Dija Mara

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.

I will start off this review by saying that our group thought the food here was excellent. Everything we tried came out hot and the flavors were unique and delicious. Where this place became a 3 star review was in the timing of the plates. We were told when we sat down that the items would come out as they were made and we were fine with that. However, in our group of six, two people did not receive any of their food items for literally an hour and forty minutes. Not only had the rest of us already finished eating, but the restaurant was close to closing when they received their food. The three items that were delayed were prawns, long beans, and a side of rice. A cup of rice took almost two hours to arrive. The staff were friendly, the food was tasty, but the speed and awkwardness of waiting for simple food items made this a “not again” option for group dining.

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.

Was very excited to try this place per the Michelin Guide, but was wary because we tried the Chef's other restaurant Hoxton Manor in San Diego. It took a bit to get a reservation, but still the staffing level seems to not keep up with this high demand. It took time to even get our order in while the restaurant was half empty. As for food, we couldn't get through the meal because of the spice level of 2 of the dishes. It was as if they were trying to mask other flavors. However, this also happened at the other restaurant so I believe this is just this chefs style. I've took 2 different people to these experiences and both were just as disappointed as me.

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.