Ayam Goreng 99 — Restaurant in Sydney

I had always gone this place when I crave Indonesian cuisine. And only now, after lockdown, I visted and did this review.

One of the authentic Indonesian restaurants you can get in Sydney. As the name of the place, Ayam Goreng meaning Fried Chicken, it is also one of its best sellers.

Ordered: • Plain Steamed Rice $3.50 Best having plain rice with the chicken, but if you like to explore to more rich flavours, go with the coconut rice (nasi uduk)

• Ayam Goreng Kalasan (Paha) $9 1/4 piece of Deep Fried Marinated Javanese Style Chicken Thigh

• Cah Kangkung $18 Stir-fry Onchoy (water spinach) with garlic, belachan (shrimp paste), onions and chilli This goes hand-in-hand with the chicken btw 😉 and the belachan makes it even tastier

• Soto Babat $16.50 Beef and Tripe Curry Soup with Tomato and Shallots It’s actually more like laksa-ish soup than curry-ish soup 🙃

All of them are tasty and delicious. The only downfall is, I wanted more, though the tummy didn’t agree. (The meal was shared amongst 2 persons.)

They have their own chilli sauce to go with your chicken. And you can buy them at the counter. Hint: try eating the chicken with the chilli sauce mixed with sweet soy sauce. It takes you to the next level 🤤

Note: • There is surcharge card fee about 1-1.5% (please check at the counter)

• Although water is ‘served’ in bottles, you can ask for free tea to the staffs (this used to be at the cutleries table next to the drink fridge). Please be considerate 🙂

• You can ask for the sweet soy sauce to the staffs too. And please be considerate...

Not going to lie, I had a hard time distinguishing Indonesian food from Malaysian food but after coming here it's all been sorted.

I think.

A friend has been telling me how good the Indonesian food was here and she brought me along so I could have my mind blown. My mind wasn't completely blown, but my sweat pores were cause this place is spicy, especially if you use their homemade sambal which they're apparently famous for.

This place is pretty packed and busy, which is a good sign. We came on a Thursday night around 7pm and we had to wait a bit to get seated, but it wasn't a long wait at all.

We ordered an Indonesian version of morning glory, the Javanese style fried chicken, and the chicken satay. The morning glory was what you'd expect, a simple and tasty dish with a bit of a kick to it (thanks, Indonesia.) The Javanese style fried chicken was really good, not too dry and crispy with a sweetness to it. Paired with the sambal it was pretty tasty. The chicken satay however, was AWESOME. The peanut sauce as well as the other two sauces I don't remember was damn didlly icious. One of the best satays I've ever hard.

Worth a visit for some authentic Indonesian food, even if you need to...

If you're eating for the sake of eating good food, and not for the sake of the hype, don't bother going here.

This place is definitely WAY overrated and undeserving of all the praise it gets. The food was mediocre at best (I'm Indonesian, so I know what good Indonesian food should taste like), and the service was terrible. The wait staff were inattentive and rude, and even tried taking our plates from us while we were still eating. Prices are unreasonably high for the portion sizes and quality of the food. We ordered the Ayam Goreng Mentega (Fried Chicken with Butter Sauce), which tasted more like Worcestershire Sauce than it did of butter. 80% of the chicken pieces we got weren't even chicken - they were chicken carcasses with the meat completely stripped off them. For $15 a portion, I certainly did not expect a dish filled with bones. For good Indonesian food, you'd be better off eating at Indo Rasa across the road. I went with two other people, both of which also agreed that the experience was terrible. Quite possibly the worst Indonesian restaurant in NSW. Definitely will not...