Prawn spring roll!!!
Beef or lamb ribs!!!!!
But I won’t recommend soup buntun.
A little bit oily
Block M serves up authentic Indonesian cuisine that tastes great and does not break the bank.
On our most recent visit, we had the Ayam Balado and Ayam Bakar, both with rice. The chicken was generously portioned and expertly fried. The main highlight was the spicy sambal though. Man, it was spicy and tasty. I could spoon that down my throat all day!
To end the meal, I had the Teh Tarik which was warm, milky and not too sweet. The strong taste of tea woke me up after such a filling and satisfying meal.
Service was pleasant and efficient. In case you can't tell, I'm a huge fan of this place.
Great food. It was way better than I expected. The ambience isn't the best but the food is too good to pass. I would definitely go back. It's a must stop for any foodie.
Delicious!
I’d never heard of this joint but a friend suggested we meet there for lunch. I got there early and as soon as I saw plates coming out of the kitchen I knew he was onto something! I had the oxtail and it was freaking delicious! It came with a yummy soup, good rice and a delicious spicy sambal that was redolent of chilies and shrimp paste.
I can’t wait to go back and have the grilled chicken which looked fantastic as it went past...
Steven Yuniansyah Suyanto
+4
The ayam bakar is not bad and maybe for someone new to Indonesian food, they should try this restaurant. However, i ordered the soto and it doesnt really taste like soto. Would come here if i miss indonesian food :)
Had my first taste of Indonesian food today and I want more ! The staffs were friendly, my food was served within 10 mins of ordering. The food was flavourful and spicy- which is always a plus ! Only four stars because I still haven't tasted the rest of their dishes!. Definitely will be coming back for another taste test and quite possibly a 5/5 rating.
-S
I used to work around the corner and probably ate here twice a month at the least. Always Ayam Balado because it is SO GOOD. I don't work there any more but crave the heck out of it - like right now
Christopher Alex Pavlidis Garkinis
+4
Great place to eat! Service is quick, no mucking about. Food doesn't take too long to come, and despite staff often being a bit disinterested in conversation, the food is excellent. Ayam Bakar, Nasi goreng, Mi Goreng, Beef Renang - all well excecuted. The food here is delicious and well balanced in flavour, just watch the chilli sauce as it is very very spicy! I will come back here again and again hehehehe :)
Lovely atmosphere and staff; service was great and food prep was fast. The chicken tastes great on its own, and I’d definitely recommend the sauce served on the side if you don’t do well with spicy food, as that sauce is pants on fire hot.
This unassuming little place at the corner of Hardware lane and little Bourke street cooks so delicious food. I finally took the whole family here as they will leave Melbourne soon. They were so impressed with the flavour. The price is also very affordable. Obviously the lamb, fish and beef were cooked using their magic mix of spice and also the meat is so tender, almost falling off the bone. If any friends ask me for southeast Asian food in the city, this place is definitely on my list.
Great food, service and price!! Will always go back for the iga bakar and cheap teh ais (its instant but it's tasty!) beware of the sambas though.. crazy spicy!
Stephanie Karlinda Sari
+4
Must try the ikan bakar aka grilled fish !!! Came here since 2011 all the way from sydney for the ikan 😋 and became a regular visit everytime we visit melbourne
Very decent Indonesian cuisine we believe everyone will enjoy it! We have tried nasi campur, ayam bakar, iga bakar and ikan bakar and all the dishes we tried were good and enjoyable. Hoping the quality will be maintained!
Went here for dinner because my dad is craving for some rice. We were not disappointed! Everything taste delicious and the portion is huge!
What’s lacking is perhaps is an absent of hot sauce or sambal.
But it’s only a small thing. Don’t matter!
Located in Little Bourke Street, not hard to spot this place.. Order ayam balado- traditional style fried chicken served with famous Balado sauce.. My friend ordered ikan Balado.. chicken & the sauce taste good, not too spicy.. rice is plenty for a lady but vege is less.. overall good price for quick lunch in the city.. will come back next time to try the Iga bakar which is their signature dishes, unfortunately sold out/ not available during my visit today..
