Mampir Lagi Indonesian Food Restaurant in Johor Bahru Pelangi ⭐⭐⭐⭐✱

Today, we visited Mampir Lagi, a 6 month old young Indonesian restaurant in Taman Pelangi in Johor Bahru. Thanks to arrangements by Diane and Elena who are mutual friends of Henny, the owner chef of Mampir Lagi.

今天到柔佛新山彩虹一家刚开不久的印尼餐馆 Mampir Lagi 吃晚餐. 来自印尼 Lombok 的老板娘煮的好几道美味的印尼特色的菜肴. 老板娘的 ayam penyet 印尼炸鸡好吃. 印尼式的牛肉汤也很好喝. 晚餐有不同的套餐. 我们喜欢老板娘的炸鱼套餐. 老板娘也很厉害做蛋糕. 他的蛋糕真的是很棒. 我极力推建 Mampir Lagi 的炸鱼套餐,牛肉汤和蛋糕. 地址 42, Jalan Pingai, Taman Pelangi. 早上11点到晚上9点. 星期天休息.



Henny hails from Lombok, Indonesia and is passionate about cooking and baking. With the encouragement and support of her husband Jason, Henny opened Mampir Lagi to have her own restaurant and bakery. Jason, is a chef and partner at Choupinette, a French cafe in Singapore.



Henny had earlier been selling her popular bakes online and serving her dishes at private events. As her business grew, it was timely to launch her own restaurant. So, Mampir Lagi was founded in May 2016 occupying just half a shop lot in buzzing Taman Pelangi. (The other half shop lot is occupied by an Indian barber shop 😄 )



"Mampir lagi" means "come again" in Indonesian. The name is the idea of Jessica, Henny's eldest daughter because she is sure that customers will come again for mummy's cooking 👍 We agree 😃



The humble eatery's long, narrow space is simply furnished and it is clean and comfortable. I enjoyed the rhythmic gamelan music which was playing softly in the background. 



Henny started us off with the iconic East Javanese Ayam Penyet (RM12.50). It's a fried chicken thigh with sides of tofu, tempe, raw long beans, cabbage, tomato and cucumber. There is also a bowl of boiled white rice and clear chicken soup.



The meaty chicken thigh is cooked by boiling in spices and herbs, then allowed to rest. It is deep fried till golden brown outside on order and then served.



The chicken is tender and moist inside while outside it is crisp. It is aromatic from the spices and still has a little natural chicky sweetness.



The ayam penyet comes with a generous dish of fresh house made sambal chili. The zesty spicy slightly savoury sambal chilli sauce pairs perfectly with the fried chicken thigh. The sharp sting of the pulpy chili sauce wakes up our taste receptors to enjoy the flavoursome fried chicken thigh.



Nasi Rawon is another traditional East Javanese dish - beef broth eaten with salted egg, rice and sambal chili (RM10).



I like this beefy broth cooked with lots of herbs and spices till the beef is tender. Buah keluak gives this beef broth it's signature dark colour. The savoury beefy broth has deep complex herb and spice flavours with subtle bitterness from buah keluak. It felt homely and satisfying.



Nasi uduk (RM9.50) is Jakarta's answer to Malay nasi lemak eaten with sambal chili and sides. Besides coconut milk, nasi uduk has more spices in the mix before it is steam cooked to moist greasy fluffiness. It's very similar to nasi lemak but with more depth and flavours from additional spices like lemongrass, pandan leaves, bay leaves, ginger, galangal, coriander etc.



Besides, ala carte dishes, Mampir Lagi also has 3 set meals for dinner. We had Set C (price RM88.90) which centrepiece is this ikan goreng, a deep fried ikan merah (red snapper). Also in Set C are Ayam Pangang Madura, Sayur Asam, Telur Dadar and boiled white rice.



The whole fresh ikan merah is expertly fried till crisp and golden brown outside. Inside, the meat is snowy white, moist and tender. The flavour is savoury outside while inside it is naturally sweet.



The fried fish is served with a huge dish of sambal chili.



There is also a bowl of sambal kicap. This tastes so good, I could eat whole bowls of plain white rice just with this robustly savoury sweet spicy slightly tangy sauce.



The Telur Dadar is an egg roll with 5 layers. The egg roll is pillowy tender with boiled soft vegetables like chopped carrot, onion and scallion sandwiched in the folds. The egginess of the soft egg crepe complements the sweetness of the vegetables.



Ayam Pangang Madura is soft chicken smothered in a thick greasy mound of ground spices which tastes savoury spicy sweet with a bit of smokiness and heavy coconut flavour. 



A bowl of sayur asam which is a gently savoury soup with vegetable sweetness and a slight tang from tamarind juice. This staple from West Java is a perfect complement to the fried fish, spicy chicken stew and all that feisty sambal chilli.



Jus Avocad, the quintessentially Indonesian avocado juice is available seasonally because Mampir Lagi uses fruit from Indonesia. Creamy Indonesian avocado is smoother and sweeter than the local variety, and is served with chocolate milk.



Henny is an accomplished pastry chef with customers which include corporate clients. We sampled Henny's red velvet (RM9.50), carrot cake (RM8.90), cream puff (RM6.50), and dark chocolate eclair (RM6.50).

Henny's cakes are popular because they are tender, have a nice moistness, and are not overly sweet.



Tea is Goalpara black tea blend by Teh Perbawati Sukabumi in Indonesia.

Mampir Lagi also serves Arabica coffee.



👉 Mampir Lagi is a nice place to taste a good range of Indonesian dishes especially their ayam penyet, nasi rawon and ikan goreng with their homemade sambal chilli. In particular, I will come back again for their 4-star Set C dinner with the ikan goreng. I would also beef it up with the beefy broth from the nasi rawon.

Besides traditional Indonesian fare, Mampir Lagi is a good place to chill with Henny's excellent cakes and a cuppa of Indonesian tea or coffee.

Disclosure: Please note that this was an invited tasting.



Restaurant name: Mampir Lagi
Address: 42, Jalan Pingai, Taman Pelangi, 80400 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia 
GPS: 1°28'57.1"N 103°46'26.3"E | 1.482522, 103.773962
Tel: +60 7-336 5568
Hours: 11:00am to 9:00pm (Sunday off)

No pork, no lard, no Halal cert, ingredients sourced from Halal certified suppliers

Date visited: 24 Nov 2016

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