Sumatera Restaurant — Restaurant in Four Corners States

They'd posted a photo of a fancy building (from Indonesia) as a snap of their restaurant, which made it tricky to find. Once we did find it (a humble place in a boxy building) the interior was interesting: a tiny dining area decorated with bamboo, a nice fountain, trees in the corners. It was cool and humid, which was pleasant on the skin, and inviting. We sat in comfortable chairs and felt good.

The sign outside listed Pho first on the list of available dishes, and given the coolness of the dining room, a bowl of Pho sounded great ... but I noted that the Pho came with broccoli (how interesting ... maybe a creative variant?) and made no mention of the traditional sides. Also, it made no mention of what kind of beef would be offered, which is a big deal to most Pho lovers (tendon? tripe? rare brisket? flank?) so I asked the waiter. He had no idea, but assured me that whatever it was, it was sliced thin. Worried, I ordered the Pad Thai, with shrimp spring rolls to start.

The drinking water was flavored with lemon and cucumber, at room temperature. The flavor was pleasant, but cooler water would have been nice. Ice isn't expensive. In Colorado it's practically a crop.

Then, the wait. The visit would, in the long run, be a LONG run, followed by an exhausted jog, followed by a slow but determined walk. Normally, spring rolls arrive quickly, since they're made from chilled ingredients which can be assembled in seconds.

When they finally arrived, we got some clues. Instead of the traditional chilled rice noodles, these had been made with WARM rice noodles, dressed unexpectedly in a spicy sauce. The other parts of the roll were chilled as expected, creating a bizarre, but not unpleasant, collision of temperatures. Honestly, they were very tasty, and the peanut sauce likewise. They were also sizeable and satisfying (but for $10 a pair, they'd better be). I can genuinely recommend these spring rolls (but be prepared to wait for them).

Then more waiting. The whole time, we were assailed by dozens of Frank Sinatra songs played a few notches above comfortable volume. This helped blur the long passage of time, since most Sinatra songs sound like most other Sinatra songs.

Into this dreamlike, time-lost humid haze came the Pad Thai. Or I should say, my noodle dish, which bore no resemblance to Pad Thai in flavor or texture. The overcooked, sludgy rice noodles were glistening with a sauce that tasted - not of ANY tamarind paste, the key ingredient in Pad Thai's tanginess - but of a vaguely beefy-tasting fish/soy sauce and grease. LOTS of grease. The menu had mentioned fish, but not that it would replace the Pad Thai flavor entirely (in fairness, I guess no menu brags about all that grease). The shrimp were of a decent size and freshness, and the vegetables were OK. Overall, it was an oily, strip-mall quality dish that would be tolerable for six bucks as a fast-food lunch, but offered at triple the price and with no relation to the dish it was named after.

Maybe, in hindsight, I should have asked if the Pad Thai would have its signature flavor and texture removed, but that would be like double-checking to learn if a marinara will really be turkey gravy, or if the almond milk came from a cow.

As the check (eventually) arrived, Frank Sinatra belted "I DID IT MY WAY." An anthem, I suppose, for the restaurant's approach. The humidity had grown warm by then, and the food settled hard in the stomach.

In sum: the food was, overall, OK. The service was, overall, OK. But be warned: they do it THEIR way, and you'll have to wait for it, and pay quite a lot,...

We went into Sumatera with high hopes, extremely hungry. When walking in, the decor was nice and it was a cozy spot and the waiter was super nice. We ordered a pot of tea and waters, and then also all ordered an entree each. Under curries it lists it as:

Curries: Panang and Massaman (mild), Yellow (medium), Green (spicy).

So 2 of us ordered the mild curry "panang and massaman". We thought it was weird that they combined it like that, but thought it'd be cool to try as the whole restaurant seemed to be an Asian fusion.

When the food came, the two of us got TWO entrees, meaning $18 for each entree. We told her that we wanted a single curry and on the menu, it's listed as ONE item based on the placement of the commas. She told us that it's actually two and just said sorry. We asked her if she thought it was weird that only 2 people at the table would order 2 entrees, and she said no and claimed people order 2 curries for themselves all the time - with the portion size, none of us believed that claim, and clearly multiple people made this mistake (and after us, we heard the waiter clarify which curry the table wanted behind us). After some back and forth, she finally got the owner to agree to give us a refund.

Now to the food, the teriyaki chicken was good, fried rice and the stir fried noodles (kwa Wei) was good. However, the curry flavor was good but everything inside was inedible. It was all raw vegetables that were not cooked, even the potato was so crunchy, probably not even boiled for more than 1 minute. I got a total of 5 small pieces of chicken in my curry. A bowl of raw GIANT chunks of vegetables for $18 with a few pieces of chicken, not acceptable.

And then, when we were paying, we saw the the pot of TEA was charged $15. Absolutely ridiculous. I never leave bad reviews for places, and this was such a traumatizing experience, I wanted to warn others. Go to Mai Thai down the road, they...

I'm an Indonesian and was skeptical at first that the taste would be authentic but I was pleasantly surprised. I've been to a few indonesian restaurants in the US and Spain and none tasted authentic. It's so authentic that the beef rendang (one of my favorite dishes back home) was so spicy and I can handle spicy but apparently Lia, the owner and cook, likes it even more 😁 but it's so good. So my recommendation for the diners is to share the beef rendang and order another dish that you could tone down the level of spicy. And level 3 of 5 is no joke, folks. My friend ordered level 3 for laksa, he was no doubt dying 🤣. Second recommendation would be to order less level of spicy ness and add hot sauce on the side if you think is not spicy enough. Beef rendang is already cooked (slow cook method) so you can't choose the level but with sharing, it would be more tolerable.

The other thing is Lia was supposedly the only cook. Maybe that's why she was able to control the authenticity of the taste. Therefore, please be patient and know that this is part of the experience. Plan well with your next itinerary in the agenda to give plenty of time. Relax, enjoy your company, and share some delicious appetizers while waiting. We ordered spring rolls which normally more Vietnamese cuisine than Indonesian but the inside tasted more Indonesian than Vietnamese. IMHO, it tasted better than the original 😁.

I got to say hi and introduced myself to Lia, although I didn't want to take too much of her time or make my friends wait too long. But I would like to hear more of her story how she ended up in Steamboat Springs and such. Lia, kalau kamu baca ini, kapan2 ski bareng yuk! Saya pasti balik ke Steamboat kok. Semoga sukses selalu dengan restorannya yah 🙏....