Borneo Kalimantan Cuisine – LA
In LA County, the "first original Bornean restaurant in U.S.A." serves OK Indonesian food
In the restaurant world, less experienced reviewers frequently use the word “authentic” as shorthand for “quality” or “greatness,” but authenticity doesn’t guarantee anything: Just as there are dozens if not hundreds of different and equally authentic American burgers with wildly varying ingredients and levels of quality, the same is true when foreign cuisines appear here. So what’s “authentically” Indonesian, for instance, is a moving target, further compounded by Indonesia’s full or partial control of around 6,000 inhabited islands in Southeast Asia, some with distinctive culinary traditions. One of the largest such islands, Borneo, is shared by the nations of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei, with Indonesia referring to its part (and the island) as “Kalimantan.”
North of Orange County in Alhambra, Borneo Kalimantan Cuisine (aka Borneo Eatery) has been open for over 15 years, and describes itself as serving Indonesian, Malaysian, and Singaporean dishes. Featured roughly a decade ago in Bon Appetit and at one point (no longer) listed without a star rating in the Michelin Guide, Borneo inspired a small chain of Uncle Fung Borneo Eatery locations in Buena Park (now closed) and Long Beach, as well as Uncle Fung Coffee Stall in Alhambra, started by the original owner’s niece.
Unlike the counter service Uncle Fung locations, Borneo offers full and fairly quick table service across a two-room space decorated with colorful shophouse doors. The laminated single-page, double-sided menu includes around two dozen food choices and a handful of drinks. Most of the dishes are either noodle bowls ($14 to $17), rice plates ($13 to $16), or wok-fried noodle/rice dishes ($16.50 each); five appetizers range from $5 roti prata pancakes with curry sauce to $13 chicken satay or pempek – fried fishcakes cut into either slices (lenjer) or scored balls (selam).
Putting authenticity aside, the items we sampled at Borneo ranged from “okay” to “pretty good,” with only one item eclipsing a version we had at Anaheim’s similarly Indonesian/Malaysian/Singaporean Seasons Kitchen: Borneo’s satay arrived drenched in heavy Indonesian/Malaysian-style sweet soy and peanut sauces, and packed plenty of grilled chicken flavor without any hint of dryness inside or out. We also mostly enjoyed the pempek fish cake, a substantial portion sliced into thick pieces with wrinkled tofu skin-like edges and egg yolks in the center. It wasn’t super crispy, arriving soaked a thin sweet soy-fish sauce, but it was very tasty, and harder to find locally than most of Borneo’s other appetizers.
We weren’t thrilled with either of our entrees. The Nasi Campur ($15) – a combination rice plate served with Chinese-style sausage, char siu, fried chicken, a hard-boiled egg, and chicken gravy – was surprisingly bland from item to item, a collection that could have been had better (and cheaper) at practically any LA or OC Chinese takeout. Indo Mie, a bowl with chicken, beef meatballs, egg, and vegetables, was overly simple thanks to a plain broth and thick, fairly plain tube-like egg noodles. While the bowl initially impressed thanks to its ample load of proteins, it became enough of a chore to eat that the person who ordered it gave up midway through. Described as “lightly seasoned,” it certainly lived up to that billing, and we noted that Borneo’s other “Hawker Noodle” dishes all use the same description. (Authenticity note: Though we’ve never visited Borneo, we’ve visited hawker stands across Malaysia and Singapore, and would never have described their food as “lightly seasoned.”)
After one visit to Borneo, we wouldn’t rush back, though it’s possible that a different collection of dishes would have been more of a standout on flavors or ingredients. Given our positive Uncle Fung Borneo Eatery experiences, we were surprised and disappointed by the flavors in the rice and noodle dishes here, and wished we’d ordered differently – perhaps their wok-fried dishes or their beef rendang – just to know if there was any reason to return. For the time being, we’ll scratch our Indonesian itch at the remaining Uncle Fung restaurant in Long Beach, and potentially return to Alhambra’s Uncle Fung Coffee Stall (discussed further here) for more drinks and snacks.
Stats
Price: $-$$
Service: Table
Open Since: 2009
Addresses
19 S. Garfield Ave. Unit A
Alhambra, CA 91801
626.282.4477
Instagram: @borneoeatery_la