Tempo Doeloe Awards

Tempo Doeloe Restaurant Review:

It means “old days” in Indonesian, and there is a kind of simple, old-world charm to the place: a lovely, tiny dining room---to which you gain entry by ringing the bell---provides the forum in which the “kokkie” (cook) works her devilish magic with incendiary chilies. Think you can handle the heat? Try the grilled skewers of goat with hot soy or maybe the steamed mackerel in a hot chili pepper sauce---you win a kewpie doll if you don’t break a sweat (don’t worry, the Indonesian beers are mighty quenching). The restaurant offers an array of fixed-price menus of traditional dishes from Java, Bali and Sumatra as well as rijsttafelen (rice tables), with up to 25 little dishes of curries, pickles and veggies to ladle over fragrant white rice. Reservations are a must, and children may find many dishes too spicy.