Batik Cafe

I got to say, for a chef who’s not Indonesian, this restaurant certainly isn’t bad. I promised them I’d write a review and here it is. I did have the Bakwan Jagung, which is pan fried baby corn cakes mixed with onions and seasoning served with Indonesian soy sauce. It was like a Irish Latke. 3 stars. $ 4.50.

I paid attention to the suggestion below to listen carefully to what the owner recommends. As a result, my family was rewarded with a fresh, wonderfully flavorful, abundant, and quickly prepared meal. Yes, you may have to occasionally remind the owner about elements of your order, but who cares? This is an unusual, quirky café … not a five star hotel. We’ll be back — assuming the U.S. economy doesn’t force us all into the soup line soon. The scores of vacant buildings around here make one a little nervous about our prospects.

I wouldn’t hate on this place. The owners try really hard to make you feel welcome and will give you tips on what to order that day if you are polite. The food may not be stellar yet, but given time this place may get way better. The service is there at least. I also thought the food was just fine, they recommended a spicy white fish dish and I enjoyed it. It was a little pricey for what we got, but it was well seasoned.

Coconut Pandan Waffle (with mango syrup): Just Say Yum! The new breakfasts are really cool. You can get American eggs and (turkey) bacon, and you can get a wonderful breakfast with curry and fried rice.
We were saddened by Parwana’s departure from this location, but we like Indonesian food a lot. Their curries are subtle and almost sweet compared to the spicy Indian and Chinese curries we’ve had.
The decoration is nice and straightforward. The food is all fresh (e.g. the curry spices are made in the kitchen, not bought pre-​mixed) and takes a little longer for it.
And their chai (spiced tea) is fantastic!

So… what exactly IS indonesian food?
I didn’t know, but i tried it, and… Batik dissapointed. Ordered the Galanga Crispy Chicken, but it turns out they don’t have that anymore. Instead they had Galanga Honey Chicken, so I went with that. Chicken was half burned and as dry as the Sahara desert. And not a hint of honey… It did come with this spicy red sauce (no idea what that was). I used ketchup as dip instead.
They were out of white rice, so brown rice was free (whoohoo! Health conscious folks unite!) They handed out candy with the check. Sweet! something good to much on… NOT. It was ginger flavored candy. Whoever thought that was a good flavor for candy was on some serious drugs.
The highlight of the meal? A hot date, random Beatles covers playing ambiently in the background, and the thought of Froyo for dessert. Froyo with blueberries, strawberries, and Mochi. MMMMM Froyo.

This is a cozy little restaurant but that’s as far as it goes. We ordered a spiced beef dish and the meat was dry, maybe that’s way it’s suppose to be and the noodle side dishes were just OK. But the worst was a $ 15 lamb shank dish that we ordered was so tough we couldn’t cut the meat so we sent it back. The owner came over and told us that she pressure cooked it for 15 minutes which is how it’s supposed to be cooked. Wrong! Shank is tough and has to be cooked for a long time. She was mad at us. When we got the bill my husband told them that we weren’t going to pay for the shank to the waiter argued with the owner for about 10 minutes and he took it off of the bill. We left him an extra tip since he was very nice, we felt bad. There are many good places to eat in Santa Cruz but this isn’t one them.

ehhhh… Indonesian food is .good Indonesian food is hard to come by. Obviously it depends on the cook. I think I know these people, the owners. The food was okay, good thing I live in San Jose because there’s a place called Bay Leaf out here. Good Indonesian food, or I go to an Indonesian get together and eat really good Indonesian food for free. The best way to go.

Do you like dishes that are mostly rice and very little else?
Do you enjoy paying for something that you could cook better at home with soy sauce, some spices, and a little bit of patience?
Or do you just love to wait and wait and wait for your food?
If you answered yes to 2 or more of the questions, then Batik Café is right up your alley. Consider it the Hong Kong Charlie’s of Indonesian cuisine, but definitely more authentic than the mysteriously popular Jia Tella of Scotts Valley. So if you don’t have anything better to do on a Saturday night, and you can’t stand the thought of walking around with so much cash in your pocket, give this place a try!

