Pondok Indonesia

I’ve been to this place many times. I always get the calamari because it beats any other calamari in vancouver.
This is an Indonesian bar so don’t expect it to be something its not. If you want calamari, however…

This was the first Indonesian restaurant I ever came to after moving to Vancouver, so I have some nostalgia for it. I’ve realized it’s not one of the better ones, though. The food is decent but overpriced for the so-​so quality. One of the few highlights for me is the stuffed tofu (tahu isi) which is quite tasty. Some of the other vegetarian snacks are just mediocre, like the dry tempe bacem which was served to us without any sauce, or the eggplant which was too oily. I can’t comment on the meat dishes.
Lately we tried going for karaōke, we showed up at 8:30 on a saturday to eat in advance of the 9:30 karaōke. I’d heard before that they have a $ 20 minimum for each customer but no one mentioned it to us. Anyways there was a brief karaōke at 9:30, but the vj switched to playing top 40 music for people to dance to and we ended up leaving at 10:30 since it didn’t seem to be going back to karaōke for a while yet.
Staff were friendly but sometimes slow, we had to ask twice for things like the bill or the karaōke book although the actual food came promptly. They wouldn’t make most of the desserts listed on the menu because they said they were too busy.

Still loving their green beans and their deep fried tofu!
They have karaōke every night starting at 9:30pm.

That’s being generous… these guys are never consistent in terms of when they stay open lol. A real hit and miss when you call them.
at least they’ve got a private paid lot as parking here can be a bit crazy. For this type of food, Tropika or Kaya pretty well fits the bill, at least on the same page.
Good place for night time action.

I can’t say I had high hopes for this place. When we walked in all we saw were empty tables, as far as the eye could see. Despite this the wait staff took forever to greet and seat us, and even longer to offer us beverages. Even the tried-​and-​true «make eye contact, smile, give a little wave» could not lure them to our table.
As a fan of Thai, Vietnamese, Indian and Singaporean cuisine I was sure there would be something on the menu I would recognize — but by the names there wasn’t much I did know. So my friends and I just closed our eyes, hoped for try best, and chose Rice Table Number 3, which appeared to feature a number of items.
They were ALL good. There was a chicken and potato curry which could have been more spicy, but was still very flavourful. There were some steamed prawns in a tomato based sauce — this was probably the weakest part of the platter. But the spring rolls were AMAZING, as was the accompanying peanut sauce — and there was this awesome dish that was indescribable but yummy: cabbage, scrambled egg, chicken, yumminess — like a noodle-​less Pad Thai. AWESOME.
Being loud party types we were happy to hang out for karaōke and dancing. The food and drinks are on the cheapish side and provide good value for money. So, if you can deal with less than interested staff and bad singers — this place makes for a fun group night out.

Better than the other Indonesian restaurants in the Lower Mainland, which are an embarrassment to Indonesian cuisine. Kankung is very good, the bihun goreng tastes exactly as it does from Jakarta street vendors & the ayam goreng kuning is pretty good. Can’t speak for the rest of the menu. Our initial service was kinda slow & had to flag down the older woman who was the server tonight, the décor leaves much to be desired & it gets very noisy with karaōke every night after 9: PM, which are all reasons for my 3 star rating. That being said, the food is still much more appetizing than all the other local Indon restaurants.

Tahu Baso Bandung (steamed dumplings and stuffed tofu with fish pasted & ground chicken and topped with peanut sauce) $ 12 3.5÷5 — The dumplings and tofu was soaked in sauce.
Rice Table 1 (6 pcs Pangsit Goreng Special, Ayam Panggang, Sambal Goreng Udang, Orak Arik) $ 29 3.5÷5 — The BBQ chicken tasted like Chinese soy sauce chicken. The crispy wontons also tasted like Chinese food. The prawns were smaller than what I expected. The veggies went well with the sambal sauce than the rendang.
Rice Table 2 (4 pcs Tahu Sayur Isi, Rendang Sapi, Ikan Acar Kuning, Orak Arik) $ 29 3.5÷5 — I liked the deep fried tofu and the fish. They were fresh. The veggies were a little too bland. The rendang beef was spicy.
Pudding Kaya $ 4.5 ³⁄₅ — Our Singapore friend missed kaya so he ordered it. The kaya was not too strong.
I wanted to go to the Gyu-​kaku but it was fully booked. Just that we didn’t want to wait so we decided to give it a try to this empty place. I was scared since there was nobody at 7pm. My friend said it was okay last time for her. We waited ~45min for our food to come. Up to a point where we felt bad coz we didn’t know if they just called the chef in for us. We got the Rice Table 2 instead of the Rice Table 3 that we ordered. The lady said she can ask the kitchen for the Rice Table 2. There was another party of 2 came it when we ordered dessert. Good service and okay food. Nothing really stood out and not up to a point where I want another visit. I liked Spice Island better (too bad it’s now closed)

