Wong Java House

Indonesian here. I found this place through a friend’s Facebook post and decided to try it. It’s about 35 min by bus from DTLA, not bad. People were commenting about their Tempe Mendoan and Nasi Kuning so I tried them both. They were good! I like the rendang and perkedel and fried chicken that came with the nasi kuning. If anything, it’ll be nice to have some kind of greens (cucumber or tomato slices perhaps?) to accompany the dish. But no complains here.
The Tempe Mendoan is the bomb though. The portion was so immense that it took me (a singleton) about 3 days to eat through! Pro tip: toast them in the toaster oven for a crispy, hearty, delicious snacks. Absolutely no microwave!
Best part: the owners are really friendly. I have been to other restaurants where I kinda feel not belong. Which is weird considering I am Indonesian. But this place is legit

There aren’t many Indonesian restaurants that I like in LA but this place is amazing! Food is great, choices are plenty, and the vibes are good. I will definitely come here again! Get the nasi rames and the soto Jakarta!!!

Being here several times and definitely a review is way overdue. Was there just past Sunday and total of 6 adults and 4 child (toddler & infant). The owner is always very accommodating especially for people with kiddos. Anyway, ordered the Ayam Penyet, fried fish, gado, gado, fried noodles, kangkung belacan, fried frog, indonesian fish cake, and satay. They are all delicious. My little 2 year old finished her portion of fried noodles and ask for second serving and also the satay. The shave ice is good too after all the spicy food. Minus one star because is hard to find parking.

I came here to have lunch with a fellow acquaintance and we opted to go for the bigger ticket items. He ordered a kwetiaw goreng while I went for ayam penyet with a rice side, and I was even about to order more food! I can’t speak for the whole menu, but the meals that we ordered were definitely delicious and tasted authentic.
The woman who ran the restaurant was friendly to us, chatting in a mix of Indonesian and English while I struggled to keep up with my slow Indonesian (I’m Malaysian). The walls are adorned with pictures of her and various Indonesian artists and celebrities who came to eat at her restaurant. wonder when I’ll be next? ;)

Food was excellent. Should try Grass jelly coconut milk drink was awesome. Strongly recommended. I had smashed fried chicken is their speciality dish. Family environment… loving it!

Nice… another good Indonesian restaurant. I love the satay with rice cakes and peanut sauce.

I come here on a regular basis.
I’m half Indo and used to the food from my parents cooking. This place tastes very authentic and has a good price for the quality.
I also love 3mins away so it’s very convenient.

Low key place, very delicious chicken dishes! Soft crispy fried chicken. We also got the satay.

Most of their foods are yummy, and its taste is so Indonesian!
One of the best Indonesian resto in town.

So this is an unreliable review coming from someone who has only ordered takeout once but I thoroughly enjoyed the meal I had. I tried the fried chicken, the fried chicken livers + gizzards, a vegetable curry, and a vegetable stir-​fried noodle. I’m prettty sure the curry wasn’t strictly vegetarian which I half-​heartedly mentioned; my vegetarian partner quickly rebuffed me though so I think we can leave this at don’t ask don’t tell. Oh — we also had the fried tempeh + tofu. I only recently discovered the joys of frying tempeh rather than simply using it in a stirfry. Tempeh really is so much better fried, although I suppose there’s not much that frying doesn’t make better.
Further undermining this review is that my only experience with Indonesian food is… Malaysian, and even then it was at a regional chain in the NYC area. It’s just not widely available, but if you like SE Asian flavors, I think you’ll enjoy the hell out of the food here.

Showed up solo on a weekday around 5pm. I was the only patron. Service was tolerable-​the lady server (owner?) didn’t have a friendly demeanor but delivered the food in a timely manner. I ordered the beef rendang, fish wrapped in leaves, and rice cakes. The beef had a strong spiced flavor which some may find pungent. The fish was definitely too pungent for me. The rice cakes were bland and somewhat hard. Everything tasted off. To be fair, I’m not too familiar with this type of cuisine so I don’t know how it measures up, but nothing I got tasted good to me. The check was close to $ 30 for my solo meal of ordinary ingredients in this dive joint. Rice is not included with the dishes. I’m giving it two stars to be fair since it could simply just be not my cup of tea and others may love it here, but I will not be returning.

