Medan

Bolu Meranti

The home-made roll cakes with variety of tastes, such as cheese, blueberry, mocha. The most famous roll cakes in town.

Cahaya Baru Indian Restaurant

The North and south Indian restaurant is one of Medan's best kept secrets, which has been featured in Kompas newspaper as the only restaurant in Medan which serves a wide range of authentic North-Indian cuisine. It offers delicious vegetarian and curry dishes.

Main dish Rp 20-70k, drink 10-50, lassi 30-35, beers 40-50, nasi kandar 15-35, martabak 25-50, add 10% service tax

Cambridge City Square

Cambridge City Square consists of office spaces, a mall, condominium and the Grand Swiss-Belhotel International linked together. The mall is less than a quarter of the size of Sun Plaza, but houses many restaurants and cafes like Nelayan Jala-jala (dim sum restaurant), Starbucks Coffee, Es Teler 77 (Indonesian street food), Pepper Lunch (teppanyaki restaurant), Haagen-Dazs, Magal and many more. A small supermarket, Berastagi Supermarket, is in LG floor. There are also several boutiques which sell knock-off "branded" items.

Daily 10:00–22:00

Centre Point

An upscale-mall, Centre Point aims to combine mall, apartments, hotel and office into one big integrated complex. As of 2018, the apartments were still under construction. Has Lotte Mart (Korean hypermarket), Cinema XXI (movie theater) & food court in top floor, Metro (department store), modern gym, and many more international retailers of brand-name items. Mr DIY opened in 2019. If you take a train from airport, after exiting train station, you can cross the street into the mall.

Daily 10:00–22:00

Delipark Mall & Rivapark

The largest upscale mall, part of Podomoro City Deli Medan. Their tenants include Sogo Dept Store, Marks & Spencer, Pull & Bear, Uniqlo, Tumi, Swarovski, Transmart Supermarket, Ace Hardware, Starbucks and many more.

10:00–22:00

Gelora Supermarket

A supermarket and small department store for children's school uniforms and other items. Their old building next to the railway tracks is now closed and they have moved into the Madani Hotel Building.

Graha Maria Annai Velangkanni

Catholic shrine with Tamil Hindu-style architecture, devoted to Our Lady of Good Health.

Closed · opens 8 am·Free

Grand Palladium Mall

No longer grand, this out-of-fashion mall is adjacent to Hotel Aryaduta in the city center. Used to be popular, but most outlets have now closed, as happens to malls in fickle Medan. All the large stores have left, but there are still a few small shops selling things like gems and CDs, and a few good restaurants. Be sure to try Tiong Sim Noodle & Hong Kong BBQ (open until 02:00 daily!): Their roasted pork and noodles is very famous locally. Nearby Sun Plaza is a livelier destination - it's about a 10-min drive or 15min walk from Palladium. Lippo Plaza is between the two.

Daily 10:00–22:00

Great Mosque of Medan

Masjid Raya Medan or Masjid Raya Al Mashun

Built in 1906 and completed in 1909, the mosque was designed by a Dutch architect mixing Moroccan, European, Middle Eastern and Malay styles. During the month of Ramadan the whole Jalan Masjid Raya is closed to hold a night market where food and merchandise are sold. Women can visit, too, but they have to enter the central hall through a separate door and stay behind a provisory wall that separates the hall in two. Around the mosque is a graveyard for the sultan's extended family.

Free

Gunung Timur Temple

Vihara Gunung Timur

A Daoist temple of significant scale located about 500 m from Sri Mariamman Temple. It contains a large paved area with an impressively scaled incense burner, two covered badminton courts, a very large main hall and is partly surrounded by a moat and walls. It is particularly crowded with worshippers on Chinese New Year and Cap Go Meh.

Free

Harbour 9

Offer outdoor seating just beside Deli river, but many mosquitoes at night.

Healy Mac's

The only branch of Healy Mac's in Indonesia. Nice food. Priced reasonably.

Holywings

Good food and reasonable priced drinks. Live music usually starts at 21:00. Occasionally may hires famous singers.

Jalan Selat Panjang/ Sumatra/ Semarang

This is where some of the oldest Chinese eateries in Medan serve their renowned cuisines, such as mie pangsit tiong-sim (noodle served with stuffed dumplings), kwetiau goreng (wok-fried Chinese rice-fettuccine), popia (Chinese-style vegetable-stuffed spring roll) and many more. If you want to eat halal, of course you should beware of the pork content in the dishes, but you could always ask for a no-pork version of the dish and a different wok to cook your food in.

Kedai Kopi Apek

Historic coffee house with excellent Lintong Coffee served up by Apek. This place was set up by Apek's father in 1922. Serves kopi susu and roti bakar srikaya (kaya toast). Contains stalls with Indian roti cane bread with goat curry, martabak and soto soup. Outside are nasi gurih, bakmi and kwetiau noodles. Piece of Medan history.

Koki Sunda

As the name implies, serves tasty Sundanese food and beverages such as Nasi Liwet and Es Delima. It's at the heart of the city at the corner of S.Parman and Hasanuddin so it's hard to miss if you travel around the city. Its reasonably priced and wide array selection of delicious food is well known to the locals and visitors. Koki Sunda now opens in Tanjung Morawa and Pekan Baru.