Great service and authentic food and reasonable prices. I had the grilled chicken, fried egg and soup combo. I plan to try migoreng next time I’m here :)
Totally recommend the iga bakar & iga balado as well as the jus alpukat. The ayam bakar is nice as well. Most of the things on the menu are delicious. However, some improvements need to be done on the mee goreng as it does not as good as the other on the menu. Overall, it’s one of my fav place.
Tried their Ayam bakar and I love it!! The chicken is super good just like the one in my hometown!
The only downside is the tiny places that makes it harder to go in/out
Cannot rave enough about this restaurant. If I don’t come here once a week I start getting cravings for it. The BEST chicken nasi goreng I’ve ever had, they can make it to your spice level and I would recommend ordering their chilli sauce yum! The Ikan Balado (fried fish in sambal sauce and rice) is droolworthy, sauce is simply a perfect combination of everything. We order those two dishes as a meal combo (with fried egg, drink and ox tail broth) for $37. Oh the hot milk ginger tea is also must!!
If you’re an Indonesian, you must MUST try this restaurant because it will fulfilling your craving for Indonesian food. And if you’re not Indonesian, you also NEED to check it out because Indonesian food is very delicious and this restaurant sure can give you a great impression of Indonesian food.
We ordered Nasi Goreng Ayam / Chicken Fried Rice and Ikan Bakar / Grilled Fish. They taste great with an affordable price. You will not regret it. However, sadly, I don’t like the crackers (kerupuk) in the fried rice because it’s hard to chew.
But other than that, it was a great experience
I have come so many many times only to have the whole fried/grilled fish (ikan balado or ikan bakar). If you dont like spicy sambal or not sure if it might be too spicy for you, request to have the sambal separated from your fish. It is usually quite a big fish for one person. But I could always finish it.
Elizabeth Diana Chandra
+4.5
As Indonesian citizen who stay far away from my country me feel homesick I want to eat Indonesian food and after shop around for Indonesian food I finally found Blok M the restaurant that can heal my feel homesickness amazing
their juice Avocado so yummyyyyyy, Indonesian crackers cruncy
nasi ayam, Soto made me feel like home
The place that I go if I miss Indonesian delicacies, especially the grilled chicken. Portion was reasonable. Taste is quite close to the flavor of home.
Had gado gado since i craved for veggies and it’s surprisingly big portion considering the price is $8!! It wasn’t spicy at all but i like the peanut sauce, need adding “lontong” & vermicelli noodles to make it more original.
![Zomato]( "Recensione")
Points for: authentic Indonesian
I’ll be honest – I haven’t had many Indonesian meals, and I wouldn’t know what’s legit or what the real distinction between Malaysian &
Singaporean is.
From what I can tell, and what I have heard, they are authentic and their dishes are tasty
The restaurant itself has a good number of tables, and is airconditioned as well, so it’s very comfortable and casual.
I went for the Nasi Campur, which is like a mix of
everything – pretty good value at $12.
Grilled chicken had a tasty marinade – you get the smokiness from the grill, the sugars have caramelised, and turmeric in there as well.
The ox tail soup was literally the soup itself – no veggies or oxtail. It was rich and flavoursome – clear, little film of oil on top, beefy, lightly salty and loads of star anise and cinnamon coming through.
The chilli sambal on the side gave the chicken an awesomely nice kick – it wasn’t crazy hot but gave you like a smouldering burn.
Would've been nice if they fried the egg so the yolk was still runny.
I’m interested to discover more, so I’ll be back to try other dishes!
Once you walk in, you feel transported back to Indonesia already. I had the Ayam Bakar, bbq grilled chicken with sambal belacan and salad vegetables. The chicken was definitely perfectly cooked and the sambal was the bomb. Overall, I thought food was so authentic and delicious but I may take away next time as the seating was actually really cramped since this was a small restaurant.
