Sendok Garpu at Indooroopilly

A* and I were randomly perusing menus on Urbanspoon one day when we saw the menu listing for Sendok Garpu. It had an absolutely fantastic menu and we were both enthralled, especially when presented with their interesting history on their gorgeously designed website. Basically they started as a little hawker style food stall in Coopers Plains, operating only on the weekends for a few hours a day and got so huge they decided to get a restaurant! We were working the weekend so we decided to go later on our days off and then I ditched A* to go there with Jubi cause I haven't seen her in two months.

I've stopped inviting people personally and just put up open invites on Facebook to get people to come with me to places. There was a time where I found out people were complaining that I wasn't inviting them at work so I just decided that if you're really that interested, comment and come along. It's been having mixed results as people I wouldn't normally invite are coming along but people I normally ask to come along aren't replying. Hmm unsure what to do, I think I'll just go back to the old method as it gets more people to come along, ruffled feathers aside.

This place!

This is their main entrance! 

They have very oddly specific opening hours I think, Wedesday-Sunday from 11.30-9pm. I would definitely recommend a booking because when we rocked up, the waiters and waitresses had a brief moment of panic because EVERY SINGLE INSIDE TABLE HAD A RESERVED SIGN ON IT. The restaurant opened on the 25th of June, and we visited on the 2nd of July, not bad for its first week of trading! The only table they could offer us was a very dark corner under some umbrellas that we lamented was the result of us being banished from the warm interior. It was super cold there, and we were right up against the glass, so we felt like orphans staring in at all the other warm and privileged other patrons. 

Hmmmm~

The interior is lovely that being said, lots of things to cast your eye on as your peruse the menu or wait for people to arrive.

I wish I was sitting inside.

Here is their extensive menu. I don't know how long Jubi and I sat there for twenty minutes or more trying to desperately decide what we wanted to eat. My issue was, of course, massive indecision because I really love Indonesian food and am a sinful glutton while Jubi doesn't eat a whole lot of South-East Asian food and didn't know what would be good to order. 

Jubi nearly got the es kopi but backed out once she found out it had sweetened condensed milk added to it, that would've been the main draw for me, she got a Coke Zero. I was more adventurous and got the es cincau hitam, black grass jelly in a pandan sugar syrup. Jubi was weirded out by the taste but she ended up drinking a bit more of it when she ran out of Coke Zero to quench the chilli burn. I'm more used to the grass jelly and herbal tea combination to be honest and was surprised by the strong flavour of pandan in the sugar syrup. I found it to be much too sweet for my liking even with the ice very, very slowly melting in the freezing cold we were sitting in. I would advise against ordering it or at least diluting it with water to lessen the sweetness.

Too much pandan

We got the mini murtabak telur, crispy and super flaky pastry encasing beef mince, boiled egg, scallion and green onion filling. The filling was pleasant, flavoursome and super hot. The pastry on the outside was a little oily though, it left a little film of oil on your fingers and Jubi was turned off the pastries as a result. Of course, that only made me want to eat them even more. The pickles were delicious, super crunchy, sour and sweet, there were a jumble of cucumber and carrot pieces but predominately cucumber. I also got two bright green chillis that I ignored. 

Dem pickles

We both agreed that we needed a side of vegetables of some sort, to balance out the meatiness of our mains so I made the executive decision of ordering a side of kangkung stir fried in belacan paste and chilli, I don't know why its spelled in the menu as blacan twice. I have no idea if the spelling is just different in Indonesian and Google has no idea with me. I'll wait for Yannikins to never get back to me about it. I really love the salty funkiness of belacan, the heat of the chilli and the refreshing super crunchiness of the kangkung was great as always. I love kangkung at home just lightly steamed, boiled dipped in meat sauces or covered in lemon juice.

So tasty

Jubi ordered the mild ayam mie goreng, chicken fried noodles, after I bullied her into it instead of the nasi goreng, fried rice, that she wanted as I absolutely love noodles. She admitted afterwards that the first time she had egg noodles they had a really bad smell, but after having this she will give other egg noodle dishes a chance now. It was a very intensely flavoured dish that I need to say was spot on seasoning for fake Indomie Mi Goreng, so I'm not sure which I'm more impressed by, the fake or the real one's spot on flavouring. It was absolutely delicious, the noodles were charry and coated in whatever they used to impart that amazing mie goreng flavour. The chicken was tender and there was a lot of it everywhere and the egg clung to all the noodles.

As a side note, I called dibs on the pickles and Jubi protested that they were her pickles. When I suggested that we should get a plate of pickles as a side for $5 she declined, but ate all the pickles barring the last two. They were really good pickles.

Do want.

I picked the ayam goreng with sambal Ijo, fried chicken half with a green tomato and chilli sauce. The sauce was super spicy and extremely salty, I had about a third of it but couldn't finish it all. I warned Jubi off trying it because she finds even mildly spicy food too spicy for her most times. She did eat some of the chicken including the skin and remarked that it was very well cooked while remaining quite tender. I had to agree with her, the chicken was tasty despite having no other additional flavour but I suppose that's what the sambal is there for. 

Model side

Sambal side

I got a serve of plain steamed rice as well for $2. When it arrived, I was quite happy as it was a good 2-3 serves of rice and quite good for $2. 

Sendok Garpu:
Atmosphere: 7, really busy little restaurant, where a lot of Indonesian and Malaysian families were having meals and meeting up with friends. There were also a lot of adventurous large groups eating here as well. The placed was pretty packed for such a cold winter night.
Service: 8, super friendly service. The waiters and waitresses were constantly circling the menu, removing plates quite quickly and very pleasant to chat to. Even thought we were were out of the way, they would stop by our table to ask how our meal was going and if we needed anything. 
Food: 8, pretty damn good. I really enjoy the menu here and I would definitely go here again with a large group of people to try some more things. The mains were a touch smaller than I like, but the perfect size and price for you to get a few more plates and generously share between friends. 



I got contacted about promoting the James Street Food and Wine Trail, currently in its 3rd year and running from the 31st of July to the 3rd of August. Read the media release below and if you're keen I'll see you there! I'll keep updating this and posting it to the bottom of my posts until the day of the event :)