When @zendonesian moved from EP LP, I knew he was off to do great things. And boy is he delivering on that! Not just by joining another restaurant and using his skills to enhance their menu, but by doing his own thing with Inda. You’re not going to find Inda through are website, or a brick & mortar permanent home (yet),you need to keep up with their Insta and get part of the Inda dining community to know what’s what.
Inda is a exquisite Indonesian, modern fine dining in a pop up environment. They bang out an 8 course tasting menu in a space that isn’t their own that will wow your pants off. Ours was in a knife store! Think about the planning & discipline needed to pull that off! and the other bonus? Your set menu price covers EVERYTHING! Wine pairing, tip, tax, everything!
All right, let’s get to the important stuff: the food! Our menu was centered around kanpachi,, an amazing, exclusively exported fish. I am a big seafood fan, though I never used to be, so my brain goes straight to “I hope it’s not too fishy”, but my brain worried for nothing!
the most difficult part about this menu? Picking your favourite dish. Seriously! I’ve narrowed it to 2 but it was really hard to do!
We started with the Sayuran Pasar, kind of like an Indonesian style satay. My god it was flavoursome. They put the dish down and said it’s to eat over the next couple of courses, we DEVOURED it.
At one point they tried to take the dish away and our whole group yelled “NO!” And look how beautifully presented it was. I enjoyed the different veg with it, giving different crispness and taste along side the sauce. The crumbly stuff is the dried fish skin. Even if you’re not a fish skin person, it’s a good addition to the sauce, a little extra something, something.
Next up was the ikan mentah.
It’s hard to see in this pic but they have carved the jicama into fish scales, it was beautiful. The coconut milk worked really well with the fish, making this a light & delightful dish.
Kembang Goyang: a savory shaking flower. Holy guacamole this was good, one of my favourite. It had the fish belly, some onion, avocado and these beautiful flowers on it. You could honestly sit there and eat these all night.
Rujak: the least pretty of the dishes, but don’t worry, it made up for it in flavour. Sashimi, with mango, lime and some tamarind. It’s a winning combo.
Soto Ikan. Right this is one of my fav’s, possibly THE fav. It was like the best chicken soup you’ve ever had, but it wasn’t chicken. It was fish. It tasted so damn good and brought so much comfort and happiness, I’m pretty sure it can cure anything. Then you had the roe setting off little fire works in your mouth. This dish needs to be a permanent menu item, and I need a continuous supply. Annoyingly, I find soup hard to do any justice in a photo. So you’ll have to take my word for it, then try it the first opportunity you get.
Makan Dengan Tangan: I am a massive rendang fan, I mean massive. I think there is a serious shortage of it in LA. Enter the Inda rendang, this time with fish! It was everything I wanted it to be and more. We scoffed it down.
Oh yeah, 2 photos good people! It had a side of possibly the most delicious roti I’ve had, and you just dug in and enjoyed. I knew @zendonesiam was going to bring it with a rendang, I did not know how mind blowing it was going to be with the fish component.
Then it was onto the dessert courses. As you probably know, I’m not a big dessert person, but these were light, not sweet and surprising. Basically the perfect dessert for me (except for chocolate croissant bread & butter pudding cake, but that’s a different story).
The Klepon Kelapa was soft and almost caramelly inside. We had a woman from Indonesia on our table and it’s fair to say she swooned when she tried this. 
The other dish was Jeruk Asam. Kind of like an Indonesian shaved ice with a beautiful citrus flavour. Oh yes, shaved ice out of a non-kitchen space, that is resourcefulness people!
This dining experience is going down as one of my highlights of the year. They created a gorgeous menu and blended it with this shared dining experience; bring different people together and connecting them through food. Throughout your courses, you are getting to know each other and your good as they talk you through each dish.
You better believe I’ll be getting tickets for the next one, and you should too (but after me, seats are limited).
Jilltopia 