A bright, breezy Indonesian eatery fuelled by a nostalgia for home.
Evoking the feeling of a warung, Suku has something resembling cult status in Fremantle. On weekends, punters crowd this hole-in-the-wall venue to savour its regional specialties, from grilled skewers of spiced minced chicken, known as satay lilit, to the classic Javanese vegetable dish gado-gado.
Translating to ‘tribe’ in Indonesian, Suku is a labour of love for life partners Ria Zulkarnaen and Nick Mailenzun, who moved to Perth in 2013 and began recreating the food they missed from home. You can certainly feel their love for Indonesia throughout the restaurant, with wooden tables salvaged from Javanese fishing boats and a colourful mural depicting happy diners feasting beneath towering palms.
The nasi Bali is a textural delight with hand-shredded chicken and rice combining with a sweet, spicy mix of chicken crackling, peanuts, vegetables and housemade sambal matah.
But the star of the show is undoubtedly the food. The nasi Bali is a textural delight with hand-shredded chicken and rice combining with a sweet, spicy mix of chicken crackling, peanuts, vegetables and housemade sambal matah – a heady mix of chillies, shallots, lime and coconut oil – while the spicy beef rendang is carefully balanced with sweet acar, the pickled Indonesian vegetables, and fried onions. Be sure to pair it with the es cendol, a delicious, creamy coconut milk drink which, like the entire Suku experience, transports you straight to the Indonesian archipelago.
