Good Taste is a menu for eating well in the Bay Area. Today, we look forward to Thursday’s grand opening of Fikscue, which serves Halal Texas-style barbecue and Indonesian plates.
When I think about the many cottage, home-based food delivery businesses that kept me fed in the most exciting ways during the first years of the pandemic, Fik and Reka Saleh’s Gurih Table pop-up is at the top of the list. The husband and wife sold meals blending Indonesian classics such as soto, rendang, and balado featuring Texas-style barbecue made with halal meats.
In late 2023, the Salehs were offered the opportunity to take over a restaurant at 1708 Park Avenue in Alameda that had opted to close after only a few months in business, and Fikscue became an instantly popular brick-and-mortar venture. It’s open for dinner on Wednesdays and lunch on Saturdays and Sundays, and people line up for what may end up being hours on the weekends.
After weeks of soft open hours during Golden State Valkyries games, Fikscue is having a grand opening on Thursday (June 12) at Thrive City outside the Chase Center at 7 Warriors Way, Suite 208. The restaurant joins such Bay Area food stars as Señor Sisig, Dumpling Time, Kaya by Burma Love, Che Fico Pizzeria, and CupCakin Bakeshop.
I’ve tried most of the items on the menu and haven’t found any wrong answers yet. I am partial to the beef rendang plate, which comes with a kale curry, garlic chips, potato fritter, steamed rice, and a lacy fried egg with sambal, but am also just as happy sharing a huge dino rib, jalapeño-cheddar sausage, potato salad, rujak slaw with pineapple, and batagor, veggie dumplings in a peanut sauce. If you’ve got a sweet tooth, get both of the desserts to share: banana pudding and cendol, an Indonesian coconut milk drink sweetened with palm sugar and pandan jelly.
It’s truly a thrill to see the Salehs get this level of visibility in San Francisco—and I suspect they’re about to make thousands of new fans in the Bay Area. Their brilliant menu is yet more proof that multicultural collaboration and imagination is what makes the Bay a wonderful place to exist, and that hard work pays off!
Tamara publishes the California Eating website, newsletter, and zine, and has just launched the Food Book Club.
