Konro Bakar: Where to Eat Makassar's Grilled Buffalo Ribs

The cook at the corner of Jalan Sungai Cerekang doesn't open the grill until ten at night. By midnight the plastic chairs are full and the rib-bone smoke has reached two blocks down towards the harbour. Konro bakar is the late thing in Makassar — the grilled-rib dish that comes out of the kitchen when the rest of the city is winding down, served on a plate of dark red bumbu that looks brutal on first sight and tastes deeper on second.

This is a short, useful note on where to eat it, what cut to order, and why konro bakar is more interesting than the dish it grew out of.

Konro vs. coto

Coto Makassar is the buffalo-organ soup that defines the Makassar morning. It opens warungs across the city by six in the morning and closes most of them by lunchtime. Konro is the same dish's cousin: same buffalo (or beef, increasingly), same spice base, different cut. Coto uses offal, tongue, and the cheaper trimmings; konro takes the ribs. Same warung will often sell both.

Konro bakar — bakar meaning grilled — is the newer variant. You take the rib, you simmer it for hours in the same dark spice broth used for konro soup, then you lift it out and finish it over coals. What arrives at the table is a charred bone with the meat still half-attached, brushed with the reduced bumbu, and a side bowl of the soup it was cooked in. You eat the meat off the bone with your hands and use the soup to chase it.

The dish almost certainly originated in Makassar in the 1970s or 1980s as a streetside variation on konro soup — accounts differ on the exact warung that invented it, and several still claim the title. What matters is that it's now its own thing, eaten in its own time of day, by its own crowd.

The right cut

Most konro bakar comes from the buffalo short rib — the thick portion below the chuck, where the meat sits on heavy bone and stays moist over a long simmer. This is what you'll be served if you order konro bakar without specifying.

The cut nobody asks for is the iga atas — the upper rib, closer to the back, leaner and with more bark when grilled. It's drier than the short rib and some warungs refuse to grill it because the soup-and-grill method doesn't suit it. If you ask politely for iga atas at a warung that has it, and the cook is willing, you'll get the better dish. The bark crusts properly. The meat picks up more smoke. The bone is easier to handle.

You won't find iga atas at the tourist-facing places. You will find it at warungs frequented by drivers and dock workers, where the owner knows the butcher personally and can request a specific cut for the week.

Where to eat it

Three places worth knowing, in rough order of how much trouble each is to find:

Konro Karebosi. The famous one. Open since the 1960s. Two locations — the original on Jalan Karebosi and the newer one on Jalan Gunung Lokon. Tourists go to Jalan Lokon because it's air-conditioned. Locals go to Karebosi because it's the original. The konro bakar is reliable but not extraordinary; what makes the place worth visiting is the konro kuah (the soup version), which is excellent.

Konro Bakar Jalan Sungai Cerekang. A row of three or four stalls on a side street between the harbour and the city centre, opening from around 22:00. No name in particular — the locals call it by the street. Better grill char than Karebosi, better bumbu, smaller portions. Plastic chairs on the pavement. Cash only. The right place if you have one konro bakar dinner in Makassar.

Konro Bakar Pak Aris. Out in Antang, twenty minutes east of the city centre, on a corner near the Pertamina depot. Open from late afternoon. This is the place to ask for iga atas — Pak Aris keeps the leaner cut on the grill when he can get it. Not on any tourist map. Worth the ojek ride if you're serious about the dish.

What to drink with it

The local pairing is teh botol — cold sweet jasmine tea in a glass bottle. The sweetness cuts the heat of the bumbu and the smoke of the grill. Sour-sweet jeruk hangat (warm calamansi) works as well, particularly late at night.

Beer is a poor pairing and not always available — Makassar is a culturally Muslim city and many warungs don't serve alcohol. Bringing your own is not done.

What is konro bakar? Konro bakar is a Makassar speciality of buffalo (or beef) short ribs simmered in a dark spice broth based on coriander, keluak, and palm sugar, then grilled over coals. It's eaten late at night with the reduced cooking broth as a dip and a side bowl of the soup. The dish is a 1970s-era streetside reinvention of konro kuah, the older soup version.

How to order

If your Indonesian is limited, the working phrase is "Konro bakar satu, tidak terlalu pedas" — one konro bakar, not too spicy. The default heat level at most warungs is moderate by Indonesian standards, mild by Padang or Manado standards. Asking for pedas (hot) is fine if you can handle it; asking for tidak pedas (no chilli) loses the dish and the cook may give you a look.

Expect to pay €3.50–€6 per plate at a streetside warung, more at the established Konro Karebosi locations. The portion is one large rib or two smaller ones. Rice comes on the side. The bone is half the experience — pick it up.

Eat it after ten. The dish was made for that hour. Eating konro bakar at six in the evening is technically possible and culturally pointless.