Bali Street Café Brings Indonesian Fare to Dallas

Indonesian restaurant Bali Street Café landed on our radar. As we were headed there for a late lunch, it got us wondering: How many Indonesian restaurants are even in North Texas? According to our extensive (i.e., brief) Google research, Bali Street Café indeed appears to be in rare company.

There was an Indonesian restaurant in Cedar Hill (Buns, Bowls & Bubbles) that opened during Covid-ravaged 2020 but eventually shuttered.

And there’s Angel Touch Kitchen, which served Indonesian recipes in a small space inside Carrollton’s Oh! Mart International Food grocery store (which has also since disappeared). Angel Touch Kitchen still exists, but it is now a mobile food truck, appearing in various locations semi-weekly in North Texas.

Pan Asia in Fort Worth offers some Indonesian dishes, but it’s more of an all-encompassing Asian fare destination.

So, as far as we can tell, Bali Street Café (formerly known as The Koi Way) is the lone brick-and-mortar Indonesian restaurant in town. Located at the corner of Inwood and Maple near Love Field, Bali Street doles out authentic Indonesian dishes in an intimate space.
While the outside is about as strip-mall basic as a place can be, the interior has a lot of character, with natural wood, concrete floors and authentic decor straight from Indonesia.

We started with an appetizer of Indonesian chicken skewers ($15.99) with a side of peanut sauce. A common street food staple in Indonesia, these grilled skewers were a solid if not straightforward entry point into our early afternoon Indonesian culinary experience.

Wading into the more exotic end of the pool, our next order was an Indonesian soup, soto betawi ($17.99): braised beef tongue, tomato and potato in an aromatic, velvety broth of coconut milk and lemongrass. Indonesian sambal chili and sweet soy sauce are served on the side, and you can add these condiments to enhance the soup as you wish.

Beef tongue, a delicacy in many parts of the world, can be intimidating for many Americans but this was a standout soup dish. Your soup will come with white rice; toss some into your soup. We can see why soto betawi is such a hit in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta.
Our server recommended our last dish, rendang ($17.99). Tougher cuts of beef such as the neck or shoulder are slowly simmered for hours in spices and coconut milk until you can pull the meat apart with your fingers. No knife necessary — beef braised to this degree can be cut through with the edge of your fork. It’s absurdly tender.

Bali Street Café also offers a nice variety of Indonesian drinks. You'll find handcrafted strawberry lemonade, brown sugar boba with half and half milk and black tea, and traditional Indonesian ice coffee.

Bali Street Café, 2515 Inwood Road, Ste. 119. Tuesday – Sunday, 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.