It takes a woman—or two, in fact—to bring standout Indonesian food to the Bay Area. I’ve spent months around Asia over the past 20 years, and one of the things I’m most proud of about the Bay Area is that it has remained a bastion for Asians (and their culture).
Our slice of NorCal, too, helps celebrate the cuisines of those populations.
Bold. Intense. Flavor-packed. Crave-worthy.
When I find myself missing Japan or craving regional Chinese, I can find it all in abundance around me. Although Los Angeles and its environs—namely Riverside and San Bernadino Counties—holds the largest Indonesian population in the United States, San Francisco is in the top five. And yet: it's tough finding quality Indonesian food in the Bay Area (thank god for food trucks like Rasa Rasa).
But there is a new Indonesian entrant worth going out of your way for… and it’s in Redwood City.
Warung Siska opened this July from Siska Silitonga, of Indonesian pop-up ChiliCali, and Anne Le Ziblatt, behind upscale Vietnamese longtimer Tamarine in Palo Alto and SF’s Bong Su, which I still sorely miss. Silitonga launched ChiliCali in 2018 via Off the Grid’s incubator program, and was to be SF’s first Indonesian food truck until pandemic halted all plans.
When I hear the word Sumatra from here on out, I’ll think of Siska’s food.
Le Ziblatt lived in Indonesia as a Vietnamese refugee in her childhood and has warm memories of the food and the Indonesians who fed them. Together, these women had a passion to share sorely underrepresented Indonesian food, when they formed Warung Siska. The restaurant’s name refers to chef Siska, while “warung” is Indonesian for “stall” or small restaurant.
I was already expectant given my past experience with their restaurants and food and my craving for good Indonesian. But I was only as expectant as one can be when trekking down from San Francisco to Redwood City for a casual, order-at-the-counter restaurant. Walking up to the door, there was a line on a Friday night. The lofty, modern yet ultimately intimate space was buzzy, packed, lively.
Resenting lines for food, I normally would skip Friday night, but we were picking up a friend late from the airport, justifying what is considered a long trek by SF standards to drive roughly 30 miles south for dinner. Greeted by managing partner Ervan Lim (who I remember from SF’s recently shuttered M.Y. China and who is the third mind behind Warung Siska), I was immediately at ease.
Talking through the menu with Lim, it was evident we needed to order as much as possible and take home leftovers. Even as I started to get full about four dishes in, I pushed on. This is crazy-good Indonesian, the likes of which I haven’t had since I was in Singapore in 2019, the neighboring island to Indonesia’s over seventeen thousand islands.
Bold. Intense. Flavor-packed. Crave-worthy. These words describe just about every dish. ChiliCali fans will appreciate that chef Silitonga has continued favorite dishes from her pop-up and expanded beyond. Siska hails from Indonesia’s North Sumatra, known for its coffee, tea, cocoa, and other exports.
When I hear the word Sumatra from here on out, I’ll think of Siska’s food. Sourcing local ingredients whenever possible, Siska is sticking seasonal and buying from sustainable companies like seafood source, Water2Table.
So let’s start with Siska’s seafood dishes. Sate udang (aka shrimp sate) is not your average shrimp dish. Head-on gulf shrimp arrive on sticks, dramatic, piled up, teeming in garlic, dipped in soy and chili sauce with coconut-jasmine rice. The rice accompanies a few dishes and is almost worth going for on its own. Coconut cream seeps over a rounded scoop of jasmine rice, sweet and soothing, making me feel like a kid in its gratifying sweetness, but with my savory dessert palate as an adult.
Chef Siska’s ikan gohu, or crudo, is an example of the light side of Indonesian cuisine. The fish changes, but in my visit it was local salmon delicately dotted with chilies, shallots, lemon basil, calamansi, and peanuts. The dish stood its ground with audacious flavor alongside heartier dishes, yet was also exquisite and silky. A fruit and vegetable salad is likewise refreshing but generously portioned, packed with young papaya, jicama, mango and pineapple. A blessed contrast of peanuts, dried shrimp, and tamarind dressing keeps it balanced and complex.
One of my favorite Indonesian dishes, bakwan or fried corn fritters, which I got hooked on 20 years ago at SF’s E&O, shines here, packed with summer corn, okra, green onions, and makrut lime leaves. As with many of Siska’s dishes, the accompanying dipping sauce and her vividly spicy sambal threaten to steal the show.
Cooling off options, did you ask? Drink offerings are minimal: there are a few wines and beers on tap, SF’s own Sequoia Sake, and food-appropriate non-alcoholic drinks like sustainably farmed Thai coconut water or turmeric-lemongrass-ginger juice. Desserts run a little too sweet for me, but whether coconut lemongrass panna cotta or dreamy, Indonesian iced drink dessert, cendol, they provide a soothing finish. I prefer the cendol, lush with coconut milk and pandan-palm sugar, half-filled with grass jelly-style green mung bean jellies for an Insta-worthy presentation.
When it comes to entrees, hefty kalio iga (braised bone-in short ribs) benefit from a clove-turmeric curry reduction, paired with that winning coconut-jasmine rice. But the ultimate dish may just be her babi Bali, or Bali-style grilled pork, featuring Salmon Creek Farm's pork jowl roasted in Balinese spices, its crispy skin redolent with palm sugar, and coconut oil it’s basted in. The dish is also brimming with sautéed spinach, coconut-jasmine rice, and a tomato peanut relish. Sweet, savory, crunchy, tender — the pork offers a journey of flavors and textures. For a moment, I savored an unforgettable taste of Indonesia.
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And I began plotting how and when I can get back to Redwood City, regretting that Warung Siska isn’t in SF, but oh-so-grateful it’s here.
