I have loved Nelayan for years! Their bain marie is filled with eye popping authentic Indonesian dishes. They have the best rendang in town - always tender with melt in your mouth deliciousness.
Always ask for the sambal on the side to ignite your taste buds and endorphins.
On the weekend, they have a nice range of buns and cakes which are made with care and taste of home. My fave is their chocolate banana bun - real bananas are used, none of the fake stuff.
The interior of the restaurant is starting to show its age but the food and always friendly top notch service make up for any negatives!
Dishes to try: Rendang
If you're Indonesian, you definitely know about this place. The rendang here is extremely delicious here. A must try. Rendang is Indonesian style beef stew in curry sauce. If you haven't tried rendang before, the rendang here is a good place to start. Unfortunately, the other dishes here is nothing special.
In addition, they do giblet dishes on most Sundays.
Taste wise this one is much better than the one in the cbd, and they have a lot of cakes, donuts and traditional indonesian cakes available, which i love!
The food on the bain marie usually are similar they have fried chicken, stir fried veg and sometimes yellow rice. I enjoyed their food and their spacious dining place, the service are always fast and friendly, so def my to go place when i miss indonesian food.
Need your fix of rice and rendang or ayam chicken- simple no frills hunger buster and comfort food. Simple seating but clean. Grab your food at the counter ordering the dishes on Bain Maries. If you are from Malaysia or Indonesia and you want a home cooked meal- this is as close as it gets.
Good for a quick fix of indo food but they are very tight on the beef rendang. And pretty much everything thing else except for the rice come to think of it. Taste wise 7/10. Usually we get the yellow rice with beef rendang, chicken currry, eggplant, egg and anchovies.
i am not indo but really love the food here. i took away different types of food and all of them are good especially kwetiau goreng and beef rendang, very authentic.Highly recomend for casual dinner. If $10 three dishes are not enough，recommending to order other dishes as well.
One of the longest standing Glenferrie Rd restaurants, Nelayan has consistently delivered tasty home style Indonesian dishes in a Bain Marie, or to be ordered separately.
Good food in a plain atmosphere and perhaps the only place to get lunch under $10 left on Glenferrie Rd.
Good solid indonesian/indo-chinese food here with nice indonesian snacks on sale also here. Some dishes already on display canteen-style, so can come in for a quick meal. The tofu dish was nice as well as the veggie fritter. Wife had the vermicelli with meatball which was also nice.
Had a great night out here with friends. Staff were very friendly and spoke to us in Indonesian once they knew that we had been learning Indonesian recently. They accommodated our large-ish group by putting some tables together for us in the upper level of the split level dining room.
We all enjoyed our meals. I had the ‘kwetiau goreng’ with seafood (aka fried kwai teow) for $10 and it was freshly prepared and served piping hot. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I also tasted the gadogado which was spicy, and the chicken satay skewers were nice too.
It’s definitely not a fancy place, it's like a take-away place with dine-in facilities, but it does have a little bit of added ambience with some cultural pictures/objects on the walls.
I used to be a regular Nelayan visitor a few years ago when I lived at Hawthorn. While some dishes might not suit all taste buds - I must say the king of the dishes is the Ayam Bakr (grilled chicken) with lots of green chillies! A burst full of flavour in your mouth! It's an enormous favourite with Indonesian students - apparently its closest to home cooked meals! Well worth a try!
Regina Siena (resatriel)
+5
Good portion and good taste, authenthic Indonesian. I got mine ( choose your own ) for like 13$ and very full. If you like sambal you can take as much as you want. My partner get bakmi ayam also very good. We are happy customer!
Small place. Serves authentic Indonesian food. Mostly we eat choices from the bainmarie; rice with veg and/or meats. Staff friendly. Good serving size.
Their fresh meal selection is almost never a disappointment although I have had better Indonesian food in Melbourne.
Not sure why, but their ala carte menu like their noodles, chicken, fried fish, etc is not up to my Indonesian taste standards. I had their Mie Ayam which was a disappointment tbh. But as I said, their homemade fresh dishes makes up for it.
However, their Es Campur is definitely 5/5 though. Especially if you’re craving for some!
As an Indonesian, I’m not too impressed with the quality of their food considering the chefs are Indonesian themselves. It lacks that true Indonesian taste, at least in my opinion.
Overall a 4/5.
Super cheap food. $$/5
Reasonably good quality food. 🍲🍲🍲🍲/5
Service is not rude, but casual. 👨🏼💼👨🏼💼👨🏼💼/5
Establishment is needing a little maintenance.
🏢🏢🏢/5
The place is so much cleaner and newer, the food also delicious, fried chicken and rendang are a little tough tho.. but taste wise is yum! Always come back here from time to time..
Curry chicken was quite nice.
Food was so good. Their Hawthorn location has been around for years, it's always been a reliable spot for a good Rendang.
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