I want to like this place, I really do, but I can’t.
My latest and final visit was yesterday; my mom wanted to treat me to lunch. We walked in to see that we were the only patrons there at 1:30p — huh. Then we realized how hot it was in there — a/​c was either off or broken. The man handed us our menus, but we already knew what we wanted — nasi uduk. What? All out of nasi uduk??? Okay, how about es cendol? Yes? Okay, 1 please. Two minutes gone by and my mom is complaining to me. Five minutes later, she wants to go. «This place is empty, why does it take so long for cendol? Let’s go.» By this time a party of 3 walked in and sat down. I went up to the counter and asked about the cendol, and the man said, «Oh yes», said something to the lady mopping in the back (I couldn’t understand what was said), and handed the party of 3 their menus. While I was at the counter, I saw the thermostat, and read the temp — 93° inside!!! WTH! This is the kicker, they had the HEATER turned on! I asked the man if he realized that the heater was on, and do you know what his reply was? I don’t work here, I’m helping the owner while she brings food home to her son. I don’t know how their thermostat works. What? So, I have to wait until she comes back to get my es cendol? He said no, but 10 minutes already passed and they still hadn’t brought it out. Okay that’s it, we’re outta here. Told the man, to cancel my order. My mom and I walked out. THEN, as we approached my car, I heard the man from a distance, do you still want the cendol? He was holding it up in the air. Really mister? I simply replied with a No.
The one star is for my past visit.
I knew we should’ve gone up to 4^th & Main instead.

The only thing this place is good for is the tempeh mendoan. It’s sliced tempeh, battered and fried. Then they toss a handful of chilis in there. You’re supposed to eat one bite mendoan, one bite chili. It’s delicious when they do it right but sometimes they have off days and it’s not nearly seasoned enough.
Everything else is mediocre or worse. Nasi bungkus is 80% rice, 2 slices of meat, an egg, 2 pieces of jackfruit. It’s really a rip-​off. If you want it to taste more delicious ask to sub steamed rice with yellow rice (nasi kuning) or coconut rice (nasi uduk). Steamed veggie plate is sad. Siomay is better in West Covina. Don’t even get the stir fry. The butter chicken is nothing like Indo butter chicken. Just stay away from most of the menu.
Stick with their appetizers. Pempek is ok but eat it while it’s crispy. This indo restaurant is the closest to me but I drive out of my way to the other restaurants unless I want tempeh mendoan.

Gf and I really enjoyed this place. She said it reminded her of home in Brunei. Ive been exploring Southeast Asian cuisine and I’d have to say this is one of the best ones in the area. Def coming back to try more.
Food: Bomb
Prices: Fair
Service: Good, Fast
Parking: Easy
Gado gado– peanut salad = refreshing and filling, very authentic and tasty
Ayam Penyet– «smashed chicken”= bomb
Nasi Kuning– yellow rice = delicious
Soda Gambira– «happy soda» rasberry+condensed milk = yummy

This place is dead, I visited yesterday there was no guest at all at 7 pm, I got the nasi bungkus and nasi kuning the reason I gave 1 star is because I bought 2 boxes of nasi kuning, each box they give about 2 pounds of rice with a piece of beef, 1 chicken and 1 perkedel .i was expecting there is spicy egg and acar kuning or at least some vegetable in there but there is none for $ 8.50 just a piece of beef, a chicken and perkedel and they forgot to put forks n napkins I end up instead of using forks to eat I use my fingers. I would not recommend the nasi kuning and I would never go back to Wong Java ever bye bye Wong java time for you to closed down

