The Banyumas region has a small but distinctive Javanese cuisine, more savoury and less sweet than Yogyakarta cooking. The signature dish is mendoan — half-fried, deliberately undercooked tempeh in a thin batter, served hot with sambal kecap and rice. You will see it at warungs across the city; for the canonical version, try the row of stalls along Jalan Sawangan in the evenings.
Soto Sokaraja, a yellow-broth chicken soup with rice cakes (ketupat), shredded vegetables and crispy soybean topping, is the other Banyumas classic and is best eaten in Sokaraja itself or at one of the soto stalls around the alun-alun. Gethuk Goreng Sokaraja is the sweet to take home — deep-fried palm-sugar cassava cake — sold from dozens of shops on the Sokaraja main road.
Around the alun-alun and Jalan Jenderal Soedirman there are also plenty of more modern places: Indonesian chains like Bakso Lapangan Tembak Senayan, simple Padang-style nasi rames warungs, and a handful of slightly more upmarket cafes catering to the university student crowd around Jenderal Soedirman University (Unsoed).