Me and my Indonesian friends love to go here just to remind ourselves of how good is the food back home. So happy with how this little resto serves an authentic taste of what we've been missing while we're in Melbourne. Try the nasi goreng! So good and the portion is crazy big for me - I'm not a big eater and the only time that I can finish it is by sharing it with 2 people.
I quite liked this place! One of the best Indonesian restaurants that I've tried in Melbourne. The nasi goreng was the best that I've had and I was so happy that a vegetarian option was available - not many places offer this option.
I had the soda gembira to drink. Wow. Too sweet. I wouldn't recommend it unless you like really sweet drinks! It looked pretty though. Also the drinks don't cost too much so it's very well valued!
The whole fish was also quite tasty as well.
Omg, it’s really delicious , spicy spicy . Great food great taste . Indonesia cuisine . Lot of surprise , unexpected the food and drinks tasty and delicious. Recommend the stir fry noodle , the “ayam Bakar “ mean grill chicken, And the drink “soda gembira “ cheers , yes the. Customer service is good . Thumbs up
Anything with sambal is obviously going to be a flavoursome winner. But sambal with some fried fish! Ding, ding, ding! A straight path to culinary victory. I love Indonesian food, so it's hard to go wrong anyway. But on the flip side, there are many ways to go right with Indonesian food, and Blok M is one of them that's got it pretty right!
A must try for south and East Asians . All the soups are amazing . Tried fried lamb and chicken with rice . Also the jackfruit drink was interesting . Will definitely be back . P.S Balado sauce was a bit on the sweeter side .
Come here with my friend a few times and always order Migoreng. I had really good experience the previous times. However, the last time I went there, one of us order fish and I ordered grilled chicken rice. Mine was ok but my friend got a pretty bad night after that dinner. He ordered fish everytime but last time was really bad. Overall, it's a good place for eating alone or a group up to 4 but maybe the fish there is not always fresh.
Followed our Malaysian friend's recommendation, we visited Blok M around the corner of Little Bourke Street. It serves exceptional food with very reasonable price. We ordered sop buntut goreng (oxtail with homemade sambal), iga balado (deep fried lamb ribs with balado or Indonesian chilli sambal sauce), lele balado (deep fried catfish), and nasi goreng (fried rice with your choice of meat). The average price ranges from $10- $12. What more,the teh tarik (milk tea) costs only $2, which would be $5 in Sydney.
the best Indonesian food in Melbourne ever.
the food is sooo tasty and delicious.
the price is very valuable.
the place is clean
the best here is the staffs who is working this evening.
so friendly, the waitress is really welcoming.
i've been there i think 4months ago but the seevice on that time is not friendly to me and so slow. so i'm glad that i'm happy with my second visit there. i'm living nearby so this place will probably be my dinner place when i'm lazy cooking. Lele balado with ice tea is my fav! but ask the chilli paste on the side if you can't eat super spicy food.
Love the grilled fish. It's a bit more expensive than normal at $16 but you get the whole good size fish. We also ordered the Ayam Balado which was really spicy but it was good. Add 3 dollars and you get fried egg, soup and a drink.
This is my go to place for Indonesian food. The two dishes I can't seem to steer away from is the grilled oxtail and the grilled lamb ribs. Packed full of flavour and falling off the bone. It is probably one of the few dishes that I can tolerate as Indonesian food can be extremely spicy at times (I push the sambal to the side). They also make great satay if you're feeling greedy.
One of the places that serves pretty decent Indonesian food. However, the restaurant can be a little oily in terms of the furniture. So just make sure you don't overdress for this place.
