Ria Ayam Penyet — Restaurant in Victoria Park

3.5 stars Venue: free parking in the opposite shopping mall. Open and close the heavy sliding door by hand. Very causal setting. Indonesian background music. Menu, prepacked food, and utensils are placed on the large front desk. --- 6 /10 Service: waited to be seated. It's not rush hour (2pm weekday), but almost no interaction with staff afterward. We saw QR code on each table, so we ordered and paid via QR code. Later, we discovered that we could order and pay at the front. All staff always stayed in the kitchen. They didn't take the order immediately as we ordered via QR code. But still served food fast after they had received the order slips. Self-service tap water beside the cashier. Get all utensilsandserveitte at the front desk. --- 6/10 Food: hard menu with big photos. QR code menu has more options of sauces. Standard presentation but using plastic containers for sauces. Normal portion, but order rice separately. The prices of Penyet always include rice in other restaurants inPerth. Price on high side for such environment and service. Total price = Food price + card surcharge + GST. All penyet are served with salad, deep-fried tofu, Tempeh, spiced crumbs, and a sauce. Not include rice ($2.9). Ayam Penyet, $15.9: 4 free options of sauces. I picked Sambal Ljo (green chili)- mild spicy, but it's pretty spicy. Deep-fried chicken leg had crispy skin and moist inside --- 7.3/10 Iga Penyet, $19.9, we picked Peanut sauce (not spicy). Lean 3 chunks of beef rib. Slightly chewy. --- 7/10 Es Milo Dino, , $5.9: compare to other shops, not enough Milo powder on the top. Unable to cover the surface --- 6.3/10 Es Cincau, $6.9: not bad in flavor. Too much...

Review for Ria Ayam Penyet Perth - Empal Dish:

I recently visited Ria Ayam Penyet in Perth and decided to try their Empal dish. Unfortunately, my experience left much to be desired. Here's my honest review:

1. Extra Long Wait: One of the first things that struck me was the long wait time. Despite arriving during what seemed like a relatively quiet period, it took quite a while (45+ minutes) for our order to arrive at the table.

2. Small Portion: When the Empal dish finally arrived, I was disappointed by the small portion size. It seemed rather meager (3 slices of meat) compared to what I had expected, especially considering the price I paid for it. I understand that portion sizes can vary, but this was noticeably less generous compared to other similar restaurants.

3. Quality of the Meat: The biggest disappointment was the quality of the meat in the Empal dish. It was too dry, thus making it hard, not a true culinary representation of the famous Indonesian empal dish.

4. Unreasonable Price: Lastly, I found the price of the Empal dish to be quite unreasonable ($17.90) when compared to other restaurants offering similar cuisine.

Rice is not included with the dish. For that, you need to fork out...

Amazing and authentic Indonesian foods. The sambal will knock your socks off. So just be careful with how you use it, I’d suggest skipping it completely if you can’t handle hot food well and opt for kecap manis instead.

We had the Ayam Goreng Penyet, Iga Bakar and Sayur Asem. All are delicious and tasted as authentic as it can get in Perth. Chicken moist and tender, beef are well marinated, soup is packed full of flavour. The sambal is the hero star of these main dishes though. So it may not make sense if you don’t enjoy chilli.

Prices can be considered a bit high for asian food but it’s acceptable considering the place. It doesn’t feel cheap or rundown like some asian restaurants can be. Menu and decor are well thought. So the higher price makes sense. Also, I think it’s about time Indonesian food gets the recognition it deserves. And this place has done it justice.

I’d love to see some alcohol being served hopefully at some point. Would be pretty great to have some Bintang to accompany these dishes!

EDIT: returned recently to try their other dishes. The batagor is amazing! Ayam bakar not too bad, but I think they have adjusted the heat in their sambal. Not as spicy as I...