According to Yelp, an Indonesian restaurant called “Indo” has opened in the Castro.
Any mention of ethnic food in the Castro reminds me of food writer Jason Sheehan’s immortal dictum “if you’re going to bastardize a cuisine, it’s best to go someplace were no one knows the parents.”
However, there’s such a dearth of Indonesian cuisine in SF that perhaps we should thank heaven for small favors. Has any of you Castronomes checked it out?
Hoodline says that they are an offshoot of the Palo alto restaurant of the same name, and they only serve dinner for the time being. Is that place any good?
Ok to solid, dependent on what dishes you come across. @bbulkow indicated their relation to the original Straits on Geary.
The original Straits Cafe on Geary (where HK Lounge II is now) was decent and highly acclaimed when Chris Yeo, a Straits Chinese and former Haight-Ashbury hairdresser, was cooking his mother’s recipes. Then he fell in love with his own celebrity and started messing around with vertical cuisine, fusion, etc. and expanding (Palo Alto, The Pruneyard, Metreon, Burlingame, Houston, Atlanta, LA). I don’t know if any of his venues with the “Straits” name still exist.
As the name implies, Straits Cafe positioned itself as Singaporean, but to tell the truth I don’t know how to parse that mashup into Chinese, Indonesian and Malaysian elements, but that’s a story for another category.
I last went there a million years ago… wow.
In that area, when I’m in the mood for something a little less challenging than Da Sichuan’s crispy intestines, I go to Hunan Roots. It’s good for groups, has thoughtfully americanized dishes, it’s pleasant enough for palo alto.
