Medan Kitchen – LA

As Indonesian restaurants have become nearly impossible to find in Orange County following 2024-2025’s Indo Ranch, Rice & Noodle, and Uncle Fung Borneo Eatery closures, traveling to LA County is the only viable option: There’s still an Uncle Fung in Long Beach, and its older sibling Borneo due north in Alhambra. But local restaurant expert Edwin Goei recommends driving just a little further east to Rosemead for Medan Kitchen. Opened in 2020, this Indonesian grocery store offers an extensive selection of freshly prepared, ready to eat dishes five days each week, and when we visited, it was very close to spectacular – a word we never used for OC Indonesian food, and wouldn’t use to describe OC’s two remaining not-quite-Indonesian options (the Malaysian Belacan Grill and Malay-Singaporean Seasons Kitchen).

Understand two major details about Medan before you visit. First, and unlike Indo Ranch – which was an Indonesian market with an actual restaurant inside – Medan is technically a grocery store with no restaurant: There are two microwave ovens inside and park bench-style seating out front, and a too-small parking lot with lots of great nearby alternatives (including Sam Woo BBQ) competing for your interest. Don’t let yourself be distracted. One of Medan’s three rooms offers freshly packaged Indonesian meals on nearly the same scale as Tokyo Central‘s Japanese prepared foods section; another houses shelves and crates of savory dried goods, while the last displays mostly imported packaged goods ranging from snacks to candies and drinks. You pick items and pay for everything at a central counter.

In a word, Medan’s selection of Indonesian items is incredible. Tables, carts, and refrigerators hold banana leaf-wrapped Nasi rice dishes, dumplings, pastries, sweetened teas, and sauces you can take home or eat on the spot. Virtually everything is under $20, with most items in the $7 to $12 range, and although many are available every day, Medan posts daily special offerings on its Instagram account. Beyond offering a blissfully overwhelming number of choices, Medan’s execution quality is high enough that it’s hard to choose “wrong.”

That brings us to the second and more serious caveat: Virtually all of the food is offered at room temperature, which is to say “not warm.” Remember the reference above to two microwaves? As you’re paying for your food at the counter, you’ll receive heating instructions – “one minute for this one” and “three minutes for this one” – that would have kept our small group at the microwaves for 15 or 20 minutes. While most of what we ordered tasted good enough at room temperature, dining this way is a sub-optimal experience compared with ordering a proper meal at a typical restaurant. Having said that, we’d sooner return to Medan and jump through its microwave hoops than order a less interesting and delicious meal again at Borneo.