Jakarta native Erisa opened this Indonesian corner (pojok) café (warung) on August 1 with chef/aunt Ibu Ginting, who hails from Sumatra. The former Chinese restaurant is situated in a Garden Grove strip mall, sandwiched between a Chuck E. Cheese’s and Latin record store. Little Saigon has dozens of interesting restaurants, but only Warung Pojok specializes in Indonesian food. Singularity isn’t reason enough to visit Warung Pojok, but the bold flavors and remarkable value are.

A handwritten overhead menu changes daily, with food housed in a bank of steam tables behind the display case. There’s usually fish, beef, chicken and tofu, prepared in a variety of ways. Whatever the selection, it’s an absolute bargain: one dish for $4.50, two for $5.50 and three for $6.50. A three-dish combo is enough to feed two people.

There’s a choice of complimentary rice: coconut (yellow), fried (orange) or steamed (white). You also get a selection of shrimp paste, jalapeno sauce and/or mild chile sauce.

Coconut rice was plated with big chunks of spice-soaked beef rendang, long beans with shrimp and unusually tender green eggplant, plus bony nubs of dark meat chicken and hard-boiled egg marinated in sweet soy sauce. This was hearty Southeast Asian comfort food.

A supple batter-bound corn fritter ($0.75) came with spicy jalapeno sauce (green) and pungent shrimp paste (red).

To drink/for dessert, Warung Pojok sells sweet red bean and pandan jelly “drinks,” which are poured fresh with brown sugar and coconut milk. There was also a tray of sweet rice balls in syrup.

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1. burumun, September 25, 2008:

   Another Indo resto, yay! Gotta try it out when I’m in the area (which is unfortunately rare) and compare it to others
   The styrofoam plates remind me of Simpang Asia back in the day, before all the Zagat rating and increased prices …

   A note, yellow rice is typically turmeric rice - although they might have put coconut in theirs also.

   And sweet rice balls in syrup are probably “ronde”

2. julie and william heath, August 1, 2009:

   A little paradise tucked in the corner.
   Love your food and the price.
   My boy loves your nasi kunning (tumeric rice)
   and I like everything esp the rendang and
   kari ayam.

This entry is filed under Asian, California, Indonesian, Orange County, Southern California.