After having cambodian the other week, E and I got to talking about all the hole-in-the-wall places in south philly. And I told her about Hardena, a little indonesian joint that kind of does the rijstafel. I hadn’t been there in years, but still remembered it fondly. It was definitely time to go back. The place is tiny and basic. Your food comes out on styrofoam plates. You eat with plastic forks. But you don’t care because the food is so good and cheap. Behold, the satay. This one is chicken, but you can also get beef. It’s only available on weekends. It’s only $6. It’s only… delicious. And it comes with a little veggie salad too. Crunchy and refreshing, with some bites being a bit spicier than others.

Basically, they have a bunch of food made, and you pick what you want. You get a big ol heap of rice, and they’ll put three dishes on top of it, literally, of your choice. And it costs you $6. That’s it. So here’s one plate of delicious slop. Here we have some chicken and tofu curry, some lamb stew, and a hard boiled egg curry dish. All delicious tasting, and all different. The chicken curry was not coconut milk based. The lamb stew was coconut stew based. And well, I like hard boiled eggs, but some people are not into them.

On to plate number two! We have some collard greens, beef rendang, and fish curry. I didn’t try the greens but E enjoyed them very much. The beef rendang was great. The fish curry was also good, and tasted very different from the chicken and tofu curry. E’s plate definitely looked the most well-rounded. Oh, and the little dollop of hot sauce you see on the side? No joke, that shizz is damn hot.

My plate, as a whole, looked kind of disgusting. Ha! But fear not, it tasted just fine. I got the eggplant, which was just delicious. If you like eggplant, and I certainly do, you will be very happy with this. It had just a tiny hint of spice. I also got the lamb stew, which was very tender and not gamey at all. I also got the salted squid stew, which comes with whole teeny little squids. Ok, although this was good, it was a bit too salty. Which really, as the name would indicate, shouldn’t have come as a surprise. But it was a bit too salty for me. So shame on me. But hey, for those of you into really salty dishes, go for the salted squid!

So the last time I was here about a couple of years ago. Well, nothing much has changed. The food is still delicious, and it’s still $6. The only thing that’s changed is that they have a cute yellow sign outside now, instead of that crappy 7-Up sign. And when we got there on sunday, they were slapping on a fresh coat of colorful paint outside. Really, you can’t get a better deal than this. And the neighborhood is just fine. So go get yerself a plateful of delicious indonesian food, stat!

Hardena Restaurant
1754 S Hicks St
Philadelphia, PA 19145
(215) 271-9442

On the urging of my new friends at Philly Food Guys, we ventured out on frigid and slushy Sunday for a late lunch at Hardena. It’s gotten plenty of press lately, from both the blogging and traditional media worlds. Located deep in South Philly on Hicks Street, the place is indeed a hole in the wall. It’s tiny. You walk in and it’s one small room, with a few tables, the cooking done on the left, the food presented in the middle, the ordering done behind and to the side of the food.

There’s no menu here. While we were there, we were the only non-Indonesian people there. Ena, the chef, will see any of the non-Indonesians, and then guide you through the process. Basically, she just serves you a plate with rice and three or four of the various selections from the rijstaffel. You can tell her what you want, but mostly, she just points out stuff and says what about this, and you say no, yes, why not?

C went first. The stuff at the far bottom is a baby squid and tofu dish. C thought it was ok, but I wasn’t a big fan of it. It was a bit too fishy. On the left, some tempeh. C was totally in love with it. Behind the big fried thing at the top was the lamb rendang. Pretty good, even though I don’t like stuff with coconut milk. The big fried thing was full of veggies, and when dipped in the sweet and salty sauce that came with the satay (more down below), it was delish. Whatever that sauce was, I could put it on everything.

My turn! All the way in the back is something I still don’t have any idea what it was. It was crunchy, sweet and salty, had some kind of starchy veggies, and some peanuts. Whatever it was, I liked it. At ten o’clock you’ve got some kind of greens. I’m not typically into greens but I thought I’d be open minded. They were coconut milky. Blech. I passed. It’s a good thing C loves greens. On the front was some sweet and sour fish. It was made from dried fish, so it was very hard and chewy. It wasn’t that exciting, and a word of warning, there are bones. And smack dab on top was my favorite of the day – eggplant. Yum. I could have eaten a whole plate of this.

We also had to order the satay as it seems to be some kind of rule! They offer lamb and chicken and we got a taste of both. Satay is only available on the weekends here. I enjoyed the satay quite a bit, but preferred the chicken. It’s very heavy on the sauce.

All this food set us back $18. And let me just say that the night before we’d had a couple of burgers and fries at the Nodding Head and that cost more than $18. And not that there’s anything back about the burgers there (although the buns are way too big for the meat and also a big too hard and crunchy), but really, at Hardena you get so much more food, variety, and best of all, love. One thing I would change about this place – how about some heat? That day was beyond cold and we ate with our coats and hats on. And every timone someone came in, it brought in another rush of freezing temp air. Brrrr…. I’ll definitely be back here, and the best thing, since they offer so many different dishes, I can try something new each time.

Hardena Restaurant
1754 Hicks St.
215.271.9442