Nancy Lam’s Enak Enak

This was my first time dining specifically at an Indonesian restaurant. While I’m quite familiar with southeast Asian food, I had never eaten had a predominantly Indonesian place.
There were two different servers that night, one of whom was super friendly and the other who was not. Luckily, the friendly one was our main point of contact. We were able to ask her tons of questions about the menu and the dishes. Indonesian food seems to be a pretty good mesh of Chinese and Thai cuisines.
We were between the Treasure Hunt Chicken (lemongrass) and the Sambal Chicken, and ended up going with the Sambal because it was spicier and we thought it would have more flavor.
Sambal Chicken — chicken breast cooked in Indonesian chilli paste, medium hot. This was literally just a plate of cut up chicken pieces in a super sticky sauce. The sauce was unexpectedly sweet, which I didn’t really care for. Had I known ahead of time, I wouldn’t’ve ordered it. It also wasn’t spicy at all, so we had to ask for extra hot sauce on the side. The sauce must have had lots of sugar or corn starch or high fructose corn syrup in it in order to give it that sticky texture that is characteristic of poor quality Asian sauces. Perhaps they are catering to the Western palate, but I would’ve wanted something more natural. The dish was ok, I wouldn’t order it again.
When we ordered hot sauce on the side, we were given two choices. One was the traditional one made with chilli peppers and the other one was a special (non-​authentic) sauce made with scotch bonnet peppers. Scotch bonnet peppers are not at all used in Indonesian cuisine, but the cook just happens to like it and uses it in the sauce. That sauce was much better, more flavorful, and actually spicy. I’d recommend ordering a side of that if you like heat.
Mixed Vegetables — we ordered a side of these for freshness. It came with red peppers, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, beans. I was really hoping it would be more flavorful, but it was a pretty generic sauce.
We went through two sides of rice as well to supplement.
Lemongrass tea — interesting and I’d recommend trying it here while you have the chance. It’s sweetened with honey.
I was really hoping for more flavor! I can’t generalize about Indonesian food in general, but the dishes at this restaurant didn’t have much of it. Also, the sauces were a bit off-​putting and didn’t taste very natural. But I can’t knock it down too much because I can’t compare it to other Indonesian places.

What a find. I’ll keep it simple. Incredibly tasty, well cooked food. Prices are average if portion sizes are a little small. Great welcome and service. Don’t go if you want flash surroundings. Do go if you like beef so tender it is like butter…

Great food and great hosts, on every occasion I have eaten here Nancy Lam has popped over to say hi and ask if we are enjoying our meal. It has been that way since it was a small 8 table restaurant and is an atmosphere that continued after the expansion.
Not the cheapest of restaurants but the taste and quality is there and frankly the price is more deserving than a chain celebrity chef restaurant where the «name» is rarely on site.
A great place to go if you want to relax and enjoy good food and good company just make sure you walk in with a smile and an open heart.
Looking forward to my next trip soon.

Nice, warm neighborhood restaurant. It’s a pretty large restaurant but still have cozy ambience. I liked the tiny sparkly mirror balls on the ceiling :) Nancy and the waitress were very friendly. We quickly made ourselves at home.
The herbal soup immediately makes your body warm on a cold evening. It’s chicken based broth with chicken meat, some veggies and interestingly goji berries. I wish the portion was a little bigger though. The cashew nuts fried mee, on the other hand, came in a large portion! Thin egg noodles and stir fried veggies and nuts were well mixed. The chili prawn dish was a little spicy but still tasty with sweet coconut rice. The prawns were very juicy :)
We have to come back and try some of their dessert liquor drinks next time. (they had something like hot chocolate with tequila and whisky?!)

Cruising around Batterea in my ‘hood, on a cold night looking to try something new.
The smells of the food enveloped us as we walked in and were warmly seated.
It was a busy scene for a Sunday evening and figured it was a good sign of things to come.
We ordered the mixed meat appetizer platter which had chicken sate and pork ribs and I can’t recall the rest. Honestly they were eaten so fast I could barely remember what we ate. It was a most delicious starter.
I ordered the Rendang with chicken and had to order the rice separately which I just can’t stand doing. Why give me a dish that needs a rice and then make me pay full price for both. The rendang was tasty, but it wasn’t anything to write home about and it came with no vegetables or anything other than chicken in sauce.
It was an expensive meal for what you get and I will never ever go back there.

Came here last night for dinner and was very impressed! The interior is very cozy and intimate and the service was very friendly and they gave us great recommendations. We split a few shrimp and veggie appetizers and entrees, tapas style so we got to taste a few different dishes and everything had lovely flavor and I ate till I couldn’t fit any desert! Lovely spot for a BDay or intimate date. I will be back for sure any time I’m in town!

The food is OK, there is nothing wrong with it but the menu is quite boring. Given Nancy Lams high media extrovert profile I though the menu was going to be something quite interesting. The food is basic Indonesian.
The décor is very parochial, it really needs a make over.
Nancy Lam did make an appearance and came around to all of the tables to make sure everything was OK. There service was very good and the price average.

Oh dear oh dear oh dear. I don’t ask much from Lavender Hill, a sprawling stretch of congested road that snakes it’s way towards central London through the hilly Clapham area. But what I do ask for in these recession hit times is a decent amount of food for my hard earned pounds. £8.50 for 7 prawns cooked in way too much soy? Have a day off Nancy, you’re most definitely having a laugh.
Most of my companion’s dishes looked slightly better than my disastrous choice. A green curry tasted good and was bigger than my portion. But really for the price and location this is a bit over-​priced, not massively, but enough to leave a rather bitter taste in your mouth.
The restaurant was very quiet (we were the only table on a Saturday night) saying that, the service was really friendly and good.
Really wanted to like this place as have heard some ok things, but alas, I can’t really recommend. Value for money these days is expected in some shape or form when you hit up the local restaurants, this one I’m afraid offered none and is all the worse for it. Boo.

Sorry, Nancy Lam I like you. I really want to write a good review.
But I have to honest. You can call me traditional, but I don’t like fusion food. Wine was expensive. Tiny portions, and I didn’t feel satisfied at all.
I’m glad that you’re able to cater different group of customers. Nice place. But, it just didn’t do it for me.
Enak enak means «delicious» in Indonesian language.