Went here for a dinner with colleagues due to the restaurant’s ability to accommodate a large group.
We were the only people in the joint yet it still took nearly and hour for the food to arrive. Asked for a cocktail menu however there did not appear to be such a thing… The bar tender insisted that he only drink he knew how to make were rum and Cokes…
The décor want depressing and dingy and clearly hadn’t been updated since the mid 80s.
The food was decent, but lacked any particular distinction… nothing you couldn’t get at a mall food court.
I can’t imagine this place makes any money.
I do not recommend Pondok.

My family is Dutch Indonesian so we were really looking forward to our experience here. Food was ok but lacked flavour. the restaurant itself is huge. too huge! I understand they do late night entertainment with a dance floor so imagine when you’re in a large space and there are only 3 groups sitting down for dinner. It’s like sitting in a huge cavern. Don’t think we’ll go here again. Too bad.

I love Indonesian food but this place leaves a lot to be desired. We went here for Dine Out for Life as a last minutes decision and were one of only about five couples in the whole place. The food was okay but overpriced and not as good as I expected. The staff were kind and service was decent but I won’t be coming back here.

The foods are good, only one problem: Too much MSG.
Inside the restaurant for me is too noisy, but maybe some people like this kind of environment. Service ok, average.

Just had dinner. We ordered an appetizer (roti) and a couple of dishes. We arrived at 5:15 as the first diners and when we left there was one other table occupied. It is a huge restaurant with a karaōke dance floor in the middle. The server wasn’t friendly or very informative. The meals were average and would not induce you to want to taste more Indonesian food. Very eerie given nobody was in there and it is so large. The two menus were extensive, but why two menus? If you want to try Indonesian food then give it a try, but don’t have huge expectations.

this is the most legit indonesian restaurant i’ve found in vancouver so far. having lived in indonesia for nine years of my life, i’ve been on the hunt for one, and this is the closest you’re going to get to the real thing in vancouver.
the nasi goreng is pretty good and it even comes with krupuk. the mie goreng is decent too and so is the beef rendang. one of the chicken dishes actually tasted exactly like a dish my maid used to make when i was younger in indonesia.
one time i went here, i asked if they had teh botel and they said no… but they could try and make it (the waiter was indonesian). it actually tasted like the real thing! i went back another time though and that same awesome waiter wasn’t there, and my waitress at that time told me that they couldn’t make it for me this time around :(
apart from the food being really good, this place actually turns into a karaōke bar/​dance floor later on in the evening. it feels like you’re at prom or something (i celebrated one of my birthdays here) complete with the slow dances! it makes for a pretty fun night out if you’re looking for something completely different to your typical club scene in vancouver.
ok back to the food. all the food that i’ve tried here is pretty good and legit (the satay ayam is delicious as well). the only downside is that there is no bakmi ayam on the menu… if anyone knows where i can find bakmi ayam in vancouver, please let me know!

When about twenty of my colleagues and I all went to Pondok for a post-​conference dinner a few weeks ago, little did we know that once the sun went down this unassuming restaurant would suddenly morph into a crazed karaōke dance club. It was a bit surreal to be suddenly surrounded by middle aged men and women dancing like mad to Nicki Minaj while we ate our rice tables, but definitely entertaining and memorable (some of us even joined in!) The food was pretty good, too. My partner’s family is from Indonesia, though, and it doesn’t compare to her mom’s home-​cooking. She also balked at the fact that Pondok charges 75 cents for a single krupuk (a shrimp chip)! Having said that, Pondok is a great introduction to a form of cuisine that is often overlooked in the Vancouver food scene.
A few small annoyances marred the evening, though. For one, despite making our reservation a week in advance, there was no table prepared for our party, and we ended up having to sit at two separate ones. To make matters worse, these two tables formed a bottleneck for traffic going between two halves of the restaurant, meaning we were constantly getting in the way of waiters delivering food or other customers walking to and from the washrooms. It was not the most strategically sound place to seat a large party, and given the place was almost empty when we first arrived it was not out of necessity either.

Went there about 2 years ago since we were on the hunt for some good Indonesian (not Malaysian, not Singaporean, but Indonesian). Used to live in Holland where there’s awesome Indonesian food on every corner like there are sushi joints around Vancouver. This place was a huge disappointment. Big empty restaurant, slow service, lame rijstafel (rice table) and not even good kroepoek — shrimp chips. The prices were high. Never went back. I’m amazed if they are still around.

