Sky Cafe

I always eat at Sky Café at Philadelphia, but now they closed because of fire :(
So when I went to JFK airport I decided to eat at Sky Café at New York.
The price still cheap for New York area, cheaper than other Indonesia Restaurant.
But they don’t have pork here, they have the same menu with the one at Philly but no pork so the taste a bit different.
I order Soto Mie which is not bad, well at at Philly they don’t have this. And finally I can drink Es Sekoteng Medan! Sometimes they don’t have this at Philly.

My go-​to Indonesian spot. Cheap, authentic indo food. Can’t go wrong with the rice dishes; more like comfort food for me. I always order the Es teler drink to soothe the heat of whatever your eating. The wife and I have been trying the various soup and stir fry noodles & have been pretty happy so far. Good portions for the price. Ordering to go is great because the package everything really nicely. No mess!

This is currently hands down the best Indonesian restaurant in NYC, and possibly in the whole of the United States! The mie komplit is divine and the texture of the noodles is so chewy and yummy!!! Chicken wings are to die for — what do they use for their spices??? So wonderful! They also apparently use all natural ingredients and never add artificial flavors or MSG to their food. Everything is really good here. Great prices, heavenly food that warms the cockles of your heart, and friendly and helpful staff. HIGHLY reccomend!

Authentic Indonesian home cookin! A hardworking chef and dedicated staff happy to serve with pride the food of their homeland! This tiny low key Elmhurst spot is really chill and welcoming. Around the corner from Broadway and Elmhurst Ave train stop, the extra steps on your Fitbit are just one bonus! Try the Gado Gado and any number of soups, noodle, and rice dishes. Ask questions — the staff wants to share with you!

Best Indonesian food in the Northeast, along with the Sky Café in Philadelphia! As you can see, we ordered Ayam Goreng Sambal Ijo, Batagor, Crispy Chicken Wings, Fried Tempeh, Pempek, Gado-​gado, Sate Ayam, Mie Komplit, & Sop Buntut. Everything was delightful, & having to travel to Indonesia many times, I can assure you the authenticity of these dishes! My personal favorites are the Crispy Chicken Wings (orgasmic!), Fried Tempeh (very hard to find fresh, authentic one like here!), & Mie Komplit (noodles are hand-​made & bouncy). We also met the very friendly Aunty (owner & cook) who’s originally from North Sumatra, Indonesia. Highly recommended & will definitely return!

I adore Indonesian food and will trek far and wide for a meal at a favorite restaurant. So, when Borobudur, which was in this exact location, closed down years ago a little part of me died along with it. It’s been perhaps 3 or 4 years since it closed, but I still dream about Borobudur’s Sambal Udang Petai (Chili Shrimp with Stink Beans) – quite possibly the most delicious dish ever crafted by a human being. The shrimp was flash fried in super high heat very quickly so that the outer shell was crisp, thin, fragile, and crumbled when you bit into it. Because the shell was so crispy and delicate you could eat the shrimp whole. The shell gave the shrimp a fantastic flavor and texture – crispy on the outside, juicy within. The stink beans were also flash fried in high heat and the strong smell complemented the dish nicely. I’m describing this in detail in hopes that someone at Sky Café will read my review and put this dish on the menu! I’ve no idea how it’s made, so can’t prepare it at home, and have been missing it bad.
Sky Net is no Borobudur, but I am impressed with the similarities. While the batagor may have more tofu than fish dumplings and the sauce may not be all that good as some reviewers claim, it is still the best batagor in NYC! And if you don’t know how to make batagor like me, this is better than nothing! I like the Ikan balado as well. Balado is a type of sambal sauce from Western Sumatra. I’m sure it’s probably not entirely authentic, but it is still probably the best balado sauce you will find at a restaurant in NYC!
If you’re looking for drinks, there’s Teh Botol, the popular sweetened iced tea made from jasmine leaves packaged in juice boxes. You can find those in the freezer near the cash register. They also serve a good Es Teler drink, which is similar to a Colombian cholado, but is filled with bite-​sized southeast Asian fruit, like jackfruit, and the base is not dairy but rather coconut milk, which is a much healthier alternative to dairy!
Bottom line is that Sky Café serves the best Indonesian food available in NYC right now.

Great Indonesian food in Elmhurst! Love the batagor, gado-​gado, and mei belachan.