This just have been my first attempt at ever trying Indonisian Cusinese. It just so happens it happened to be here down in SoCal while visiting family. Came for a Christmas Dinner and they were open til 8:30 on Christmas.
Wong Java House is located in Alhambra, and there isn’t much of a parking lot for their customers, you’ll have to park on the street. The restaurant itself is pretty small, only a few tables to sit and eat. It’s best to call ahead if you have a big group, like we did. We had a group of 10.
First we started off by ordering some drinks. They brought Ice Water for everyone in our table. We ordered a Thai Tea, 3 Hot Waters, 2 Avocado Smoothies, and some Iced Coffee I believe. The Thai Tea didn’t really have that Thai Tea flavor, but it was okay, not sweet enough for me. The Avocado Smoothies were alright.
We ordered 2 appetizers, Beef Martabak and a Tofu appeitizer. Both of them were okay and decent, the Beef Martabak was flaky and decent.
The Whole Fried Chicken was delicious! It really was a huge piece of chicken cooked and fried to perfection! I loved this one, the meat was super juicy and the skin was very crispy.
We had a noodle dish and a fried rice dish, both were excellent as well. I loved the flavors of them both. The fried rice was really good, great flavors!
We had a Spicy soup which was good for the coldness of the night. Had flavors unique to Indonisian cusine.
The Beef, Pork and Lamb Kabobs were good as well. They were juicy and flavorful and not tough at all. Really soft and good.
We ordered a fried fish as well. It was pretty good, very flavorful, the fish seemed decently fresh and was good. Plenty of sauce for the fish, made it very flavorful.
Then finally we had the Beef Rendang which was a little tough, but it was still pretty good. It’s beef so it can be expected not to be so soft and a little tough. A little spicy kick to the beef as well made it good and flavorful.
Then for like a little dessert we had sorta like a sticky rice with coconut in it. It was alright, not to bad.
The service was a bit slow, but that’s because it’s a small restaurant and therefore being only 1 waitress. She was attention, but it just took a while because she was the only one working.
For my first trying Indonisian cusine, I would say I liked it. I don’t give 5 stars often, but this place was pretty good. The fried chicken, I liked the most!

Very good Indo food in Alhambra!
I actually almost never crave any kind of food, the one exception being Indonesian food. This place does a great job satisfying those cravings.
Though it’s a typically small Indonesian restaurant, the menu is surprisingly varied: they have lots of rice and noodle dishes, a good number of vegetable dishes, meats and even seafood (if you’ve never tried Indo seafood before, you’ve gotta have it).
I’ve been here a couple of times now, and it always hits the spot. Everything I’ve tried has ranged from pretty good to excellent. Definitely recommended if you haven’t yet tried Indo food or are just craving some (they even have a TV showing Indonesian channels!).
I also should note that the food isn’t too spicy, which works great for me. Also, this is an Asian restaurant in the 626 which actually accept credit cards!

I was on vacation in Bali Indonesia this past July so I had to try out a neighborhood restaurant to compare the quality. I asked the waitress what was a favorite or special dish they serve here and she said if I like rice dishes I should try the #26 Nasi Rames. The combo comes with steamed rice, veggies, chicken and beef, a perfect combination. The food was really good and just the perfect amount to fill me up.

First time having Indonesian food and loved it! My Indonesian friend recently posted some pix of food from here on fb, and I just had to know where he ate. I’m so glad he recommended this place to me. I got #28 which consisted of fried chicken, beef, and hard-​boiled flavored egg, and all of it was so flavorful (please refer to my picture as I’m definitely not giving it a deserved description). I loved that the sauce from the egg soaked into my rice for max goodness. Prices are really decent (my plate was $ 7.50) and portions are just right. It’s enough food to satisfy your hunger without feeling like your stomach is going to give up on you. I even had half of my rice leftover. I really enjoyed having a variety of proteins and a variety of flavors on one plate so that I won’t have to order multiple entrees.
As far as location, it’s in the more east part of Alhambra on Valley where it gets pretty desolate. This place is easy to miss if you’re not actively searching for it. But it’s less hustle-​bustle which is a plus, street parking won’t be a problem to find. I’m definitely going to try more Indonesian food!

I’ve never had Indonesian food at a restaurant before, only at my friend’s house.
The restaurant was so warm when we walked in, but I’m glad they turned on the AC once we sat down. The water they gave us had no ice in there. LOL. Anyways, we ordered the potato appetizer (Perkedel). It is like a fried mashed potato ball with good flavor; it was a little too salty though. We both ordered the Nasi Padang Bungkus– rice with one fried chicken drumstick, beef with red chili sauce, green chili sauce, yellow curry with one boiled egg and artichoke all on a huge leaf. My BF said compared to other places, this one doesn’t give you a lot of meat but a lot more rice. I thought the proportion of rice to meat was off as well. They want you to fill up on rice! I wish there was more sauce on my rice as well.
I’ve heard other places actually wrap everything inside a leaf when its cooking. It gives it more flavor. It was a good experience but I wouldn’t come back. Time to try other Indonesian restaurants!