Jenny's Restaurant — Restaurant in North Sumatra

Normally we are pretty easy to please, but we are just stunned by our experience right now:

The restaurant is run by children. The service staff were three actual children, None of them able to speak english and none of them wanted to do their job (literally, there was a table who had to ask to get their order taken only for the server to go away again and they had to wait 10 more minutes until someone got to them) But now to our experience. In a restaurant of 8 tables we were decently early with only three other tables set already. We ordered by pointing the dishes on the menu and asked questions via Google translate. So far so good. After an hour we asked when we would get the food. We had watched people come in after us already receiving theirs (lobster and grilled meats for example, so no foods that may have taken less time than ours). After another 10 minutes they brought out our food, but one of the two dishes was wrong. We pointed it out on the menu and still got the wrong thing. But the Servers did not understand our problem and brought the cook out who than prepared the ordered dish in just another 10 minutes. The food was OK but nothing special. We can't believe that at the high pricepoint of this restaurant you get basically no service and no apology or compensation if anything goes wrong. They did not even say sorry once. And something went wrong at almost every table. At least two of the three around us had issued with the service, one of which had to wait even longer than us for a...

Ok so we just finish our food here.. to get straight to the point.. food was 12 out of 10!

We ordered grilled fish, satay ayam and shrimps balado.

We shared these three meals + one rice by the two of us and we were full! So good/ big portions. All of these meals where super delicious.

It’s a small restaurant and at time of writing it’s low season so restaurant wasn’t busy.

Normally I look at places and when it’s busy it normally means it’s good. But as mentioned it’s low season so only one other table. So after reading some mix reviews we decided to give it a try and oh boy I’m happy we did.

Yes, it took a while before we got our food. But he, you ( probably) are on holiday, so why the hurry? We had a beer, probably two before we got our food. The service was good, lady was friendly and recommended us the shrimp since they have different ways they cook it.

All together. Lovely evening. Amazing food and nice service.

We recommend to go here if you like good food! If you like fast food, maybe Mac Donald’s is more your thing.

If you liked the food as we did, walk in to the kitchen and thank the chef, she will be happy with this...

I came to Lake Toba alone without much research. All I needed was a long awaited break from everything. When I got here, I searched the internet for somewhere to have my dinner and Jenny's restaurant popped up with great reviews. I went there my first night and I was hooked. The sambal balado chicken was amazing. Granted I went there early and I was the only one there initially. It took about 20 mins to 30 mins for my food to arrive. But it was worth the wait. It was prepared on the spot and yum! I went back for lunch and dinner a total of 4 times. This isn't like a fast food restaurant. They really cook the food after you order. I recommend the Ikan Arsik and BBQ ikan. I consumed the whole fish all by myself and they were not small. If you don't mind the wait, go and savour the local cuisine. While waiting, enjoy the ambience and even chat with the owners, Jenny and Rinto. They're great to talk with....