Lontong Kak Lin

Serving tasty and cheap lontong sayur (rice cakes in hot vegetables curry), this humble eatery is not much to look at for the uninitiated. There are queues to buy breakfast and lunch here.

Maha Vihara Maitreya

One of the biggest Buddhist temple complexes in Medan, it is decorated with various statues of mythical Chinese creatures like dragons, kirin and phoenixes. To the left wing is a pond housing koi fish, while the right wing houses a playground, souvenir shop, a vegetarian canteen and a coffeehouse. The main hall houses statues of Buddha Sakyamuni, Bodhisattva and the Bodhisattva Satyakalama Avolokitesvara. As this is a holy site, always obey the regulations stated by the temple.

Open most the times·Free

Maimoon Palace

Istana Maimun

A royal palace of Sultanate of Deli, built by Sultan Makmun Al Rasyid Perkasa Alamsyah in years 1887–1891, the palace covers 2,772 m² and has 30 rooms. It has unique interior design, mixing elements of Malay cultural heritage, Islam, Spanish, Indian and Italian style. Only a small number of rooms can be visited, with a history of the sultan family and a few artefacts, portraits and photographs and partly occupied by shops. Quite busy and popular place with locals and tourists. Additional fee if want to get photos in traditional costume (Rp50,000). No English text.

Rp10,000

Medan Home Dairy

They have European-style "best natural yogurt in Indonesia". Located at TASBI Complex. They are producing many kinds of goat and cow milk cheeses, as well. For the goat milk products they are using fresh, pasteurized (twice) organic goat milk.

Medan Mall

A popular place for shoppers where you can find almost everything from fine jewelery, clothing and food to groceries. Directly connected to Pusat Pasar, a big traditional market behind Medan Mall. The adjacent Olympia Mall is a wholesale market.

Daily 10:00–22:00

Medan Zoo

Kebun Binatang Medan

See critically endangered local fauna, Sumatran tiger. It is the only surviving tiger population in the Sunda Islands.

Closed · opens 8:30 am·Rp15,000 weekdays, Rp20,000 weekend

Mie Aceh Titi Bobrok

Has been dubbed by an Indonesian lifestyle magazine as the most popular local dish in Medan. A simple dish of noodle served with chili sauce and crab, rumour has it that the secret ingredient which make the Aceh-style noodle irresistible is a dash of Acehnese marijuana, which is the commonest drug that could be imported illegally from the region. But that, of course, only heightened the mystery and the notoriety of the delicious mie Aceh.

Mie Ayam Jamur Juara

Small street food stall. Likely one of the cheapest places but still good.

Main dish Rp 10-13k, drink 6-10k. Example: nasi ayam penyet 10k

Mr Ben

Not a mall, just a good sized shop that has been a long running source for all those hard to find food items that foreigners crave. They have a lot of competition since the giant supermarket chains have arrived, but you will still find items here that you won't get anywhere else in Medan. Personal service and very reasonable prices. Cheeses, interesting local coffees, and health food items. Well worth visiting.

07:30–19:30, closed Sun

North Sumatra Museum

Museum Negeri Sumatra Utara

It is the largest museum in North Sumatra which displays various historical and cultural relics of the nation, arts and crafts from various ethnic groups in North Sumatra.

Tue-Sun, 08:30-16:00

OnDo Grill Batak

A unique Batak restaurant where you can find the gems of Batak dishes, without all the germs. Cafe-like ambience with non-stop jazz music. Serves a reasonably-tasting saksang (a pork dish cooked in pork blood), babi panggang karo (Batak/Karo-style chopped roast-pork) and arsik (Batak-style fish dish). Don't forget to taste the hot pora-pora (a dish of sauteed papaya and cassava leaves cooked in coconut gravy and rawit chili).

Pagaruyung Alley

Located in Medan's "Little India" or Kampung Keling as it's called by locals. They offer, of course, Indian and Indonesian cuisine. Business begins when the sun sets and goes until 202:00 Well known for satay (chicken, lamb, mutton, liver, intestine, etc.), fried rice and martabak telur (egg pancake topped with diced potatoes, and onions, often served with curry). Also excellent Minang style "pick and mix" rice and fruit juices.

Pantai Cermin Theme Park & Resort

The water theme park is located in Cermin Beach, Serdang Bedagai. The theme park is organized by a Malaysian investor and the local government. Swimming, sun bathing and kayaking. To go there, take a rental car, private car or mini bus (sudako) at Jalan. MT. Haryono (in front of Medan Mall) and stop at Perbaungan city. Then take a machine trishaw to the beach. The whole journey may take about 1-2 hours.

weekdays 11:00-17:00, weekends and public holidays 09:00-6:30·weekdays: Rp40,000 (adult), Rp20,000 (children); weekends and public holidays: Rp60,000 (adult), Rp40,000 (children)

Pasar Petisah

A central market, sells vast array of meat, fish, fruit and vegetables. Plaza Medan Fair is very nearby.