My new spot!!! Gotta go back for more Indonesian cuisine.
It’s a small unassuming restaurant but the host is very friendly and the food comes quickly. My girlfriend and I ordered a few different items and very thing was good…

I have eaten Indonesian Snack before, but this was the first serious Indonesian meal. I chose Indonesian because I have heard about Nasi Goreng (Indonesian Fried Rice).
I chose here because of good review. Our server was friendly. The pricing was very reasonable. Most of entrée are under $ 10. I ordered Nasi Goreng special. The server asked how spicy I want. I ordered mild. The fried rice contains chopped shrimp, chicken and fish cake. It was good and as I heard Japanese people talk about this dish, it was Japanese people’s taste friendly. I liked sliced tomato, cucumber and shrimp cracker was on the side. Tomato and cucumber was not seasoned, but the rice has strong flavor, the simple slices were refreshing. Shrimp crackers were fried, but not so greasy and good. I want to eat them for snacking, too.
I had chicken on skewer with peanuts sauce for appetizer. It was flavorful, but little bit too sweet for me.
I tasted my boyfriend’s fired chicken with coconuts rice, tempeh, fried tofu and spicy sauce. Fried Chicken was dry and bland. Coconut rice was fragrant and interesting. It was white seasoned rice, but I felt like I was eating Indian curry. Tempeh was fried and had a good aroma of soy bean. Fried Tofu was okay. The spicy sauce came in small container. It tried only little bit, but it was very spicy. It tasted like a Filipino restaurant’s shrimp paste’s spicy version. So I think this sauce was made of tiny tiny shrimps. My boyfriend didn’t like the sauce at all although he likes spicy food.
They also sells sweet and savory snacks on the shelf. For example, pineapple cookies, shrimp cracker, anchovy and nuts cracker. I think they are not making these in the restaurant. They are buying from Indonesian bakery. Pricing of snacks I saw were $ 5 -$ 11.

I believe it is hard to find a better deal than the $ 5 nasi uduk served here. $ 5 for coconut rice and four sides! And other dishes I tried are all cheap and delicious.

3.5 Stars!
This place is small with only few tables. We were here for dinner around 8pm on a Saturday night. The place was pretty busy. We got the Sate Padang, Batagor, Mie Kepiting, & the Pecel Lele. The food was good but not the best Indonesian food we had here in NYC. The Mie Kepiting (noodles with crab meat) is probably what we like most. It’s pretty close to the one they served in Indonesia. It was delicious!
The portion is decent. In our opinion, ordering an appetizer is a must here because the portion of the entrée isn’t huge. We weren’t stuffed with 2 appetizers & 2 entrees but it was just enough. All total, we spent about $ 33.
The service was good. Our water was never empty. Our waiter was very attentive.
There aren’t that many Indonesian restaurants out here in NYC. The choices are very limited. This place is worth stopping by but we prefer the Asian Taste 86 which is only few doors down.

The sate padang is an excellent way to start your meal.
Following by ikan balado as entrée aka fried fish topped with spicy sauce .
Finally for dessert i shared some es teler and it was to tasty and definitely give a 5 star

I was a proud patron of the Sky Café Philadelphia back when I lived there. I’ve been craving to go there ever since they announced the opening of New York branch, but finally got a chance to go there last weekend! As expected, the food is just as awesome!
It’s a bit of a walk from the subway station, but definitely worth it. It’s a small place on a curve of a street, but they have distinctive red awning saying «Sky Café» so you can’t miss it. It’s a small hole-​in-​the wall place, slightly smaller than the Philly one, but it makes the atmosphere very friendly and intimate.
My non-​Indonesian boyfriend bravely ordered «Mie Ayam» on his own, and boy, he fell in love with it. As usual, I ordered my favorite «Lontong Sayur» to complement the rainy day outside. If we weren’t heading for a major basketball event afterwards, I would had been ordering other dishes to-​go to bring back home in Bergen County, NJ. Maybe I’ll come back to Elmhurst one day, specifically just to order food and grocery shop =)

Came back last night to have my boyfriend try some more Indonesian dishes. We started off with batagor and gado2 for appetizers. He wanted the gado2 because he fell in love with it when my grandma made some from him.
To my disappointment, both the gado2 and the batagor did not deliver. There were more tofus than fishcakes in the batagor and the sauce lacked flavor. Their gado2 was not any better. Why would you use American lettuce in an Indonesian dish. Just did not fit. Sure the portion was big, BUT we could not even finish it because well. we did not want to. It just was not good.
My mie komplit was meh. Props to them for handmaking their own noodles, but as a lover of noodles, it hurts me to say that I preferred Boky or ramen noodles over Sky Café’s. My boyfriend enjoyed his ikan balado but the fish was too crispy. At first, it looked like it barely had any meat!
On a more positive note, the server was cool. Unfortunately, I won’t be returning unless someone else is paying. Sad to say what they served was an insult to the Indonesian cuisine. I felt the need to apologize to my boyfriend after the meal.

