Warungs - A Guide to Eating Cheaply in Indonesia
By this point in our travels, it’s no secret that we adore rice and curry. From Sri Lanka to Thailand, Vietnam to Malaysia, rice and curry has been our “go to” for a cheap, hearty and delicious meal. A dish of rice and curry means you get to have lots of different things on one budget friendly plate, what’s not to love?
Indonesia has what may be the very best rice and curry we’ve encountered so far. The Padang Style Warungs especially have the most amazing selection of curries, vegetables, fried chicken, fish and sambal.
We have met many travellers on the road, who have been too scared to enter these local restaurants, and we totally get it. At the start of our travels we were awkward and fearful, we would dawdle outside the entrance, looking in and unsure how you even ordered. Do you sit down? Do you just grab a plate? How do you pay? Will we make a massive fool of ourselves by not knowing any of the above? Like most anxious thoughts, this is all rubbish! Don’t give in, and read on. This guide will help you to put these fears to rest and hopefully inspire you to sample some of the best food we’ve eaten in Indonesia!
What is a Warung?
First things first, what are we even talking about here?
Warungs, waroeng, wartek or warteg - are all basically the same thing.
Warungs are small scale shops, stalls, kiosks or restaurants, and is a blanket term for any little business. In most scenarios, warungs will usually refer to an eatery of some sort. Warungs are unfussy, local joints and can be found in any village, town or city in Indonesia.
Rice and curry warungs can be easily spotted by the buffet style set up. Sometimes it’s out and self service, sometimes it's behind a counter, either way it will be delicious. A special mention has to be made to Padang Style Warungs easily identifiable by their stacks of plates in the brightly coloured window, showcasing all the foods on offer.
How to order in a Warung?
This will change slightly depending on the style of the warung and what it’s serving. If it’s a noodle joint, there will usually be a menu and someone will either take your order after sitting, or you will be asked to write down what you want.
Choices, delicious choices!
If it’s buffet style with the food behind a counter, just walk up and point to the various dishes you want.
If the buffet is out in the open, grab a plate and rice from the nearby rice cooker and fill your plate to your heart's content. Just remember what you have taken as you are charged by the dish.
In some Padang restaurants you will be ushered to a table and many plates from the buffet will be brought to your table. You will then serve yourself and only be charged from the plates you have taken from.
What to eat at a Warung?
Some warungs are specialised in one or two dishes e.g. mie pangsit (wonton noodles) but others like the rice and curry restaurants serve a cornucopia of curries!
Honestly, we have eaten our way through many of these curry joints and so far have not picked a dud dish. We personally recommend getting a piece of fried chicken, egg in sambal (either fried or hard boiled) along with jackfruit curry, dark greens and spoonfuls of coconutty sauce from any of the other good looking curries. Make sure you take a good helping of the spicy sambals on offer and, if it's available, do not miss the aubergine curries!
For those who aren’t meat eaters, there is always fried fish, some form of fish curry and plenty of vegetable offerings available too.
At your table there will probably be a jar of crispy things. These are called Keropok and go great with curries! You should dip them in or crumble them on top of your plate! They do cost extra so make sure you tell the cashier if you eat any. Also, these crispy Keropok come in a few flavours, look at the packet or give them a sniff so you do not unexpectedly add fish to your chicken…unless you are into that of course!
After sitting down, you’ll almost certainly be asked what drink you would like. All warungs will have tea both iced or hot, waters and some soft drinks. Just let them know what you want and they will bring it to you. It is totally fine if you don’t want anything.
How do you pay for your meal at a Warung?
When you’re done with your meal, make your way to the cashier to settle your bill. If it was a buffet style warung, you may have to point out which dishes you took, proteins will cost a little more than vegetables and fish a little more than that. However, one defining feature of warungs is that they are extremely cheap! One of our best meals on the massive island of Java was an enormous warung buffet that cost us 17,000 IDR each (£0.90 or $1.09) which also included an iced tea! We did not hold back on this plate and both had a piece of fried chicken, an egg and plenty of curries.
If you’re in a very touristy area and worried about over charging, double check the price before piling on your plate.
When you come to pay, we’d recommend getting your calculator up on your mobile and asking the cashier to enter the price. This gets around any language barriers as neither you nor the cashier may know the words for fifty thousand and forty six in each other's language.
Are Warungs safe to eat at?
Sorry, we know this is always a source of worry when travelling, but it is a silly question! Repeat after us: Restaurants Do Not Stay In Business By Poisoning People!
The warung your umming and arring over is almost certainly a family run establishment that has been serving the local community for years. The chefs, owner and servers take pride in the food and do not want to make anyone ill. If you start feeling anxious, just try and question why you are worried here and not at home? Most truthful answers to this question will be prejudice, or rooted in other travel worries, not reality.
We have munched our way for two months across the whole of Java, eating in warungs that ranged from large white tiled slick operations to tiny shacks on the road side and never once have we been made ill by the food. So yes the warung should be safe!
Conclusion
We always try to eat as local as possible and Indonesia makes this so easy. Super affordable and incredibly delicious, the rice and curry selections change everyday and we could never get tired of them.
If you’re worried about making a fool of yourself, or are holding back from entering due to unspecified anxiety, don’t. The people of Indonesia are some of the warmest, most friendly and helpful people we’ve ever met and there is no judgement or embarrassment if mistakes are made. You're probably a few thousand miles from home and everyone will forgive you for not knowing exactly how it all works. It took a little while into our great adventure to fully give up on the “performance anxiety” of entering, ordering and eating at truly local places but it has made our travel experiences so much better and more delicious. It can be hard the first time but as they say, it only gets easier and the best time to start is now!
Our only advice is get in there and enjoy. Don’t judge a warung by its wonky tables!
Thanks for reading,
John & Ellie x
#adventuresofjellie
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