This soto variety combines chicken or beef with a creamy broth that is enriched with coconut milk and a myriad of different spices and herbs such as galangal, turmeric, ginger, and coriander. The meat is cooked, then shredded and fried before it's doused in a flavorful broth.
The dish is finished off with various condiments such as boiled eggs, fish cakes, prawn crackers, potato fritters, or fried shallots, while the rice is typically served on the side. As its name suggests, this soto variety hails from the city of Medan, where it's regarded as a signature dish and a highly sought-after regional delicacy.
MOST ICONIC Soto Medan
View moreTahu campur is a traditional dish originating from East Java. Although there is a number of variations on it, this soup is usually prepared with a combination of beef broth, fried tofu, green salad, bean sprouts, egg noodles, sambal petis (bird’s eye chili peppers and dried shrimp paste), spiced fried cassava (lentho), garlic crackers (krupuk bawang), and a spice paste containing garlic, coriander, cumin, turmeric, and black pepper.
When served, the broth is usually garnished with fried garlic, fried shallots, and krupuk bawang garlic crackers. This dish is often prepared and sold by street cart vendors in East Java.
MOST ICONIC Tahu campur
MAIN INGREDIENTS
Konro is an unusual soup originating from the city of Makassar, located in South Sulawesi. This rich beef soup, commonly referred to as sop konro, is usually made with spare ribs cooked in a flavorful broth. The dish has a unique and distinctive flavor due to the use of traditional Indonesian spices such as kluwak and galangal.
However, even though it is flavorful, unlike the majority of national dishes in Indonesia, it is not particularly spicy. Usually, the ribs are served together with the broth, but the dish can sometimes be divided in a two-course meal, when broth and ribs are served separately.
MOST ICONIC Konro
Sop buntut is a traditional soup originating from Indonesia. The soup is made with oxtail, oil, carrots, potatoes, and a huge number of spices such as cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, white pepper, shallots, garlic, ginger, and onions. The combination is simmered for a few hours until the oxtails are fully cooked and have a tender consistency.
The spice paste is sautéed and it's added to the pot with carrots and potatoes, and the soup is simmered for a bit more until the vegetables are tender. Sop buntut is usually served with slices of scallions and tomatoes, and it's garnished with fried shallots.
MAIN INGREDIENTS
Soto Bandung is a traditional dish and a type of soto soup originating from Bandung. The soup is usually made with a combination of cubed beef, ginger, garlic, scallions, thinly sliced daikon, bay leaves, lemongrass, oil, sugar, salt, and white pepper.
The ingredients are cooked in water until the beef becomes tender. The soup is then seasoned with salt, pepper, and sugar, and daikon is added to the pot near the end of cooking. Once prepared, soto Bandung is garnished with many ingredients such as soy beans, scallions, shallot flakes, and often a squeeze of kaffir lime.
MAIN INGREDIENTS
Selat solo is an Indonesian dish believed to have originated as a European salad that’s been adapted to Javanese tastes. It hails from Solo in Central Java, hence the name. The dish is made with a combination of beef tenderloin, onions, soy sauce, salt, pepper, sugar, vinegar, shallots, cloves, nutmeg, hard-boiled eggs, mayonnaise, and vegetables such as carrots, lettuce, potatoes, and green beans.
The vegetables and eggs are layered in plate, the meat is then placed over them, and the watery soup is poured over the meat. The dish is traditionally served with a bit of mayonnaise on the side and can be categorized as a main meat dish, a salad, and a soup.
MAIN INGREDIENTS
Soto babat is a traditional soup and a type of soto. It's usually made with a combination of beef tripe, scallions, ginger, garlic, shallots, turmeric, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, bay leaves, coriander, salt, sugar, and white pepper. The tripe is boiled, cut into pieces, then mixed with the fragrant and sautéed spices and beef broth.
The soup is simmered until everything is tender. Once done, soto babat is typically complemented with ingredients such as bean sprouts, sliced cabbage, lime juice, fried shallots, soy sauce, and glass noodles. The soup is sometimes served with rice and chili sauce on the side.
MAIN INGREDIENTS
Sayur asem is a sweet and sour vegetable soup. Often referred to as tamarind soup, it is one of the favorite vegetable dishes in Indonesia. The entire dish is based on tamarind, an unusual plant commonly grown in Southeast Asia, which gives the dish a distinctive sour taste.
Other traditional Indonesian ingredients in sayur asem include jackfruit, melinjo, long beans, bilimbi, pumpkin, corn, and chayote. Sayur asem originated among the Sundanese people residing in West Java. However, their original recipe for this traditional soup has been adapted across Indonesia.
MOST ICONIC Sayur asem
View moreHailing from Bandung, mie kocok is an aromatic soup that combines sliced beef, beef offal, or meatballs with flat yellow noodles and other accompaniments such as crackers, bean sprouts, sliced scallions, and fried shallots. All ingredients are served in a clear beef broth, while spicy sambal paste and soy sauce may be served as condiments.
The name mie kocok roughly translates as shaken noodles, presumably because the noodles are shaken in a strainer before they are added to the soup.
MOST ICONIC Mie kocok
View moreTasteAtlas food rankings are based on the ratings of the TasteAtlas audience, with a series of mechanisms that recognize real users and that ignore bot, nationalist or local patriotic ratings, and give additional value to the ratings of users that the system recognizes as knowledgeable. For the “9 Worst Rated Indonesian Soups” list until March 26, 2025, 1,208 ratings were recorded, of which 681 were recognized by the system as legitimate. TasteAtlas Rankings should not be seen as the final global conclusion about food. Their purpose is to promote excellent local foods, instill pride in traditional dishes, and arouse curiosity about dishes you haven’t tried.