I used to go to the Sky Café in Philadelphia and know that noodles are their specialty. I think they had a rough start but my experience yesterday was great.
As always, we ordered too much but somehow were able to finished them all.
Gado Gado — indonesian salad with peanut sauce. Note, they boiled some of the veggie and the peanut sauce is slightly warm, just how like they serve it in Indonesia.
Empek empek — deep fried fish cakes inside a vinegary sweet and spicy soup with noodles. Not the best I’ve had but I like the sauce. Note — super spicy soup.
Mi Komplit — the highlight. The noodle is vey different and unique to noodles in the Medan region in Indonesia. Very close to the version I used to have from home. This dish is the one that will bring me back here.
Catfish rice plater — comes with coconut rice, fried tofu and Tempe. The sambel terasi makes the dish. Pretty decent but the restaurant two doors down makes it better I think.
Service is very ‘ramah’ (friendly) and efficient. You have to go outside and down a steep flight of stairs to get to the restroom. I find that odd but it is very clean.
If they are able to keep this standard, I think this restaurant will break the telltale curse of this location.

Lawlite
Great restaurant! The people are nice and prices are affordable. Definitely try the Indonesian fried rice and the mie komplit.

Chef of sky café who makes authentic mie komplit — gummy Indonesian noodle with meatballs and braised chicken in garlic sweet soy sauce. This is Medanese comfort food and so rare to find it but in NY. Like the movie Ratattoui, it made me cry of wonderful memories of my childhood.
And if you are looking an easy dessert, check out the cashew snow cookies, I don’t know why they call it snow cookies, since we have no snow in Indonesia. But they are light, fluffy and delicious.

PROS: It’s inexpensive, yet pretty decent food. The Mi complit was overall good, but lacked depth in the seasoning. The staff was polite and accommodating as well.
CONS: The overall experience wasn’t mind blowing. But this restaurant is still new and has the potential to improve.

When I heard Mie Jakarta had closed down, I was heart broken. But now another Indonesian restaurant has popped up in the same location so my heart has healed!
The space is still small, although it looks like they might be opening a basement level in the future. The bathroom is located downstairs, where you have to go outside, down the stairs, into the basement and all the way back. It’s a little odd.
The menu showcases typical Indonesian meals such as Gado Gado (steamed vegetables in peanut sauce), Satay Ayam (skewered grilled chicken with peanut sauce) and Beef Rendang (beef curry). I loved that they offered three types of chili sauces (aka sambal), including my favorite — Belacan, which is a sambal with shrimp paste so it’s a little more potent and salty. Each dish ranges from $ 6-​$ 10 and none are heavily portioned so ordering family style is a good way to go! We ordered several apps and entrees and between the 4 of us, the bill came to $ 47.
The one thing I wish they could add to the menu (which Mie Jakarta offered) are some traditional Indonesian drinks but could also be a dessert time, such as Es Cendol. Sky Café is still new so I’m hoping they might add this in the future!
This spot is CASH ONLY so don’t forget to come on an empty belly and plenty of dolla dolla bills in your wallet.

There’s always room for another spin on one of the worlds most diverse cuisines and this Elmhurst newcomer is off to a promising start.
The staff here is exceptional prepped to welcome cultural crossover. I have some multicultural dining experience under my belt (literally) but I still appreciated the polite inquiries about our spice tolerance, familiarity with shrimp paste and other preliminaries that benefit the uninitiated. No worries regarding linguistic barriers for English speakers.
We tried two dishes on our first visit. My partner said the super crispy catfish «was her faborite fish ever.» I’m careful doling out praise that high, but it was impressive. A modest size piece of fish, miraculously transformed by frying, a merry crunch yielding quickly to an inside so tender you could eat the bones if you were inclined. Creamy flavor. The tempeh, tofu and cucumbers rounded the plate out served over fragrant coconut rice. Use the condiments, sparingly if you are a newbie, but know the dish is meant to be dressed.
The crab noodles are great for late evening dining (we were there at 9 with 30 minutes till closing). Jaunty noodles with a solid spring to the bite but yielding. Generously crabbed and including intense meatballs and dumplings. Again, the diner bears some responsibility in the «post-​production» here. Add the laid-​back broth provided with an eye towards soupifying without soggifying and add hot sauce per personal discretion and you will be able to claim a piece of pride in your excellent meal.
Everything in the menu is priced $ 6 – 10 bucks (and weighted towards the cheaper end).
Is this spot cursed? I hope not. A series of perfectly good kitchens have closed in this location. This is not much of a retrofitting of the previous restaurant but a significantly different menu. The décor and bright lights may be a bit quotidian but the food is definitely a cut above.
I’m putting my blessings and dollars on this joint going long term.