For Pork "Lovers" ~~~
BPK (BBQ-Pork) Heavy-Weight Shootout
Dano Toba Cafe (DT) VS Singalor Lau (SL)
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Food : A tie (DT - 4/5, SL - 3.9/5)
Value : SL - 4/5, DT - 3.55/5
Accessibility/Ambience/Cleanliness : DT
Items that the opposing one in shootout dun have :
DT : Pork-belly Stew, a native Batak *super* spicy green chili mix (forgot the name)
SL : Pork Rib Soup
Conclusion : No real outright winner. For the visitor - better to have BPK @ Dano Toba Cafe. The place is more appealing. For the locals/"semi-locals" - without a doubt - Singalor Lau, unless one is in-love with DL's pork stew or hard-up for it's native Batak chili (it's like wasabi + chili-padi on anabolic steroids...
be warned LOL!)
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So both outspoken Ibu & I instinctively agreed that
Singalor Lau is "best, best and best" for BPK. But how is it "best, best and best" against Dano Toba Cafe - we aren't really sure either. I did try DT Cafe and food was almost same taste and texture as SL, but I wasn't too pleased with the prices (in-comparison). Yet that one experience cannot be definitive. So we decided to do a "shootout" for our own conclusion.
22nd Jan : Lunch at SL
It was lunch time and SL was *
packed* - all kinds of workers and company staffers were there (at 1200hrs). Can see that SL has obviously more employees too since 6-8 months back.
Our order came :
The silver/white thing in the bowls is due to reflection of the camera flash by the soups.
Total : RP167K (4 people)
3 standard portions + 1 jumbo portion (with rice and soup)
2 portions of Pork Ribs & Soups
2 x Pig-blood
1 x Aqua, 2 x Teh-O, 1 x Mandarin Orange juice
Didn't get a price breakdown as Pak paid for it. So I took it as
RP167K for 6 portions (BPK x 3 + BPK-Jumbo x 1 + Pork Ribs x 2) + 4 drinks, and for 4 people.
VALUE . From the previous review of
Singalor Lau - a minimum meal (1 x std portion + nasih + soup) = RP21K. No change.
The Pork Rib Soup (not Bakuteh) was really *nice* ... and I understood why the local-stingy-friend, who first brought me here, winced when this dish (his favorite) was sold out that time.
Meal was great. No faults. None. Only thing that hampers this joint is location. Not really accessible to batam visitors (but certainly not as difficult as the terrifically awesome Anah BBQ fish+chicken). We finished the above meal in 10mins. LOOOOOL!!!~~~~
23rd Jan 1400hrs : Dano Toba Cafe
Location : Batam Center, opposite Palm Springs estate
Many locals and include senior samster(s) here have vouched for this joint - locals vouching this as the next-go-to place for BPK. It is, without doubt, far easier to access, cleaner, more spacious, better ambience than Singalor Lau. Customers are more affluent than SL's in-general.
This time it was only 3 of us. And our order came :
Total : RP138K (3 ppl)
1 x Stewed Pork-belly (RP18K ea)
2 x Std BPK portions (RP27K ea)
3 x Nasi Putih (RP7K ea)
1 x Teri Sambal (the small ikan bilis in the photo) @ RP10K ea
2 x portions of that native Batak green chili mix (looks like wasabi in the photo) @ RP10K ea
2 x Pig Blood
3 x Aqua (RP5K ea)
Looking at the bill - a person's minimum meal (no drink, no frills, no others) be 1 x std BPK + Nasih = RP34K.
Meal was great too. No distinguishing from SL - the BPK was spot-on.
The stewed pork-belly was nice. That darn Batak chili is POWER SSSSSpicyyyyyyy (really POWER - not for the faint hearted, for those who eat chili everyday!).
If one wanna try THE best BBQ pork-(belly) in batam - Dano Toba Cafe & Singalor Lau are defacto. If have to choose one - go DT for the sake of ambience and cleanliness (for the batam visitor). As for locals and "semi-locals" - SL is an outright winner (since we have cars and numbers to order ALOT and eat more often than visitors - which in this scenario - Value becomes a much greater factor, besides Food factor).
ENJOY!