Bihun Bebek Asie — Restaurant in City of Medan

The legendary one, here we go! 🔥 curious for a years about this place and have a chance to visit Medan again. Also, many people would recommend me this place when i ask on my social media. Bihun Bebek Asie, the local said it was its 2nd generation from the family. Still, located near Chinatown around Kesawan.

Jump to the food, they only served “Bihun Bebek” in regular and large portion. Stopping by in a half-full condition isn’t the best time. You should be very hungry and craving for food when coming here. I really disappointed to myself for this one 😅 the regular portion is are quite much if you compare to the regular portion in Jakarta.

Next, the duck broth are SUPER! Very rich, bold, and full of flavour. The streets would never forget. The broth are free-refill so you can ask the waiter whenever need more. Shoutout to the broth game 🫵😎

The bihun or rice noodle, i’m not sure if they made it or buy from someone else, but the texture are quite the same with Bihun Kuah Aseng in Jalan Semarang. Or it is just a regular rice noodle recipes in Medan (?) soft and easy to chew are the perfect word to capture their rice noodle.

Coming to the duck, Indonesian might say; “Bebek dibihunin” rather than “Bihun dikasih bebek”, since they put a lot of duck meat on top of the bihun with sprinkle of onion leaves. The duck meat are chewy and juicy. Didn’t smell bad even when they only boiled it for a long time. It’s different compare to roast duck, boiled duck is very risk to smelly if you didn’t cook it right. They put the duck innards on top of the table which i didn’t touch at all, since i’m coming in a half-full condition 😅

Comin’ in the last day of my business trip at the end of their operating hours, lucky me still had a chance to taste their bihun bebek....

My one of or the worst experience dining in. I went out of the resto in angry mode: High expectation but the taste flopped for me. It was just ok.. or meh. Normal wait time seems tobe 30 minutes. (For a bowl of bihun, veggie & slice of duck meat, should hv been done lot faster) My waiting time is almost 1 hour 🤬. They skipped me and give the meal to a senior couple which suspectedly are friends of the cashier. (The big table of the couple was initially occupied by the cashier who i thought was a customer, in a very crowded morning). So i already finished my coffee milk for a long time while waiting in a hot, crowded, no air-conditioned room. The person who came right just before me has already finished and gone even before i called the serving lady. One of the serving lady was so ignorant. When i called out to her (the first that i managed to interact with), she just kept her distance from me while giving a hand gesture from away and said “sebentar ya pak” in a very annoying way, ver sounded like annoyed by my interruption & not interested to hear a word from me. Not a word. So i went to the other lady and complained. For all the experience, and at the end it was all 150K IDR for a bowl of just meh bihun bebek & a cup of a “just OK” coffee milk. The hype for this bihun bebek i assure you is not worth the wait, the trip(for you non-Medan resident like me), and not to mention the money. This is so overrated in many levels. And the cashier was the one giving the last big table to the couple that they skipped me for.

If this can be 0 star, i would...

No words can fairly describe the exquisite taste of bihun bebek Kumango, eating here is an experience you owe yourself if you visit Medan. First, the broth: a rich, thick soup brimming with flavor that must have taken hours upon hours to prepare. You can really taste the love and passion the chef puts into his craft. The soup is so hearty it will give even the sick the energy to run a marathon. Then, there is the rice noodles. The bihun/rice noodles taste light, but have a nice chewy texture to them. These noodles are the perfect vessels to slurp the soup with. Let's not forget the duck. Kumango is so generous with the duck meat that you get as much duck meat as you get rice noodles. The duck has been cooked to perfection: it's tender, but feels substantial to chew. Aside from the meat's own taste, it picks up the richness of the broth for a potent 1-2 punch of flavor. Lastly, the finishing touches: fresh vegetables that retain their crunch, some crunchy fried garlic for texture and a hint of bitterness, and chives that help break up the richness of the broth with a surprising bit of freshness. All of these components combined, and you have a truly special meal: to call Bihun Bebek Asie an achievement in the culinary arts would be a gross...