My 1^st time trying Indonesian food!
Loved the interior decorating from the masks on the wall, to the beautifully colored lamps.
The food did take a little long to get to us, but at least we know it was being made fresh, and not just pulled from some freezer & popped in the microwave.
The food itself was very fresh. We ordered spring rolls for an appetizer and then I split the Gado-​Gado with a friend. The serving sizes are quite large so it worked out perfectly. My other friend order Mie Goreng w/​tofu and that was also very tasty. All the vegetables are very fresh, and the sauces are also very flavorsome. I didn’t feel stuffed or guilty after eating because everything was so healthy.
The prices are great too for the amount of food you recieve!
I was disappointed that the avocado volcano desert wasn’t available when I went – it sounds so interesting and delicious.
I’ll for sure return to try more dishes.

We met with the owner Dia and she explained that the food is catered for the tastes of local folks in Santa Cruz. If you are looking for really authentic food like one back in Indonesia or Asia, you might be disappointed. Many will disagree with me but I think that it is important to keep the business running than to keep a handful of Asian who seldom visit to your restaurant happy. We had few dishes but only the fried chicken and rendang was our favorite. The place is clean, easy to find, ample spaces for customer and service was quick. The owner is Muslim and the food is Halal.

Well, we did it. After a year of driving and walking past Batik Café, we finally ambled in and gave it a try. The night we came the restaurant wasn’t too busy, but somehow we wound up seated right on top of the door, and my chair kept getting stuck on a wooden lip separating the hardwood entrance. It was kind of annoying because the bump was just so that I wound up sitting too close or too far from my food. Grrr.
Ambiance was pleasant. The high ceilings did make the place feel more large than it was, which may have worked against it on a slow night. On a crowded night, though, it would be a godsend. Our server was pleasant, and somewhat helpful with entrée suggestions, although we wound up completely disregarding them when it came time to hunker down and order.
Our food itself was decent. We split an appetizer, two entrees, and some bread. We made sure to try dishes we’d never had before, in the hopes of expanding our tastebud horizons. There was just the right amount of head on the food, and me, being mr. wimpy, was sweating nicely by meal’s end. The beef dish we ordered was good but a little on the dry side, and the chicken came out a bit bland, but tender and savory. Nothing was really remarkable, but the meal was good, and we left paying about $ 30 for the two of us, (we only drank water).
We’d probably come back, but I don’t think it’s at the top of our list.

I cannot think of a time when there was a better selection of ethnic cuisine in Santa Cruz than now. Easily topping that list would be Batik Café. After making my own Rendang Beef I’ve been looking for one that came close to homemade, this place filled the bill.
The Rendang Beef was tender and mildly coco-​nutty, the heat shines through nicely. Their homemade Sambal Olek is nice not too hot and with a hint of shrimp paste to round out the flavour.
I want to go back and try the whole tilapia and one of the lamb curries. This place has a great location and is reasonably priced for the «exotic» nature of the fare. Yummy and well worth dropping a few dollars at.

i love batik café!
i bought an outback from the subaru dealership 2 doors down and they have «free oil changes for life» so every 3000 miles i drive to santa cruz and get my car serviced, that way i get the chance to eat the most wonderful indonesian outside the netherlands.
you see…
my mom’s family moved here from indonesia and i grew up eating indonesian food at my grandmother’s house. i lurve indonesian food!
diah is from jogja (where my grandfather’s family is from) but her husband is from sumatra, so the menu is a mix of specialties from both islands.
i always start with the roti (wonderful)
and then i will get gado gado and/​or sate ayam and one other dish and some rice.
yes, its a ton of food i order…
diah’s very generous with her portions, i just have to be able to bring home food.
you see, the dutch invented this thing called «rijstaffle» (rice table in english) in which anywhere from 9 to 30 different dishes are served at one time and you are encouraged to eat a spoon of this and a spoon of that. i cannot brake that habit. it’s in my blood.
go see diah, go now!

