Sumatra Restaurant

Summatra was one of the first places we ate out in PP. Some friends went there religiously for their weekly date lunch.

We like it. Staff/food/menu/atmosphere is generally good. It's also cheap.

Portion sizes are on the small size so treat it like tapas.

Our main beef with the place is the amount of Chilli. On our first visit the Egg Plant Ballado was amazing. Now it's a russian roulette affair. Sometimes it's mild, others it blow your head off. Even when we asked for mild it was still too hot for my wife to eat.

They cope with large groups well - have been there with 20 or so and still alll orders are correct and food brought out in good time.

I've been to Sumatra several times since it is close to my office and I have one major problem with going there: I can't order anything other than the spicy eggplant.

A huge bargain at $1.50, the dish is so delicious that I can't find a way of ordering anything else. However, I've tasted many of my companions' dishes and found most of them to be almost as tasty. One of the duck dishes was very bony and didn't have much meat on it but everything else I've tasted has been great: chicken satay (great sauce), morning glory and noodle dishes.

During the hot season, it can be steamy since the outdoor patio doesn't have many fans but the value for the money is excellent and worth many a return visit.

We attempted to try this restaurant the last 2 sundays then realized that they decided to close every sundays! Anyway, there on saturday and we were not disappointed with the food.

Rendeng, vegetable curry, chicken ayam were what we tried. All were very very good. By far i would say this is the best Indonesian restaurant we tried in PP!

Service was alright - not enthusiastic nor attentive when we visited but literally it doesnt matter in this case. Their food was fantastic!

I keep going back to this place, especially for the Balinese chicken ... barbequed spicy loveliness. Other reviewers have nailed the ambience. It's great value and tasty food.  

Saw couple of reviews about this place and thought I wanted to try. It was confirmed by my Indonesian friends that this restaurant is one of the recommended Indonesian restaurants here (well, there is only a handful of them really).

I ordered beef rendang and chicken rica to try (there is a chill sign next to chicken rica but dont let that scare you. the staff can actually tell the kitchen to tone the spicyness down for you if you want. that was what i did). Both dishes were served quickly. Beef rendang was tender, juicy and the gravy was not too rich/thick. Chicken Rica was quite refreshing with fresh herbs being stir-fried in. The a la carte menu is really reasonable - price range is around $ 2-3 making it affordable to get few different dishes to share among friends.

Service was OK and straight forward.

We know the boss-lady and was brought for a lunch a few weeks ago.  Although we had to sit outside the restaurant, as it was full for lunch, they set up a few fans and we cooled down fast.  They support training of Cambodians as junior chefs to give them a trade.  Our friend's son was in training here.

Ambience:  an old house converted to restaurant,  cool in the shade.

Food:  Exactly like former Sanur in Singapore, Rendang was great, oxtail soup tasty, sayur lode made me think of home.  

Value:  Great value, even by PP's standard.

Service:  Pleasant all round !

Sumatra is an Indonesian restaurant located not far from the Russian Market.  Having lived in Singapore for many years, I became an avid fan of Indonesian cuisine and I was really excited to find this place.  Although Phnom Penh is well served by restaurants, Indonesian restaurants are quite thin on the ground.  This place seems to have quite a low profile, but when we went this lunchtime it was obvious that it has a large following.  By 12.30, the restaurant was almost full!

The restaurant is in the ground floor of a wooden villa and you can sit in or outside underneath umbrellas on rattan chairs.  

We ordered beef rendang, vegetable curry and bbq chicken.  When the food arrived and we tasted the rendang, we immediately ordered one more!  All the dishes were excellent, but the rendang was brilliant.  It was cooked just like my favourite Singapore Indonesian stall, with tender beef and a thick, rich, sweet and spicy sauce.  Wonderful.  The bbq smashed chicken (ayam penyat) was also extremely tasty having been well marinated and the veg curry was also great.  Other dishes on the menu all looked delicious, and I noticed at the end they had a selection of one plate dishes which would be great if you are dining solo.

Service started great - food delivered fast, but towards the end when the restaurant filled up it was a little slow and they seemed a bit overwhelmed.  Maybe they were not prepared for the rush of people coming for the excellent food!

Overall - a great little gem of a place and one I am sure I will be back to many times.