Indonesia. The country sounds as cool as the food is tasty. Thankfully, we didn’t have to travel quite as far to taste the flavours of this wonderful archipelago.

We did, however, travel a little way from our home in Carlington to get to Djakarta Taste in Gatineau. It opened in 2022 and is today located in a little strip mall where a Mexican restaurant stood until quite recently. The signs have still not been fully changed. Hopefully Indonesian food will become the next neighbourhood haunt on Boulevard Fournier.

I ordered the nasi padang. This came with two spring rolls, a chicken leg, rice, cucumber-carrot salad, fish broth to go with the rice and rendang. This last dish was truly incredible and reminded us of the mustard-oil coated bihari kebabs from India, which are some of our favorite kebabs.

Ameya ordered the chicken mi goreng—fried noodles fried with carrots, red cabbage, bok choy and chicken, topped with a fried egg. What really rounded out the whole meal was the homemade sambal—a fiery chili sauce ubiquitous in parts of southeast Asia—and a peanut sauce and a sweet and spicy dipping sauce.

By the end of the meal, my mouth was on fire, but that’s because I added too much sambal to my plate. Otherwise, the spice-levels were mild and you can add the sauces to intensify the experience, or not, as you prefer.

The staff were kind and called the owner on her phone so we could get the scoop on their story. Turns out the restaurant relocated to Boulevard Fournier last year. They were originally located on Boulevard Saint-Joseph and have the good fortune of most of their regular clientele following them to the new location.

However, not many people in the area know about the restaurant, Atika, the owner, told us. Originally from Indonesia, she proudly added how the restaurant prepares everything fresh, including their spicy sabal sauce and the rendang, which blew us away.

We could taste this in the food, which was incredible and well-priced. We paid just over $40 for our food and left with lots of leftovers for dinner, promising the wonderful servers we’ll return to try, among other items, the nasi goreng.