This is the best Indonesian place I’ve found since leaving Los Angeles. We went on a Friday night and were seated pretty much immediately by a woman who I presume was Diah, the owner.
She started us with a bowl of peanuts which I found tasty but not that spiced. Based on the other comments, we might have gotten a bad batch.
We got some surprisingly yummy creamed corn and scallion fried appetizers before we’d made much progress on the peanuts. The service overall was plenty fast enough. As an entre, I got plain old nasi goreng. It was well spiced (though not hot), not overly greasy, and had quality ingredients. Basically, it was really good, and filled a craving I’ve had for a while. My date was a little more ambitious and got one of the ‘exotic choices’, in this case beef with 20 spices. The spice mixture was a paste over the beef and was fantastic.
Complaints? I got nothing. I really like this place. I’m looking forward to going back here to try the avocado and chocolate (!) dessert, and, for now, I’m going to go heat up my leftover nasi goreng…

I pass this place everyday biking on my way to work. I was very sad to find out that Parwana had passed by and I never had the chance to try Afghan food. But thankfully the space was not occupied by yet another sushi bar, American restaurant, or heavy carb Italian fare. Instead Batik, Indonesian Halal food, moved in and I was intrigued.
The boyfriend and I decided to be adventurous and try it out for dinner. We were seated fairly quickly after taking a look at the menu and deciding that we really did want to try it. It took a while for the waiter to get back to us. I started the meal off with the coffee with ginger and palm sugar. The addition of ginger was interesting, but the coffee was too sweet for my taste. They were out of the appetizer that we wanted but that was fine. It took a while for our food to get out to us but there is only one cook and one wait person. There was a woman whom I assumed to be the manager/​owner who was just sitting around not really doing anything to help the understaffed situation.
The soup we got was very flavorful. I don’t remember the name but it is the soup with meat (there are only two soups and one is vegetarian). The chicken was dark meat, but not greasy and the flavor intense, close to duck. The hard boiled eggs were creamy and perfectly cooked. The thin noodles were firm, but not chewy. Excellent choice.
The cubed beef dish frightened me at first because it looked like cat food and much like a dish that I once tried at a Cambodian restaurant. However, it was not like cat food at all and there were chunks of meat in it. The spices were great and the spiciness (as in heat) was enough for me, which takes quite a bit of heat. Their idea of fresh greens is an interesting one, choosing steamed cabbage and broccoli served lukewarm.
It was the slow (but still attentive) service and the lukewarm vegetables that knocked this place down to a four star establishment and not a five. Dinner for two people at $ 25 is pretty good.

While I was at first dismayed to see that Parwana closed for good, Batik Café is most definitely a wonderful and welcome addition to the many restaurants in Santa Cruz. When it seems like every new place that opens is some new sushi joint, Batik Café offers something different.
The food is incredible. I’ve only been there once and I’m already planning my next trip. We started off with the roti canai, an almost crêpe-​like flatbread that was served with a pleasant coconut curry sauce. Our entrees came shortly after: the rendang padang, an extremely flavorful dish of tender beef marinated and cooked in a mix of spices that gives it a delightful but unusually sweet flavor, the kalio chicken, an excellent curry with large pieces of bone-​in chicken, and the mie goreng, Indonesian «chow mein» fried with a sweet soy sauce, vegetables, and chicken chunks.
The service was attentive and friendly. The owner is a very sweet woman who really makes you feel welcome.
I highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend this place if you are interested in something different than the usual Santa Cruz fare or if you just want an excellent meal.

