Boboko Indonesian Cafe

OH. MY. SWEET. DELICIOUSNESS. Best random stop ever! Everything was delicious, unique, scrumptious, fresh, just wonderful. The atmosphere is quaint and lovely. Our server was freaking fabulous (Hi, Daniel! Thanks again!) but the other server was just as awesome, and everyone was so friendly, warm, helpful, and kind. I live in Arkansas and 10/10 I will drive my tail back to Virginia just to eat here again.

Great, GREAT food and very friendly staff. I was apprehensive about liking anything on the menu but I loved everything I tried and wolfed down my entree (chicken fried rice). Their hot sauce was so good I got some to go and their desserts were to die for. I wasn't even hungry for dessert but I finished mine and had some of my brother's.

This is not authentic Indonesian food and yes I am Indonesian. Let’s start there. The website says it’s “inspired” by Indonesian cuisine and yet “Indonesian Cafe” is attached to the restaurant name. It’s a bit misleading. If Indonesian food flavor palate is normally a 10, this place’s flavoring maybe goes up to a 4 if I’m being generous. Let’s start with what I ate. Sate - first of all the color of the sauce is incorrect, like they used too much water and not enough of the peanut sauce (bumbu kacang). The chicken was not it for me either. I ate one and honestly didn’t want to even finish it. The sambal has no taste to it. No spice no flavor. It was almost like I ate tomato sauce. I had to get someone else to taste it in case I was hallucinating but nope they agreed. No flavor no spice. Nasi beef rendang - while the rendang was soft, it’s also flavorless and not what rendang should be. Like they didn’t simmer it long enough to absorb any of the flavor. This felt more like beef stew (minus the stew) of some sort more than rendang. The stir fry vegetables doesn’t normally accompany rendang, maybe pecel would have been better. I tried the stir fry veggies, and it was just okay. Odd but okay. It’s definitely nothing like anything I’ve ever tried in Indonesia. Soto - let me preface this with saying that I use to eat soto at least once a week. I LOVED soto and even better when it’s cold outside. This is not it. It has hints of what soto should taste like, but it’s like they didn’t simmer it long enough to absorb the flavor. It’s also like they’re missing a key ingredient that I just can’t name. In fact, I sent a photo to another Indonesian and first thing they said was, is that Tom Yum? (Thai) as a joke because it was not soto. I don’t want people to be misled thinking this is an authentic Indonesian restaurant because it’s not. I don’t want Indonesian food to be misrepresented that people think that this is how it should taste like. This may be inspired by Indonesian food but it’s certainly not Indonesian food. I was so disappointed.

This was a purely chance find while we were on our way back from West Virginia to our AirBnB in Virginia. The menu I really good balance of vegetarian/vegan and non vegetarian dishes. I ordered the Asian fusion spring roll which was a fried spring roll with spinach and goat cheese filling. The roll was very crispy, seasoned well and the cheese was oozing out when I bit into it. The hot sauce accompaniment was perfect side to compliment the sweetness of the goat cheese. For the mains I ordered the traditional dish Nasi goreng, which had an accompaniment of pickled carrots and cucumbers, with tempeh satay. The rice was perfectly cooked and beautifully flavors in a soy-ginger based sauce. The flavors of the rice was matched with the subtle tanginess from the pickled veggies and the sweetness from the peanut based sauce from the tempeh satay. The hostess was very polite and helped us with recommendations for the dishes based on our needs and taste.

Wonderful It's very small (just 7 tables) so one waitress works the tables, but also one owner works to go orders and also keeps an eye on the tables. So between the two of them the service is great. Food is fantastic too, we went there for 2 days in a row and tried about a half of the menu (like the place the menu is pretty small too). There wasn't one thing we didn't like. If I am ever in Harrisonburg again will definitely make it a point to go again.