First Look: Bakso Barokah Blesses Surry Hills With Colossal Indonesian Meatballs

Bowls of piping hot soup are lined up in the Bakso Barokah kitchen, most with a gigantic boulder bobbing among noodles. Honestly, the thing’s colossal – you’d need to unhinge your jaw to eat it. Luckily, it comes pre-sliced.

The bakso urat (beef tendon meatball) is the star at the new warung in Surry Hills – an instant hit with Sydney’s Indonesian community. Crafted with minced beef topside, chopped tendon, tapioca starch and a dash of baking soda, the meatball is delightfully bouncy, gloriously meaty and one of five options on this meatball-centric menu.

“I wanted a specialty [shop] for only bakso and mie ayam,” owner Enrico Donatello tells Broadsheet. Arriving in Sydney 14 years ago, Donatello noticed that shops treated meatballs and chicken noodle like sidekicks rather than the headliners they are back in Indonesia. So, he did what any budding entrepreneur does: tested the waters serving mie bakso in Mount Druitt, before going all-in on a shop in Surry Hills.

Originally from Jakarta, Donatello learned how to make bakso in Wonogiri in Central Java, where you can find “the best bakso in all of Indonesia”. He makes his halal Aussie beef meatballs every three days, with each batch taking a full day to prepare.

“I don’t use any preservatives,” he says. “Nothing is frozen, I’m using fresh [meatballs] all the time.”

Most of the steaming bowls at Barokah start with the same winning formula: springy meatballs in a nest of vermicelli and egg noodles that swim in a four-hour beef bone broth, crowned with celery and crispy fried shallots. Order the classic bakso to get that mix.

Ordering the bakso telor sees the urat meatball swapped for one stuffed with a hard-boiled egg, like a Scotch egg’s distant cousin. The bakso malang, one of the most popular varieties in Indonesia, arrives with five regular meatballs, a hunk of tofu and a crispy fried chicken wonton lounging on top. Then the last two dishes switch things up.

Mieayam bakso delivers dry egg noodles with chicken stewed in lemongrass and turmeric, fried shallots and fried wonton crackers, with two meatballs soaking in chicken soup on the side. For something rich and nutty, go for the batagor. The West Javanese fried fish dumplings are made with chicken here, arriving with hunks of fried tofu in a peanut sauce.

The Broadsheet tip? Ask for extra tetelan (beef trimmings) for more texture in your bowl – it’s on the house.

So, you’ve got your bowl, you find one of the 30 seats and get ready to make your selections from an army of condiments: kecap manis, vinegar, chilli sauce and a house sambal of bird’s eye chillies and garlic, all ready for action. Think of bakso as the Indonesian cousin of pho – rich broth, noodles and protein – but without debates on how to use the condiments. Just throw in whatever you like. Be warned: the chilli and sambal don’t pull their punches.

The store’s been a success since it opened last month. It packs out quickly but the queue moves fast. Donatello already has an eye on the future: “I'm thinking of moving to a bigger place in the city.”

With big dreams come bigger meatballs.

Bakso Barokah
559 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills

Hours:
Tue to Sun midday–10pm

@baksobarokahsydney