of diced chicken thigh and mushrooms on top with some chinese greens and spring onions. It’s good in a soft comforting way, the kind of food your mum might have cooked for you at home (well if she were a good cook of course).
Meatball soup (part of the Mie Ayam Karet)
The meatball soup has two grey meatballs floating on top of the pool of clear chicken broth. The chinese vegetables are still slightly crispy and the soup is warming and home cooking good although not particularly wowing.
Meatballs (Bakso Goreng) $1.60 each
Whilst we are eating this, the two enormous softball sized deep fried meatballs arrive. They’re rather impressive looking specimens and we can’t wait to tuck into these. They’re not hot, just slightly warm and the outside texture is unusual and a little resistant to the fork, much like Yum Cha’s Ham Sui Gok.
Meatballs cut open
Inside is an unusual texture, it’s more like a meat paste that doesn’t fully fill the orb which makes this seem lighter. It’s a Yes! Yes! and Yes! for me, especially with some sweet chili sauce or chili sauce provided and an absolute steal at $1.60 each.
Our Ayam Goreng Bumbu Bali (grilled chicken Bali style) $7.50
Our Ayam Goreng Bumbu Bali (grilled chicken Bali style) $7.50 arrives with a smattering of fried onion on top with an accompanying plate of rice. it’s not particularly photogenic but one bite into the soft, melt in the mouth chicken and all doubts about the appearance disappear. There is satay and chili sauce which make this beautifully fragrant chicken, even more delicious. It’s fantastic and I thoroughly agree with the thumbs up on this one.
Mixed Murtabak with peanuts, chocolate and cheese $5.80
Our murtabak arrives, warm to the touch and it’s enormous. There are 6 thick hunkering pieces of the dessert and I can only fit in one which leave five fat pieces for my husband. It’s like a cross between a pancake and a crumpet, although more like a crumpet, filled with sweet chopped peanuts and chocolate and a slight tinge of saltiness via the melted cheese. It’s actually pretty tasty despite the somewhat confused sounding filling combination. It is also extremely filling and I think I would opt for a single flavour next time. We look up and it’s 7.35pm. It has only taken us 35 minutes to eat our meals and it is now filling up rapidly. Indeed as we leave we see several people outside waiting to get in and as soon as we leave our table, our space is quickly snatched up. I can’t help but imagine that it would still be the same if they opened every day of the week.
Pinangsia Noodle House
319 Anzac Parade Kingsford
Tel: +61 (02) 9697 0788
Open Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday 11:00am-9.30pm
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17 Comments | Add your own
I’ve never tried the food here but I’m always walking past it! (Ahh, unilife…)
It’s puzzling as to why it would only be open on Wed/Fri/Sat/Sun. I’m usually at uni 7 days a week so I’m going to pencil a date into my diary for the coming Friday! The chicken dishes look far too good to pass up! (And at such a steal, too!)
The
NQN, it’s Mie Ayam Karet (karet = gum) meaning a chewy chicken noodle.
While karat meaning rust or thing that rusty like a rusty steel.
I heard that restaurant are family business, that’s why it’s the only family members who are cooking these. If they employ more people, their traditional family recipe may be stolen and another people may open similiar restaurant nearby.
Nevertheless, it’s actually easy to cook these chicken, just fry blended garlic, pepper and salt until a bit yellow and smell nicely, then put these diced chicken in, pour some sweet soy sauce (Bango brand is better than ABC), pour some chicken soup and wait till it’s a bit thicken sauce, then it’s done.
The sweet soy sauce is really delicious and you may want to try put a bit in fried rice cooking or in marinade for BBQ. It’s made with palm sugar and soy bean.
The noodle is home-made and may be replaced with other ordinary noodle such as Ayam Brand (sold as a dry one) or other wet noodle that you like as long as it’s not these thin chinese egg noodle sold in refrigerator (it’s bad flavour to me).
