Hardena is not the newest of restaurants, but there are lots of reasons it’s been around as long as it has. This place is amazing.
More photos and some food descriptions after the jump.
Normally we try to post stuff here that we’ve found ourselves. In this case my buddy Scott was the informant, and it turns out that Philly Weekly has a review from 2005 and, wouldn’t you just know it, those damn PhillyFoodGuys wrote the place up in March!. Well, it’s nice to be in good company.
Well, I’m willing to let bygones be bygones in the case of a place as fun as this one.
There is one drawback to Hardena, and it’s that the place is so far south. It’s three blocks west of Broad Street on Moore. Look for the sign in the picture below, cause that’s the only way you can find it! It looks like a closed cornerstore. The first time Scott and I got down there it actually *was* closed. It happened to be the one day a week when the place is closed. I think it’s Monday. So plan ahead!
The easiest way to get on in is to just go back to the counter and ask for a little bit of everything. You can see from the photos above that we went all-out for just the two of us. When we first walked in the place was empty. Scott was a bit taken aback because apparently it had been packed full his last trip. We spent a few minutes saying hello to Hari and his wife Ena. According to Scott Hari used to be the chef for the Indonesian embassy. We ordered away with no hesitation. Ena was very accomodating and filled the styrofoam plates to the brim. If not having to pay servers and bussers is what keeps the prices so low I have no problem! Sometimes I wish other places that had really really fantastic food were self-service. Enough with the teasing already! Here comes the food!
Everybody talks about the satay, and with good reason. You get four skewers and a whole lot of a perfect peanut sauce. It’s not too sweet and it’s just thick enough to lay a nice smooth and crunchy covering over the skewer. Don’t forget that dark sauce with the jalapenos though. If you like spice like me you’ll want to spoon some of that on top as well. In the last section of the styrofoam plate is a selection of pickled veggies. A little of this after every piece of chicken makes for a very complex array of sweet, hot and tangy that just tickles the tastebuds.
Our next two plates were the mix-plates. Rijstaffel, I believe they’re called. I had beef rendang, some of the homemade tempeh, jackfruit and collard greens. The tempeh was interesting but a bit too bland for me. The jackfruit looks like meat or a fake meat, but tastes like a sweet and half-tart mix between the textures of pineapple and pudding. Fun! The beef rendang has a moderate kick to it and just falls apart in your mouth. The collard greens are right out of the Louisiana and taste like they’ve been cooked in some bacon fat! Worth going for them alone.
Perhaps Scott can comment and talk about his own dishes; I can’t remember everything he had!
The last dish was veggies with a peanut sauce and some garlic crisps. Very simple and straightforward, but a nice way to finish the meal. A peanut sauce salad! The garlic crisps I think are puffed rice or flour. I have no idea how they’re made but they’re fantastically potent (perhaps not the best way to finish the meal on second thought!).
As we finished up about twenty Indonesians came in and all of a sudden the place was jam-packed and jolly. Our bellies were full and we were pretty jolly ourselves. I hope my descriptions are enough to get you way down south to try this fantastic little place, and I hope I see you in there when you do! I stil have to try the homemade sambal and the whole fish and the…everything else!
2 responses so far ↓
1 momo // Nov 26, 2007 at 11:40 am
Let’s go.
2 mattohara // Jul 4, 2008 at 6:48 pm
and we went. and we called it good. and so it was good in those times. praise be.
Leave a Comment