Rendang: a little too sweet but lack of spiciness. But meat texture was really good
Nasi goreng: you can never go wrong, fragrant, spicy, And filling
Ayam galado: portion is good, chicken is fried just nice but it would be better if the galado sauce was hot
Excellent food ...
best indo food in Melbourne chicken skews fantastic flavour
Other Chicken dishs great as well
Flavours better than other indo place
(Tuesday 4/10/2016)
Partner's review:
Came here for late lunch! Indonesian food seems like a great idea since both my friend and I were very much craving for Asian and spicy food! Went in and got served by a waiter that seems to be working solo! Though only a one man show, he was very efficient. Took our orders without delay and our orders arrived quick. I ordered Pecel Lele which is a meal which constitutes of deep fried cat fish served with rice and chili paste known as sambal. I really enjoyed the authenticity of my dish. The deep fried cat fish was really flavorful; crunchy on the outside due to spices and surprisingly tender on the inside! The fish goes really well with the rice and chili paste! A simple but really hearty meal for me! My friend who ordered the Nasi Campur was very much satisfied with her meal too! The setting inside was simple but cosy. We will certainly be back for more.
Best Nasi goerang I've tried in Australia. Should try the lamb Nasi. Ribs aren't really good. Too much fat. Would have been a fantastic dish otherwise. Only problem they have is lack of meal coordination. One I went with a group of 10. Dishes were going out to other tables for people came after us. We were almost finished by the time we got our last meal. Although fantastic food and must try.
Someone calls it simple, I call it authentic. Blok M has a story behind (see picture) and it is here in Melbourne by faith, love and hard work. I walked in expecting a homemade, hearty and spicy meal without any bling bling and thats what I got. I have ordered the Ayam Goreng, a classic within this cusine and with an extra 0.50c I got a cool Teh Kotak (Jasmin milk tea) for a grand total of $10.50.
The food came out quite quickly and it looked exactly like a grandma back in Indonesia would serve it (that's what I like to believe) as it was rustic and authentic. It remided me of the days of travels in Lombok and made me want to go back again. It is very spicy but that is how I like it and how it is supposed to be. Please if you feel like true Indonesian food come here. They accept both cards and cash. Terima kasih Blok M
Ps. I didnt take any photos on purpose of my food to don't discourage those users who stop at the look of it.
Anyone who comes to Melbourne should try Nasi Goreng and Satay here. Have not tasted anything close to what these Guys offer. Beef Rendang is also very good
Pretty good food. Mostly I order their Spicy Chicken Mie Goreng fresh from Wok. I always enjoy it. All their dishes are pretty good. They are not at all expensive in $11 I have a whole meal that I can't finish at a time so I always take away.
They can improve their sitting arrangement a bit, however I think it's a bit difficult in CBD. I'd love it if they can open another branch in another suburb. :)
Ok value for money. Sambal was bloody good with the Ayam Goreng, but the rest of the dish was uninspired and a slightly poor effort.
Totally agreed on the salad and rice being a waste of space. Why can't they recognise Australians AND expats want/appreciate great Indo food?
I haven't been back in Blok M for over a year now. This time I went with a group of friends, including three Indonesians. Last time I had Nasi Goreng which impressed me well. This time I had Cumi Bakar, grilled squid with peanut sauce. It took a while to come out, but it is worth it: tender sliced squid drizzled with a sweet sauce, and you can put the peanut sauce on top. Delicious. The service was good as well. We stayed to chat after we finished our meals. Unlike some Asian restaurants, no one tried to get rid of us. I really had a goid meal and a good time.
Tried this place a couple of times. I'd call this a small little lunch place for tasty Indonesian food. I had fried chicken ($11) with special sauce and it was quite nice.
Nice deep fried ox tail. Very authentic sambal chilli. Cheap. Too bad they don't sell alcohol here. Simple indonesian dishes that'll fill you up for $10.
I tried two dishes at Blok M. Both of them were grilled fish, though fishes of different kinds. The fishes were really tasty and done well. However, theres not much to the dish except for the fish with some rice, the garnish of lettuce and carrots is used again and again in the other dishes in the menu (you can see this when you scroll through the photos posted by another zomato members). I was expecting more garnish and condiments from the dish, but the price is very reasonable so I guess that it would be quite unfair of me to expect this. Overall, the food is tasty and I would certainly be there again should I need Indonesian food.
