Hardena

[philadining]

Hardena

1754 Hicks St (on Moore, just west of 15th st)

I can't for the life of me figure out what took me so long to get to Hardena. I'd read about it on Chowhound long ago, that crew has been singing this place's praises for years. There was even a Philadelphia Weekly review in 2005, and the restaurant was already 3-years-old then.

Maybe it's their somewhat conservative hours, 11am-8pm, and they sometimes look closed even when they're not. And it's in a part of far south Philly that I rarely travel, so it was never on my way to anything. Still, I'm ashamed it took me this long. Prodded by a friend who'd gone several times before, we finally checked it out, and I'm still shaking my head about how many great meals I've missed...

There's a jam-packed steamtable holding a wide variety of stewy curries, vegetables, whole fish, and more. Plates of fried chicken, veggie fritters, and other crispy things balance precariously.

You can get any of the various dishes individually, but it's way more fun to get a combination plate: a pile of fresh rice, with three items from the steamtable piled on top. Chef/owner Ena may not speak lots of English, but enough to guide even the uninitiated through what's on offer. She'll point, scoop up a little, and give a basic decription, such as "lamb," "greens" or "tempeh." If it looks good, say yes, and when you have three, you're set.

This one has Beef Rendang, slightly spicy collard greens and a vegetable fritter.

This plate has a lamb curry, some hard-to identify vegetables, and a crispy pile of fried tempeh sticks with anchovy. (Oh, and a fritter - the fritters rock...) The dollop of red is homemade sambal, which carries some serious spice, but is more flavorful than merely hot.

Don't forget the satay. It's not on the steamtable, they're grilled-up to order, and that freshness shows, it's some of the best satay I've had.

In fact all of the food was delicious, and despite the similarity of appearance of some of the sauces, each offering had distinct flavors, each complex and stimulating. Some were spicy, but none were brutally so, most had some level of pleasing zing.

The Beef Rendang was the best I've ever had, more delicate in spicing and tender in texture than the versions I've had at many Malaysian restaurants. The lamb looked rather gray and uninviting, but it too was tender and delicious, bathed in a coconut-milk-based curry. The tempeh was a big surprise, crunchy and light tasting, studded with peanuts, only a hint of salt from the anchovy, rather than any fishiness per se. Both the greens and whatever the other vegetables were had great sauces, and framed their ingredients well. Every thing we had was just great, so I'd have no reluctance to just let Ena make me a plate randomly.

This pile of food effectively filled two of us up, and neither of us is a light eater! The tab for two plates, an extra fritter and 4 skewers of satay? $14.

The place is not very big, so at certain times it may be hard to find a seat, but one could always do take-out. I'm actually kicking myself for not getting a big of containers of everything to go, to hold me over until next time I get down there...

I certainly need a few quarts of Rendang!

Edited July 2, 2007 by philadining (log)

[percyn]

Wow...that looks good !! Good Indonesian restaurants are hard to find in the states, but this one sure sounds good.

[philadining]

Awesome lunch again:

Beef Rendang, Tempeh, Greens

Mixed Vegetables, Lamb, Beef

Tempeh, Greens, Chicken

Vegetable Fritters

Satay

All that, which stuffed three of us, $21.

Edited July 16, 2007 by philadining (log)

[philadining]

Oh and just a note about the space: it gets a little warm in there on hot days, there's an old airconditioner over the door, struggling to keep up and not quite succeeding. It's fighting an open kitchen and a large steamtable...

That said, it wasn't terribly uncomfortable, just a little on the hot side. Pretend you're in Bali.

[mrbigjas]

dammit. if only you'd called earlier.

however, that 8 p.m. closing time is good for the boy. i gotta get down there.

[Greg Ling]

You should also check out the Indonesian grocery at between 16th and 17th on Morris. The food is brought in from some Indonesian housewives and some things from the former Indonesia restaurant in c-town. Ten bucks gets you lunch and dinner, That's no joke son.

[Jeff L]

Man that does look good. Seven bucks per person is a steal for all that food.

[philadining]

"A taste of home" in the Daily News

At Hardena, Widjojo serves fried chicken that takes hours to make, a favorite with the locals. But her satay might be the best seller; on an average day, she grills as many as 300 skewers of the tender, marinated beef, chicken or goat.

[KatieLoeb]

Spurred on by this thread, I stopped and picked up some lunch to go from Hardena today. I liked some of it better than other parts, but that satay is undoubtedly the best EVER. I had lamb satay - the sauce is amazing. That other sweet soy based sauce threw me for a loop. I thought those little green rings were bits of scallion. Nope - hot peppers! Woo-hoo! My mouth was on fire but in the inimitable words of John Mellencamp - it hurt so good.

I also tried a baby squid and vegetable stew (too salty for my taste and the wee little squidleys hadn't had their tiny little beaks removed so every once in a while there was a bite with the texture of a toenail in it. Ewww.), a chicken a tofu stew made with coconut milk that I really liked, and one of those killer veggie fritters. A whopping $10 for all this food. I shared with my coworkers and they liked it too. I'll definitely be back there soon for more. So many other interesting looking things to taste....

Edited August 18, 2007 by KatieLoeb (log)

[Andrew Fenton]

That's a great tip, Phil! I remember reading about Hardena years ago, thinking it sounded interesting, and forgetting all about it. So I'm glad that you brought it to my mind, and that I thought to pick up dinner from there tonight.

Oh, it's totally true that the place doesn't necessarily look open! I got there when it was pouring rain, and it looked dark and shuttered (you can see from that first photo that it doesn't have windows that open). But I tried the door, and it was, indeed, open.

I was glad I tried, too: that's indeed some great rendang, and satay, but for my money, the best dish was the collard greens: all coconut milk-y and lemongrass-y. I looked for the fried chicken-- it'd be fun to do a cross-cultural comparison with American and Korean versions-- but they didn't have it. They did have a very good ketchup chicken, though. The only dish that I wasn't crazy about was the lamb stew, which had a nice sauce, but was pretty much all bones. It's probably worth it to get there earlier in the day when there's a little more meat there...

Edited August 21, 2007 by Andrew Fenton (log)

[markemorse]

Glad you guys have found a local Indonesian that sounds (and looks) like the real thing...congratulations! I'm curious, does anyone know where the owner is from? I ask because the sign out front identifies Hardena as a "warung/waroeng", which over here typically signifies that the food has a Javanese or Surinamese focus...

[KatieLoeb]

Herbacidal and I had a spectacularly delicious lunch at Hardena today before I had to head to work shake it up for the masses. One order each of chicken and lamb satay, a plate of lamb rendang and what the owner called "yellow fish" and a big bowl of beef soup with vermicelli noodles, tomato and scallions. Everything was as awesome as ever. I also had two cups of strong and very sweet coffee and all this was a mere $24. I don't know how they stay in business, but I'll continue to visit for as long as they'll have me. Next time I want to try what the owner called "sour soup" which appeared to be a chicken based version of the soup we shared. I must restrain myself from eating those yummy fried veggie patties since I'm trying not to eat fried foods too often, but they looked so good as they got piled on to the shelf above the steam table.