My new absolute, FAVORITE lunch spot in Santa Cruz!
I’m a little on the conservative spectrum when it comes to food, and have always found it to be a challenge to open up to new kinds of cuisine. Prior to eating at Batik, I had ZERO experience with Indonesian food.
The first time I ate here, I went with my friend, Lucas who has traveled all over Indonesia and he was downright ecstatic about the thought of being able to relive his experiences through a lunch date. I, on the other hand, needed a little push.
Diah greeted us with «Selamat pagi «, and sat us down at a sunny table. We snacked on roasted peanuts, and I meekly passed my foreign looking menu onto Lucas, «Uh, pick for me».
He ended up ordering the «Nasi Padang» for both of us. It was chicken with yellow curry spices, brown rice, steamed veggies and a side of spicy beef curd. I gave into my inner girly girl and ordered that Mango lasi, which was the best damned mango smoothie I’ve ever had. Overall, it was the perfect amount of food, and I didn’t feel overly stuffed at the end.
I’m convinced that the entire secret to this restaurant’s success will be in the complementary peanuts. They give you enough protein to stimulate an appetite while you wait for your food to cook. That way you have a better sense of how hungry you really are and don’t binge out on your meal – the result is a happy, well balanced digestive system! What a great idea!
Enough of that nutrition lesson though, go chow down already!

So, the one of us who had been to Malaysia complained about the prices; he had gotten roti chanai for, like, 2 cents or something at a stall in Penang.
Notwithstanding, our group totally enjoyed our feast. We had ALL of the appetizers on the menu, especially enjoying the roti and the fried tofu. The shrimp/​papaya salad was a little messy, it was served in on the wrong plate and kept sloshing over, but who cares, it was tasty lickin’ off the fingers.
We got 4 entrees, including gado gado. The tilapia was in a creamy curry sauce, and was our favorite. The beef was tender and delicious. The portions were plentiful without being huge. 5 folks sharing 4 appetizers and 4 entrees were more than satisfied. $ 20 a person didn’t seem outrageous.
The service was a little sluggish, but they are just getting underway, and the staff was very friendly, so all was forgiven. Will DEF’Y do another round at Batik.

Cash only, but supposedly this is only temporary. The menu is halal, so don’t come here for flesh of the swine!
Minus one star:
I went in and ordered food an hour before I wanted to pick it up. Yet when I came back, late, it still wasn’t ready. And they didn’t tell me it wasn’t ready, they just put some containers in a bag and walked away. Is there more, or is that the whole order? Should I take the bag? Should I continue to stand here like a dork with a finger in my ear? Eventually I asked what was up and that’s when I found out it wasn’t ready yet. If take out takes an hour, how long had those poor suckers at the table been waiting?
Minus one star:
The chicken dish I ordered (no, I can’t tell you which one except that it is simmered in traditional Indonesian spices, per the menu) had a measly three pieces of chicken: two drumsticks and a small wing. For $ 9, I expect more meat. Perhaps this is traditional Indonesian food in the way that Indonesia is a relatively poor country and that’s a lot of meat for the average person there. Well, welcome to America, land of the obesity epidemic and the Escalade. We are a nation of greedy consumers. More meat.
Minus one star:
The servers, two teenage kids, had no idea what was going on. They had to ask the cook what every dish was when he was finished, and they had to consult the menu for everything, they couldn’t answer any questions. There were only two tables occupied, yet they seemed swamped. It doesn’t seem fair to just take your kids and be like, «Here, run a restaurant.» They were pretty young, at that age I would be overwhelmed, too. They need to some adults out there.
Plus two stars:
The food was tasty!
Thus we land at three stars. This is obviously a first-​time restaurant venture, and family-​run, so they need some time to get on their feet. I’ll come back in a few weeks and try it again, hopefully by then they will have worked out the kinks.

Great Indonesian place! There are really authentic dishes as well as «americanized» dishes. If you want authentic go for the sate ayam, gado gado and one of the whole fish. Mie Goreng was great but I don’t like bell peppers so will order it w/​o bell peppers next time.
The Sumatra Iced Coffee is really good, different than the usual, it has a nice hint of ginger. The Mango Lassi also yummy.
They do not have dessert or appetizer section yet.
I have to say that I am biased since my sister’s BFF owns this place.:)
However, the grand opening night, I invited my husband, and two of my most blatantly honest friends and they loved it.