The soup is the hard one, has to cook these chicken bones in boiled water and cook in small heat after boiled for at least 4 hours, add ginger for a bit hit plus salt and white pepper. A rich chicken soup may be thicken almost look like jelly if you store them in a refrigerator over night, but it’s depend whether you like the rich or just mid one.
You may want to try these soft Pempek and savoury martabak in Pempek Clovelly, it is relocated to Kingsford, close to UNSW and Peter of Kensington. (198 Anzac Parade, Kensington, 9697 0009)
Their sweet martabak is good as well, however some of my friends like sweet martabak next to Pinangsia (the Indonesian one with blue sign, I forgot the shop’s name)
Oh, I will upload these ginger tea box (Jahe Wangi by Intra brand, not sariwangi, sorry about previous wrong brand)picture tomorrow after I’m going to buy some frozen peanut ball tomorrow. Just wait.
Hi M-Yes it’s so hard with so many choices, especially in that block. But I’d definitely recommend this as one of the best there. The chicken and those big meatballs were delicious! Let me know what you think
Hi Lilia-LOL well it’s amazing what a difference one letter can make. I shall correct it before I mislead anyone.
Thanks for letting me know about how to cook the chicken and that Bango sweet soy sauce is better than ABC (which is what I had and have almost finished so I’ll replace it with Bango).
That’s so funny you mentioned Pempek Clovelly, we went there recently (have yet to publish the story). The Pempek there were great.
I have bought a box of the Jahe Wangi, thanks for letting me know about it. It’s great, so many bags of spicy hot ginger tea in the box and just perfect for winter
i particularly like the look of those meatballs–they’re quite unique to behold! the murtabak sounds interesting as well, and you’re right–that’s a peculiar combination of ingredients. eh, i’d eat it.
I love murtabak! I can’t wait to go back to Indonesia next week and eat a lot of murtabak. I also prefer single flavour rather than mixed. My favourite is cheese =].
Hi grace-They’re quite unusual-quite big (baseball sized) and quite hollow, light and crispy. Not really like your usual meatball. I will try almost anything once even salty sweet murtabak
Hi Lucy-Is it very easy to get Murtabak in Indonesia? I think I’d like cheese the best too
Murtabak in Indonesia is like Kebab in Sydney, it’s our late night snack. Yes, cheese is the best! I always ask for extra cheese it’s worth the calories!
Hi Lucy-Ahhh ok, it makes sense. Lots of carbs to soak up any alcohol! Extra cheese is always a good thing I agree.
We were wondering where to go for dinner last Saturday night and i read this minutes before we left. The food was yummy and we can’t wait to go back for round two!
Hi Genvieve-Oh that’s great to hear! I’m so glad that you liked it and liked it enough to want to go back. I’d love one of those meatballs…
I had assumed the pictures on the wall were flowers actually! Then you mentioned them being food photo’s and I did a double-take!
You made a point about Indonesian breast chicken dishes being dry. I’ve not eaten out at many Indonesian places at all in my life, but I do have an Indonesian friend/acquaintance. I have eaten chicken and noodles three times at least at her place and yes, the breast is always dry. I always thought it was just lack of cooking skills on her part?
What a bargain priced dinner you had and it all looked so nice!
I’d never heard of ‘Murtabak’ either.. so you have been educating me 
Hi Maria-They do look rather flower like from a distance as they’re rather small (and high up!).
I’m not sure why that is, I always find chicken a bit overcooked. Maybe it’s a health & safety thing to ensure that no-one gets sick.
I’d always seen signs for mutabak when I went on holidays but never knew what it actually was!
First time i go everything is good but last week i go with my friend after that make me sick because the food not really cook
Hi hendra-Oh well I think that if it isn’t cooked properly, then you should certainly call the kitchen’s attention to that!
BEST Indonesian Noodle in Sydney Still “BUCK-ME” By Jellicoe Noodle in Mascot > http://www.jellicoenoodles.com 96672004
Go try their best bakso goreng and noodle.
Hi Harry-Thanks for the recommendation!
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