Jakarta's Best Hakka Food is Hidden In a Tiny Alley

The streets of Jakarta's historical Chinatown are made for getting lost. Glodok is a warren of narrow alleys and colorful streets, each of them imbued with the neighborhood's sometimes turbulent history. Glodok has been the site of repeated anti-Chinese riots that left some pretty deep scars that are still visible today.

Most of the city's ethnic Chinese community have long moved on from Glodok, resettling in tony neighborhoods like Pluit, Pantai Indah Kapuk, and residential developments in the city's west. But Glodok is still the best place to go if you want some classic Chinese home cooking.

Wong Fu Kie is so good it doesn't need to advertise anymore. This is a bit of a double-edged sword. The restaurant's low-key atmosphere means that everyone who should know about the place already know where to find it. But what about the rest of us? What about me?

I love Chinese food. I used to live in Chongqing, a rapidly growing city in Southwest China. The city was close to the Sichuan region and the food took on the mouth-numbing spiciness of local cuisine. So while I loved how Chinese food tasted, I also used to think it was way too spicy to eat all that often. That's when someone told me about Hakka food.

A lot of Southeast Asia's ethnic Chinese communities have roots in the Hakka-speaking regions of Southeast China, where the local cuisine is more savory than spicy. Hakka food incorporates savory, garlic-heavy dishes that are absolutely perfect for people who love Chinese food but can't handle all that heat.

So where can you find some of the best Hakka food in Jakarta? Wong Fu Kie. My friend Yudistira and I were looking for some seriously authentic—but still affordable—Chinese food when he suggested a trip to the legendary Glodok restaurant.

"I swear, the eel is amazing," he told me. "I don't even know how to describe it."

Wong Fu Kie doesn't make it easy for hungry first-time visitors. I was imagining a grand place with a huge sign outside and a bunch of big round tables filling out the dining area. (Yeah, I realize now that I was imagining a dim sum place, but whatever, that's what came to mind.)

The real Wong Fu Kie is something very different. The restaurant is in a tiny alley off Jalan Perniagaan Timur. There's no big sign, so you just need to know that it's in building number 22 or you'll end up walking right by it and wandering the back alleys of Glodok forever.

We walked through the front door and found a small, modest place decorated with Chinese almanacs and old photos. We took a seat at a table in the corner and met the owner, a man named Tjokro Indrawirawan Kusnadi.

Tjokro is the third generation of his family to run Wong Fu Kie. He took down an old black-and-white picture and showed me a photo of the restaurant's first location.

"Look at my grandfather's picture," he said. "This restaurant started in 1925. It used to be on the main road, but then it moved here in the 1970s. Wong Fu Kie was passed down from one generation to the other. My friend is a poet, so he just made the name up. 'Wong' means 'yellow' like the Yellow River in Mainland China, we hope it brings prosperity to our restaurant. And 'Fu' means people will remember this restaurant forever."

The location may have changed, but the menu has remained the same, Tjokro said. The original recipes were for authentic Hakka food, something Wong Fu Kie still makes today.

"Other restaurants modify their menu," Tjokro told me. "For example the fried shrimp is made with butter. But in Hakka, we use garlic and tape (fermented sticky rice) instead."

We ordered some Mun Kiaw Mien Seafood, Wong San Fumak, and boiled chicken. The Mun Kiaw Mien noodles were served mun style. That means they were not exactly dry, but they weren't in soup either. The noodles came with boiled dumplings, vegetables, and seafood. It's not only super authentic, but it's also one of the dishes you can only find in Wong Fu Kie.

"No other place makes Mun Kiaw Mien in Jakarta," the waiter explained.

Indonesian food is full of noodle dishes, but none like Mun Kiaw Mien. The dish was more savory that I was used to, and it has a more neutral taste that you can customize to your personal preference with chilis.

The Wong San Fumak came out next. This is the eel that Yudistira loves so much—and it's the main reason we came out to Wong Fu Kie in the first place. The eel is chopped, deep fried, and covered in this amazing sauce. The sauce made the eel look red in color, but it was more sweet and sour than spicy. The eel was crispy, the sauce smooth, and the whole thing was so good that it was worth the trip alone.

The last thing we ordered was boiled chicken breast served with oil and fried garlic. The meat was juicy on the inside and savory on the outside. It's another authentic Hakka dish, and one that proved to me that nearly everything at Wong Fu Kie is great. You can seriously walk in, sit down, and order anything on the menu and sit back knowing there's no wrong choice.

It was the perfect meal to remind me what I loved so much about living in Mainland China. I left Wong Fu Kie missing the amazing meals my host family used to make for dinner. One day I'll head back to Chongqing to say hi. But until then, it's nice to know I have Wong Fu Kie right here.