Shalom Indonesian Restaurant 42 Church Avenue, Mascot, New South Wales 2020

"Shalom Indonesian Restaurant was my first introduction to the vast and wonderful world of Indonesian cuisine. Serendipitously, I encountered one of the couple Shalom branches in Sydney and braced my mouth for the certain blaze ahead of me. Boy, was I eager to get started on my Indonesian culinary adventure once the plates arrived at the table. There is no shortage of chicken renditions that Indonesia cooks up and my indecisiveness picked ayam bakar bumbu rujak from Shalom's panoramic menu. When I dipped the chicken into the rujak sauce, my mind was blasted into the stratosphere as a completely new flavour landed on my tongue. Defined by palm sugar and tamarind, the rujak injected a fruity sweetness into a savoury component to produce a tasty reinvention. On the plate, the grilled chicken thigh was smaller than expected and though it was tender, it needed the rujak to give it a profound character. As a fellow Asian, seeing jasmine rice cooked well, where each grain is discernible in one's mouth, is very rewarding. Especially to soak up all the rujak, the rice is essential here. I jumped right into the mie goreng jawa ayam, an irresistible mound of sticky noodles pulsating with wokhei. While the menu indicates "level one chilli", it's clear that my level of spice tolerance is far below the average Indonesian person's. But instead of being repelled by the infectious heat, I was lured in by the indulgent piquancy of the sweet soy sauce and chilli blended together. The bouncy egg noodles were an impeccable vessel that enriched the spicy and sweet glaze with an additional oiliness. The weak link was the protein with dry fried chicken that only contributed a crunch to the dish, however, made redundant by the more appetising prawn crackers. Speaking of, the crackers, boiled egg and cucumber significantly helped with lessening the heat between the slippery inhalation of noodles. Not to mention the tidy presentation of each dish with pastel coloured crackers but I had already demolished the mie goreng before I could gawk over it. Peace was restored in my digestive system and I am glad to have broadened my gastronomic horizons with the unabashed Indonesian food at Shalom."

"Been here several times, was really good. Always have same thing chicken is lacking flavour this time it just taste like plain chicken no seasoning or spices. My favourite Indonesian restaurant in Sydney. Keep the consistency please"

"I usually ordered their Bakwan Penyet + shalom chilli sauce and lamb curry and have ordered them many times - those are highly recommended dishes. This time we wanted to try different dishes so we ordered Mie ayam jamur bakso, Sate kambing - lontong, risoles. Mis ayam jamur was delicious, good portion of chicken, mushroom and meatballs. The sate kambing (lamb satay) were a little dry and tough, lontong (rice cakes) was good. I wouldn’t recommend the Risoles - the ragout filling felt dry and not creamy at all, and didn’t taste great, the flavour was just not right."

"Lovely customer service, the girl that took my order also recommended the best vegetarian choices and I was really happy. Excellent nasi goreng. Nothing wrong with the eggplants, but not worth it. The tofu and noodles were great as well."