This place is amazing! We went on opening night and everything - yes everything - that we ordered was perfection. The owner personally came to our table and recommended foods based on our preference: pork belly satay, fried rice, lamb satay, ceviche, and fried octopus. Also, we ordered drinks, the ingredients for which are made in house! Seriously, down to them dehydrating the grapefruit garnishing the drinks. I had a paloma - highly recommend as it was just enough tang without being too sweet. We also enjoyed the pinor noir and cabernet franc. This restaurant is my newest obsession for original and tasty food! If you're looking for food that is unique (there is NO place even close to this in Oceanside), enjoyable, and presented in a lively and friendly atmosphere, Dija Mara is the place to go!
The food is absolutely amazing, every single plate was absolute perfection. Hands down the best restaurant in Oceanside. Dija Mara offers Oceanside residents a completely different dining experience, no other restaurants provide the culinary skill like the chef at this restaurant does. Our new regular spot.
This was our first time here and we enjoyed our eating adventure so much! Fun, cool ambience and the menu is just so enticing. We three ate: the Laksa, mie goreng (sp?), and the 24
Hr pork belly--dee-licious. We also tried two desserts: pandan bread pudding and strawberry semifreddo with black sesame meringue. Wow! You will love this place
Great Indonesian fusion. Not traditional Indo cuisine but all of its best flavor components melded with the chef's deft hand at preparation. The octopus skewers were tender with just the right amount of grill, not the usual chewy texture that I expect from octopus. All the dishes were well balanced and savory, as Indonesian food should be.
This relatively new addition to the Oceanside restaurant scene is now in the top 5 on my list. More to try, but Dija Mara will without a doubt remain. Topping the ambiance and brilliant menu, The owners and staff are warm and invite you to join them in their creation of 5-star cuisine. The chef is creative and skilled and so far besides the grilled octopus (best I've ever had) I try something new each time I visit. Plenty of vegetarian/vegan options, too, which is sometimes hard to satisfy.
Very cool venue and not your average Indian. cuisine (you won’t find a masala and you won’t care). Amazing food, but make a reservation this place gets booked up. You could try showing up at opening also to get a seat at the bar. I would recommend the coconut rice, eggplant, roti with vegan sauce and chicken thigh skewers. I also tried the nasi goreng which was beautifully plated and had lots of depth of flavor. If you are lucky you might get to meet the owner, Simran. Street parking out front.
Overall dining at Dija Mara was a good experience. Every dish I ordered had nice presentation and was tasty.
I think most dishes could have been better balanced, as most had a single dominant flavor. (Fish sauce, coconut, etc)
Despite the restaurant being not very crowded, I waited 30-40 mins for the first dish to arrive after ordering.
The food is great. Cozy little place that's very popular so make reservations or you most likely won't get a table, we saw multiple people being rejected. Definitely recommend the pork belly and beef tartare. My only complaint is that the charred broccolinni was intensely over-charred... a few bites in and I quite literally felt like I had just smoked a cigarrette. You can see how black it looks in the photos. If the chefs read reviews, I'd urge them not to char it so much. It's not a great feeling for food to make you feel like you have just smoked, especially if you don't actually smoke! Everything else was top notch though, and we will definitely be back to try the rest of the menu.
Found this place because we were looking for a place that had vegetarian options for my son. Enjoyed everything we ordered! We had the grilled Roti with vegetarian curry sauce, tofu rendang, pork belly skewers, charred eggplant, coconut rice, prawn crackers, and green papaya salad. We didn't have a reservation and waited about 20 minutes to be seated. Glad we waited instead of going somewhere else.
It was difficult to imagine paying what we were going to, but the lack of Indonesian restaurants and the shear deliciousness of each dish, and libation, awards them our full endorsement!
If you're dining in Oceanside, go! So good. We can recommend the Dija Hangover (with anything bubbly - I had the Lychee mimosa) and both the Gado Gado and the hanger steak and eggs with the Dija Monkey.
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