Silicon Valley is home to many, many great ethnic restaurants. Bay Leaf is a mixed Indonesian-Thai restaurant set in a mini-strip mall a block away from Murphy Street in downtown Sunnyvale. There are better Thai restaurants in the area, but one would be hard pressed to find a better Indonesian restaurant nearby.

There are some Malaysian dishes also available such as this Roti Prta served with curry dipping sauce (always an excellent starter):

The Gado Gado salad with boiled potatoes, cabbage, tofu, egg, green beans and cucumbers was nicely dressed with a sweet peanut sauce and served with shrimp chips on top:

The Mie Tek-Tek Goreng is stir-fried egg noodles with shredded chicken, vegetables and shrimp chips (this dish can also be ordered as a soup). The fried egg served on top was over-cooked for our liking, but was a nice touch:

There are two types of Indonesian Fried Chicken available — we opted for the Ayam Kalasan (Batavia style) which is sugar marinated chicken served with Sambal chili sauce. It was nicely sweet, hot and fall-off-the bone good:

The Pepes Ikan was the spiciest dish of the evening. It is a fish with curry sauce wrapped in a banana leaf and grilled to perfection:

They had a special kale curry dish that evening made with dried anchovies:

The Nasi Goreng (Indonesian style) fried rice with chicken and beef was a good way to end the meal:

Bay Leaf has a very casual atmosphere where they pulled our Singha beers out of a beverage refrigerator located right in the dining room itself. Stick with the extensive Indonesian side of the menu and you will not be disappointed.

http://www.bayleaf-restaurant.com/home