Rumah Makan Garuda — Restaurant in City of Medan

If you go into any Indonesian city, you’ll see lunch joints serving many dishes in small cafeteria settings. This service makes life easier for the staff, who serve whatever you choose while coordinating with the kitchen to swap large plates when the entrees run out. The unpretentious Indonesian style assumes family-style culture and contains a colorful variety of choices. Downsides are you cannot adjust spiciness to your levels and cannot impose personal preferences on the staff. Personally, I love this democratic way of eating. I call it, “no fussiness, all flavor.”

Restoran Garuda, a very common name (beware imitators), has apparently taken the typical Indonesian serving style and expanded it, making it more accessible to patrons used to larger floor plans, easy parking, and fancier ambiances. I discovered jengkol and ayam bumbu here....

Popular place for Nasi Padang, ayam penyet and sambal eggplant was good, nothing much to say about the rest. Food is brought to you right after you sit, and you can eat whatever you desire on the table, and be charged for what you eat. If I'm not mistaken the untouched food goes back into the main display batch, so if you're particular with food hygiene, might want to skip this. Price isn't exactly cheap too, for...

There was a lack of service staff. Tables with dirty plates were not cleared even though the restaurant was not crowded. Our drinks were only served almost towards the end of the meal. However .. it was the 4th day after Lebaran therefore some staff may be on leave.

On to the food. The last time I had such a similar meal was at Sederhana and that was a fantastic experience. The food I had at RM Garuda was...