Warung Lele Restaurant

Me and the family were back at Kandahar Street following last weekend's lunch at Sabar Menanti. This time round though we decided to try out Warung Lele and see what it has to offer.

Yellow Rice


First, choose between Indonesian yellow or white steamed rice. Good news for those stocking up on the carbo - rice is free flow.

Beef Rendang: 3.5/5


The beef rendang was quite good, the beef chunks were tender (they didn't seem so on the outside) and the spices were pretty appetising. A tad oily though.

Ayam Kalio: 4.5/5


"Padang style curry chicken". Close decision, but yes this is slightly better than it's Ayam Opor counterpart from Sabar Menanti. Fragrant curry with just enough chillies to make it a little bit spicier. Chicken was wonderfully tender too.

Ayam Bakar Bumbu Santan: 2.75/5


"Cilandak homemade marinated BBQ chicken". I thought this was just alright, the chicken was quite dry though.

Ayam Kalasan: 2.5/5


I didn't get the menu's introduction to this dish but it's basically fried chicken. We didn't mean to order this but one of my sisters refused to eat the ayam bakar (see above) just because it has that bit of chilli on it. Sometimes I wonder if she is really my sister. The chicken was quite dry and the light honey sauce couldn't save this dish.

Lele Pecel: 3.5/5


"Deep-fried catfish served with special chilli sauce". If you're still wondering why this place is called "Warung Lele", this dish perhaps will give you a good hint why. "Lele" refers to catfish, and quite a few of this restaurant's fish dishes feature it. It was fresh and nicely fried, but truth be told I couldn't tell much difference between this and... normal fried fish?

Tahu Telor: 3.25/5


I've eaten so many Tahu Telors before and this one just couldn't impress me much. While it was a little crispy on the outside, it was too soft on the inside, so much so that if you're not careful, you're going to end up making a mess of the soft beancurd.

Kangkong Sambal Belacan: 4/5


"Kangkong vegetable stir-fried with sambal belacan". I think the vegetable dishes were more satisfying than many of the other dishes we had, and with good reason. They were fresh, sweet and in this case, spicy. Yums.

Kai Lan ca Udang: 4/5


"Baby kailan vegetable stir-fried with prawns". A few juicy prawns and a good serving of sweet and tasty fried vegetables. In a rare moment, I actually prefer my veggies to my meats.

Service
Very good. There's a personal touch to it because the manager/owner himself was doing the serving and he took time to interact with us. I wanted to order the "Es Cendol", a traditional Indonesian dessert, but he came back to me after a while and told me he wasn't satisfied with the day's quality of Cendol and decided not to sell it. I think such things show some measure of responsibility and I appreciated his honesty.

Price
$4.00 for the ayam kalio
$4.00 for the ayam bakar bumbu santan
$4.00 for the ayam kalasan
$7.50 for the lele pecel
$7.00 for the tahu telor
$3.60 for the kangkong sambal belacan
$3.80 for the kailan ca udang
$1.20 for a one-time order of rice (white/yellow) [free-flow]
$2.50 for hot coffee [free-flow]
$3.00 for a can of soft drink
$1.00 for a small basket of emping, Indonesian crackers

* All dishes were ordered in "small" portions.
** Prices inclusive of GST. No service charge.

For more on the menu, click here.

Place
32 Kandahar Street, near Sultan Mosque.
Nearest MRT should be Bugis.