Popular 26-year-old nasi padang hawker biz which closed down during pandemic reopens to long queues in industrial estate
Although it’s tucked inside a quiet industrial building in Aljunied, two-week-old Pondok Indah Indonesian Nasi Padang manages to attract snaking long queues on a daily basis. Customers often have to wait up to an hour for their food during peak periods.
As it turns out, the 65-seater eatery already had a cult following from pre-Covid times - the biz first opened at a Siglap coffee shop in 1998, and had a total of seven outlets across several kopitiams in Ubi, Kallang and Bedok Reservoir, until it shut down in 2019. It reopened as a larger standalone air-con restaurant in Johnson’s Building on 1 July.
The popular stall is owned by Indonesian-born Chinese Lindawaty Siam, 64, who moved to Singapore in 1994 after marrying her local husband. The cook, who got her Singapore citizenship in 2005, worked at several F&B establishments before opening Pondok Indah, including at a cai fan hawker stall and an army camp canteen. She learned the basics of how to cook nasi padang from a friend who owned a nasi padang hawker stall, and later went on to open her own shop. Currently, Lindawaty runs her biz together with her 40-year-old son, John Ng.
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Reopened after five years ’cos of requests from old customers
John tells 8days.sg that Pondok Indah closed in December 2019 because “the coffee shop contracts were expiring, and we knew the business would be bad [due to the pandemic]”. At the time, Covid hadn’t fully spread to Singapore yet, but John and his family had caught news of it breaking out in China.
They didn’t make any losses at that point, but had to pay a $25K penalty fee for breaking contracts at two of their outlets.
During their five-year hiatus, John dabbled in crypto trading, while Lindawaty was semi-retired and worked part-time as a cook at an army camp. They say they decided to reopen their biz because of the constant requests from old regulars, whom they bumped into whenever they happened to visit their old coffee shop locations to eat. “We had too many requests, and everyone was asking us to reopen, so we decided to do it. My mum was bored, and I thought that it was a bit wasted for her recipes to go nowhere,” John says.
Instead of reopening in a hawker setting again, the mother-son duo invested $90K to set up a bigger air-conditioned eatery. John explains that they wanted to focus more on catering this time, and needed a bigger kitchen. Pondok Indah is in the midst of getting a halal license, which John says should be ready within the next two months.
Despite Johnson’s Building being slightly ulu with lower footfall, he says they chose this location as “the space is big, and it fits my requirements for catering.
Long queues “about the same” as before
So far, the towkay says queues have been “about the same” as when they operated as a hawker biz pre-Covid. “We posted [news of our reopening] on Facebook and Instagram, and patrons recognised my mum,” John shares.
John says that peak lunchtime queues currently last between 45 minutes to an hour. He adds that 80 percent of their customers are workers from industrial buildings in the area, while 20 percent are old regulars. If you’re looking to skip the lines, he recommends going down before 11.30am, as the peak period is from 11.45am to 1.45pm.
Since its reopening, netizens have taken to FB to post about Pondok Indah. “My favourite authentic Indonesian nasi padang back in action. They were very famous at the coffeeshop beside Siglap Centre over 20 years ago. Queue was long but with the air-con blowing on me [sic] in this hot weather while waiting, no problem at all,” said one fan, while another added: “I brought my wife who wasn't very keen on eating nasi padang. Anyway I told her let's go try and then I'll bring her go buy durians later. Moments later, she told me it was really good!”. 
Over 30 dishes daily
Lindawaty wakes up at 5am every day to prepare 30 dishes at her shop, with help from her kitchen assistants. Meanwhile, John manages front-of-house operations, while some of his siblings help out occasionally.
Ayam Lemak Chilli Padi According to John, Lindawaty’s recipes are a mixture of Singapore and Indonesian style nasi padang and feature made-from-scratch rempah. “It’s the amount of spice that she uses, and everything is blended in-house,” he explains. Typically, she uses a mix of ingredients like onion, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, turmeric and cardamom for her dishes. 
Beef Rendang
Mains start at $2.50
Pondok Indah’s dishes start at $2.50 for mains like Petai Ikan Bilis and Selar Fish Belado, and go up to $4 for Beef or Mutton Rendang, and $4.50 for seafood. Fried sides like egg and bergedil range from $1 to $2.50.
Lontong
If you’re planning to head down, John says the signatures here include Beef Rendang ($4), Ayam Lemak Chilli Padi ($4), Beef Rendang ($4), Asam Pedas Stingray ($4.50) and Lontong ($4).
Pondok Indah Indonesian Nasi Padang is at #01-04 Upp Aljunied Link, S367904. Open Mon - Fri 7am - 4pm. Closed Sat & Sun. Tel: 8742 8183. More info via Facebook and Instagram.
Photos: Pondok Indah Indonesian Nasi Padang, Google/Eileen Wee, Facebook/Low Boon Chuan, Google/Timothy Choo
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