Satay Sarinah

Yummy, and very pleasant space & staff.

In keeping with the unexpected gem in a strip mall theme, Satay Sarinah is well worth the drive & wander past a upholstery store & a concrete vendor.

I was hungry, tired, and a bit spacey, so the fact that I ended up with a lot of tasty vegetarian food was quite nice :-)

I started with the tempe fritters — there has only been one other restaurant serving tempe, which I love, so of course I had to try it. It was nice, given that I had no idea what I was getting: thin slices about the size of a credit card, in a simple (tempura-like) batter, served with satay-style peanut sauce.

Pickles! Yay! I was hoping for “real” pickles (contrary to what some would have you believe, cucumbers are not pickles, they are =a= pickle!) and was very much rewarded: wee bits of baby corn, slices of cucumber and carrot, and little cauliflower florets in a tart but not briny pickle. Yummy and very share-able; the generous portion made a pleasant addition thoughout our meal.

Tofu satay? Who knew!? A second find on the menu, that I’d =never= seen offered before. The tofu was cubed and skewered, blackened as a meat satay would be, and served with toasted onion chips & the expected peanut sauce. I think there were some shrimp chips or something like that as well, but knowing that I’m veg :-) they were quickly consumed by my dining companions.

And the entree was a combined tofu & tempe cubes, in a nice light spicy sauce, with some plants & a bowl of rice.

Oh, and COFFEE — duh on Java etc ;-) of course it’s great! Whoo hoo!

The staff was very helpful & sensitive to vegetarian, no eggs: our waitress checked with the kitchen to confirm that there was, sadly, egg in the corn fritters. I’m guessing they’re great, if the other dishes were any indication!

Definately vegetarian friendly! And suprisingly easy to get to, from the beltway. I’ll be back ....

Indonesian; formerly Sarinah Satay House of Georgetown, now in an awful location in Alexandria. However, the place is tidy and attractive, and you can see from the menu that they’ve passed the savings on to you, with entrées generally $8-10.

It will take me a few visits to eat through the list of curries, but I’d go back on just the strength of the nasi goreng jawa and nasi goreng sarinah; these “fried rice” items are not at all like the more familiar, allegedly Chinese fried rice. They’re hearty but not oily, and well-balanced.

Between that, the strong coffee, and the cheerful service, Satay Sarinah looks very promising.