As a native Indonesian who hasn’t eaten Indo food for a while, I was excited to stumble across this restaurant but left somewhat disappointed. We went on a Thursday night and there was only one other couple eating there despite coming in at 8.45pm — so it was a bit strange and rather uncomfortable to have no one else around eating.
We ordered the martabak sapi, ayam bumbu bali, beef rendang to eat and avocado smoothie and ice pelangi for drinks and dessert. the martabak sapi was very disappointing — it was dry and rather too crispy — nothing like the authentic one you would get from Indo at all. the ayam bumbu bali was quite good — spicy and tasty while the beef rendang was Ok — nice in flavor but somewaht dry. To be honest, the most exciting part of the dinner was the avocado smoothie and ice pelangi as you don’t rally get those here in Vancouver — but even then i was still underwhelmed — i can definitely make a meaner avocado smoothie!
As the night wear on, the place got a bit more oopmh! more people started coming in and the karaōke started. This was quite fun to watc actually, and noticed that the late night customers were definitely regular customers who visit mainly more for the karaōke and less for the food.
We left at around 11 — after a bit of a shock at the cashier — paying $ 85 (including a 10% tip) for sinner for two — fine for finer dining experience but really do not think it was worth the price. The place lack atmosphere and charm– the staff did not even speak Indonesian (even though they were friendly) and the décor from the outside is not very appealing at all — standard white building with neon OPEN sign — rather uninviting and perhaps explained the lack of customers.
I went there with a friend and for him the food was good — but then again he has really nothing to compare it too — much like i don’t know if what i’m eating at a sushi place here actually is good stuff if you compare it to authentic Japanese sushi (actually i’ve been to Japan and no it does not compare). For an indo person looking for real good authentic indo food — Pondok does not really satisfy.
And so my quest for real tasty indo food continues…

Pondok was what made me write my first restaurant review locally (before Unilocal was here). It was the one on Commercial Drive and I found it such POOR value, I wrote my first review. Just last week my lunch partner & I went to the one on Broadway as I said I’d give it another chance. We ordered:
Rice Table 3
Lumpia Istimewa (4pcs)-Indonesian style spring rolls stuffed with minced chicken, shrimp, bamboo shoot & tofu served with a light peanut sauce
Udang Asam Pedas-​Tiger prawns simmered in a tomato & chili base sauce
Kari Ayam-​Chicken coconut milk curry
Orak Arik-​A traditional dish of shredded cabbage & carrots stir fried with eggs & herbs
(This all sounds delicious, doesn’t it? But, NO!)
It was $ 29 without tax/​tip for two which is pricey for lunch. When we were served we looked at each other like we were waiting for another plate. It was basically what we are used to being served for ONE person! The chicken was hard & chewy, and we felt like the dish was very OLD! We couldn’t eat more than one bite. The «prawns» were your typical frozen grocery store pre-​cooked prawns that you get in a frozen shrimp ring… too bad, because the sauce was quite good. The spring rolls were good & the cabbage was not bad.
We were the ONLY table for the whole hour between 12– 1pm and we couldn’t imagine how they remain open only to guess that night time is a different ball game??? Anyway, I will never set foot in the restaurant again!

If a huge, empty restaurant doesn’t make you run, the food definitely will. The gado gado (salad with peanut sauce) taste like sweet peanut butter with 3 day old vegetables, the spring roll is soaked in oil, and the shrimp tasted stale. This is definitely one of the worse dinner we had in 2009.

Tucked away in this second floor location right beside the Rugby Club is a hidden treasure. It’s a great place for big groups as there are many long tables and the place is quite spacious. There are windows overlooking West Broadway, so you can watch the action while you eat with quiet, ambient music (until 9:30pm).
If you’re new to Indonesian food, there are great combo plates called Rice Tables. Even if you’re not, they’re a perfect way to try a few things. We enjoyed Rice Table 1 with crispy wontons, tender slow-​cooked chicken, a cabbage dish, a prawn dish and steamed rice. The cabbage went really well with the rice and the prawns were cooked to perfection. Everything was really flavourful but not spicy. Beer and dinner for two ran us a reasonable $ 45ish.
The service was so fantastic. Especially one waiter who was so genuinely nice. He made us feel so welcome, brought our beer lightening fast and answered all our questions with confidence.
After 9:30 every night of the week you can get your song on with karaōke. There’s even a dance floor for your loving fans to groove on while you serenade them. When I was in there during karaōke hours there was a middle-​aged woman singing a ballad in a language I did not understand while another middle-​aged couple waltzed around the dance floor. I didn’t think it was the right crowd for «Livin’ on a Prayer,» so I refrained from belting out the Bön Jovi karaōke anthem.
During karaōke hours there’s a consumable cover charge — you have to drink/​eat $ 15– worth to earn your turn at the mic.