Kotak+: Indonesian restaurant with sambal goreng that’ll set your tongue on fire
Amidst the chaos and sheer madness of one of Subang’s busiest areas, sits a calm restaurant serving Indonesian cuisine. With its almost all white and black interior, Kotak+ fits the clean-cut aesthetic preferred by the eateries of today.
Kotak+ in SS15 specialises in nasi padang, a popular Minangkabau delicacy of rice and various sides. The moment I stepped foot inside the shop, I was greeted by a display counter filled with all kinds of dishes— daging cincang, ayam balado, perkedel, you name it. Above the glass screen was a massive sign board listing down all the names of the dishes paired with their respective pictures.
On the wall, the restaurant proudly displays the rest of their menu. No Indonesian restaurant (in Malaysia) is complete without ayam geprek, which came in 6 different variations like original and mie sedap. They also have a series of penyet dishes including ayam bakar and pecel lele.
Although everything seemed tempting, I had come for one thing: their sambal bakar. Sambal bakar has been making its rounds around Indonesia in the past year or so. The dish has always existed but has recently gone viral among netizens. This could possibly be attributed to the launch of the Sambal Bakar Indonesia franchise in 2022, founded by influencer @iben_ma.
When I found out that there was a restaurant nearby that offered sambal bakar, I knew that I had to try it.
What I tried at Kotak+
As I’ve already written about chicken 7 times prior to this visit (yes, I counted), I thought I’d change it up a bit and order lele, which is catfish. Unfortunately, they were out of fish that day. So, here is chicken write-up number 8.
The Sambal Bakar Ayam (RM15.80) doesn’t come with rice, so I had to order that separately. The other proteins on offer were tunjang, dendeng, and paru. They’re all priced the same, and you can choose to add one petai for RM1.50 or cheese for RM1.50.
Kotak+ provides freeflow soup for dine-in customers. Surprisingly, the soup was very tasty with hints of meatiness.
It arrived in a hot pot placed on a wooden board for heat insulation. Sandwiched between a pool of sambal and another mound of sambal was the meaty chicken. Beside the chicken was a good amount of leafy greens hidden under 2 slivers of fried tempeh.
I almost burned myself when I greedily went in for the first bite— I made sure to blow lightly on the following spoonfuls.
Alone, the sambal was delicious. Although their sambal goreng is advertised as spicy and smoky, the sambal only fulfilled one of those criterias. It was savoury and pretty spicy, as expected from an Indonesian restaurant. However, I couldn’t detect any smokiness.
Safe to say that this dish is not for the weak. I found myself reaching for a few pieces of tissue to wipe my nose, and I was constantly grabbing my iced drink to calm the situation down.
Interestingly, it didn’t taste like what I expected it to. In fact, it kind of tasted like asam pedas to me— maybe it was my tongue that day, or because it visually reminded me of the traditional Malay dish. While I can’t pinpoint any visible ingredients in this dish that would contribute to its unexpected asam pedas–ness, I enjoyed it nonetheless.
The chicken itself had some smokiness to it, especially in certain parts where the char was visible. The char wasn’t very even, therefore most of the chicken just tasted regular. Luckily, meat was tender and moist, though I would’ve enjoyed it a lot more had it been a thigh.
The other elements of this dish made it feel complete. As a tempeh lover, I approve of the ones served here. They were adequately salted and remained delicious even towards the end when the crispiness was gone. It felt like the vegetables absorbed some of the goodness of the sambal, making every bite flavourful.
Final thoughts
All in all, Kotak+’s sambal goreng was tasty, but it doesn’t stand out from the rest. I think I would’ve been more impressed if the smoky flavour was a lot stronger. Basically, if you asked me to choose, I’d decide on ayam geprek or penyet over this. Their nasi padang looked divine though, so I might go back to check that out.
This dish is worth the try if you’re curious about this type of sambal, because again, it wasn’t bad by any means. A massive downside is its location— SS15 is notorious for its lack of parking space, so mentally prepare yourself for war if you’re driving.
Expected damage: RM7.80 – RM30 per pax
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