Toko Rame Indonesian Halal Restaurant — Restaurant in Bellflower

The exotic smell of Indonesian food.

Toko Rame has been bookmarked by me for, well, since the Lakers were a championship team. THAT long! ;p I live close, yet I just haven't made my way here. Not only that, but I've never had Indonesian cuisine as well. So, along with my friend, Stephen, and his girlfriend, we tucked our culinary passports into our pockets and saw just what Indonesian food has to offer.

Nasi bungkus- The most popular Indonesian dish. Hardboiled egg, beef rendang, fried chicken, vegetable curry on top of rice w/ chili, all wrapped up in banana leaves. This is like the Indo kitchen sink - a lil bit of everything all in one. This was hearty, spicy and just plain good. A must try!

Beef embal- I believe this was fried beef. I found it to be rather tough. The sweet chili sauce that accompanied it was pleasant, though.

Lamb curry- Fantastic! Tender, juicy lamb with fat left untrimmed. I'm a huge lamb fan and this was a winner!

Our dessert Es Shanghai- The server said that this like the Pilipino dessert, halo-halo. Es Shanghai consists of crushed ice, red bean, coconut, jackfruit and syrup in milk. The server said they use a special sauce. My tastebuds were saying ,"I think I detect Strawberry Quik." Es Shanghai was sweet, cold and refreshing, but not in halo-halo's league. Pilipinos represent! ;p

Seating is very minimal, not very conducive to large parties. There is a TV for diner's viewing pleasure, but it wasn't on while I was dining there.

Service was friendly and prompt. Most food items are made to order, so there can be a wait, but you can't really complain about food that 's made fresh for you.

The restaurant shares a teeny tiny parking lot with some other businesses. Street parking is available if you're poop out of luck finding a spot. The location is just north of the 91 Freeway.

Toko Rame is a halal restaurant, so no pork, blood etc. I must try the beef chicharrones next time I'm here.

And I will be back! I immensely enjoyed my food selections, except for maybe the beef embal. The service was good and I want to further dive into all that Indonesian cuisine has to offer.

Highly...

I lived in Indonesia for a good chunk of the late 1990's, and in the LA area ever since. There have always been a number of Indonesian restaurants in Southern California, but despite the fact that I absolutely love almost all Indonesian regional cuisines, I've never eaten at many of the spots here. I just wasn't impressed with most of them, which was disappointing. However, after my visit to Toko Rame today, I think I'll be eating a lot more masakan Indonesia!

I came here for a late lunch, and ordered the nasi bungkus. Unfortunately due to the relatively late hour, they were out of daging rendang, which I really love, but the very nice proprietor (I'll have to get her name next time) offered to replace it with an extra piece of fried chicken or some oxtail. I love fried chicken, so I went with the former option. Everything in the bungkus was great, but I particularly liked the balado style egg (a hard boiled egg, sauteed which gives it a bit of a skin, and then simmered in a spicy red sambal - a really basic and common snack in Indonesia, and one I really like), which was done really well. There were also some potatoes, a veggie curry, and the aforementioned fried chicken, which was done perfectly - not dried out and not greasy. I also ordered the house special bihun, which I have not actually tried yet, but it looks and smells incredible so I'm pretty excited about my dinner.

If it weren't for the relatively dreary 60 degree day outside, I would have felt like I could be sitting in a good quality warung anywhere in Indonesia. The woman running the place was warm and welcoming, and the food was wonderful, so even though it is a bit out of the way for me, I have a feeling I'm going to be back here pretty regularly. I strongly...

Met up with a bunch of friends for my first Indonesian food excursion. We came in on a Thursday night and we were pretty much the only people there; I guess this place is more of a lunch joint. It's not much, atmosphere-wise--it's small with well-worn furniture. With the two ladies there it sort of felt like we were visiting an Indonesian auntie's house, which I guess is pretty much what it was. Anyway, once we were all situated we decided to get an order of their fish cakes and chicken sate as appetizers, which turned out to be very tasty. For my main item I got their "most popular combo #17" (Nasi Bungkus?) which I figured would be a good way to get my feet wet. It's a whole meal wrapped up in a banana leaf, complete with chicken leg, beef rendang, and an assortment of other items. I thought it was delicious and was able to finish about 70% of it, as the portion was quite generous; I took home the rest, banana leaf and all, and it was just as good reheated the next day! We all enjoyed our food and had a pleasant time all the way around. For dessert I got a tall glass of Es Teler--a type of fruit cocktail with Avocado, coconut meat, jackfruit and some other stuff I don't know but were good! It was a great introduction to Indonesian food and I'm looking forward to...