Perfecto! I can never get over their ayam balado! The spiciness of the sambal (chilli paste) is also really good! For those who are having a hard time finding proper spicy food in Melbourne, this place is for you!
The food here was great! The catfish was beautifully cooked and the sauce/marinade was delicious. My friend had a chicken dish which was just as tasty. I'd send caution to anyone thinking of eating here who can't handle spicy/chilli food. The chefs don't mess around when it comes to heat!
![Zomato]( "Recensione")
In our quest for a restaurant serving Indonesian fare (bored of Nelayan), came across this place on zomato and gave it a shot.
The place is like any other small Asian cafe, but the photos depicting the actual blok m in Indonesia and the story behind this restaurant elevate the ambience quite a bit. Ditto with the flags they give out when you place the order. It is the shape of an auto :)
Ordered the beef rendang combo and ayam goreng combo. Just means you get a teh kotak aka jasmine tea with the dish.
Both dishes come with a portion of rice and salad. The ayam had sambal as well. The portions weren't heavy but pretty decent.
The beef rendang was delicious and the meat was tender. Didn't touch the salad :-P
The ayam goreng had fried chicken and rice with sambal. Tasted nice, but we would have preferred gravy. If you like your dish dry with rice, you can give this a try. Be very careful with the sambal though. Just take a teeny bit and check if you can take the spice level!
Service was quick and the people are cheerful. You can read the history of the founder while waiting for your food.
The bill was $23. Not too bad at all!
Definitely recommend the place.
RealGirlSaysRealThings
+4
Sudden crave of authentic Indonesian cuisine.. Dropped by for lunch around 2, restaurant was almost empty but a lot of people coming and going with takeaways.
Had the fresh from the wok Mie Goreng. I asked for extra spicy, Indonesian spicy...not Oz lol. As soon as it arrived on the table I knew my craving was satisfied.
The lovely and distinct smell just told me this is an authentic Indonesian food, with a few prawn crackers on top and you could actually saw the chopped chillies mixed in. At first bite it was so full of flavour without being overly salty and I actually tasted the spice. Just the right amount of sweet soy sauce. Just the right amount of garlic, shallots and god knows what else they put in that simple yet divine dish.
Finished the whole thing in under 7 minutes. It was a lovely lunch and I will be back. Blok m express!!! Xox
Favourite among Indonesians so I guess I gotta try it. Had their Nasi Goreng Ayam extra spicy with Tahu Tempe Goreng and it was lovely. Cheap food but very fulfilling since the portion is sooo big, I even had to share mine. You'll feel like in Indonesian restaurant, with Indonesian waitress and music.
I'm an Indonesian who loves food and I love the food served at Blok M. I always have the gado2, with some extra kerupuk, and tried soto ayam which was good but I think they were too generous with the chicken. I would recommend to try gado2. Really good.
The beef rendang was exceptional and really, with a bit more rice, could happily feed two people as the meat and sauce is so rich. I'd give Blok M 5 stars only that the tables were dirty, as were the glasses for self-serve water, which leads you to wonder what is happening in the kitchen. Ordering can take ages (you order at the counter) when the people in front of you are umming and aahing and the cashier doesn't wave people through who know what they want to order (this would be helpful in the lunchtime rush). Still, I'd return just to have that rendang again. It was sublime.
This is the first time I tried Indonesian food and I have to say that I am impressed. Full of flavour and spice and not mention massive portions at affordable prices, sounds like a Student dream.
The ambience could do a little work as it really downsizes the food for a first impression.
Delicious and Authentic. I bloody love this place. I have dreams about the fatty lamb balado ribs, perfect if you're craving comfort food in the CBD. The lunch menu usually has specials where you can get a meal and teh tehrik for $10 which is great value for the quality of food served.
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