Jakarta

Jakarta
702 Brunswick St New farm (Same Building as Alibi Room)
3/5
My visit to Jakarta was another of these family events, where finding a place that suits the tastes of people coming is difficult due to the fact that they all have contradicting tastes. Jakarta performed well in that regard, as it did in most aspects. So after making a booking for 5 people at 7:30pm on a Saturday I was surprised by the fact that it appeared that booking may not have been necessary (I have been burnt in Brisbane before for Saturday night walk-in), the table that had been reserved for us was obvious, being the only odd numbered setting in the restaurant.

The decor, while suffering from the fact that it feels a little like you’re in strip mall, is wonderfully decorated with rich earthy colours that create comfortable ambience (excepting the honking cars on Brunswick st). The Service is of an acceptable level, while lacking the attention that many restaurants have, it was not hard to get a waitresses attention, besides too much attention can be a bad thing. The promptness of the kitchen however was silly quick with our food appearing shortly after ordering, and the timing of banquet dishes was nigh perfect with our table just finishing a dish before the next dish came out.

That only leaves the food, which was delicious. We ordered a banquet ($32 pp incl’g dessert) for the entire table, which allowed me to taste several different dishes. Again as with last time with Indonesian, I still lack the knowledge of what is good and not. But this time I believe that the dishes were better, with the dishes having a significant flavour of ginger and citrus tones as the only overarching flavours present in all dishes, Sate that tasted less like peanuts and rather had an earthy smoky character that more likely to be in good scotch than food. The food seemed like it had real sense of sweetness without being ridiculous and being pleasant overall.

I would return to Jakarta and suggest that everyone visit it, purely because Indonesian food is fantastic as far as I can tell, and we need to support cuisines in this city that aren’t just steak, dodgy Chinese and dodgy Thai.
Jakarta has a website with a full menu at http://www.jakarta.com.au/menu.html
Beer cost under $6.5 with imports such as Bintang (Indonesia’s most well known brand) being the most expensive, there is a wine list however as Jakarta is BYO wine and there is a Liquorland next door I would suggest BYO

Makanan Indonesia

Makanan Indonesia
59 Hardgrave Rd
0/5
At first glance Makanan Indonesia looks like my kind of place. An old room opening straight onto the road with plastic everything and the wait staff consisting of a single old guy sitting in the corner reading the newspaper, the only thing i like more is a Chinese restaurant that hasn't been changed since 1987. So upon sitting down the wait staff, ask me if I'm dining in. I am, this being a good sign considering that it is 2:30 in the afternoon on a Sunday. Due to the fact that i haven't eaten Indonesian food before (at least not in the non-dried noodle form) I ask the waiter/owner?, what on the menu is distinctly Indonesian, and upon suggestions i order an entree and a main. The Entree was a Bala Bala which is some kind of mixed vegetable patty, and the main was fresh potato crisps with bits of chicken and covered with a sticky sweet sauce.
One Word can describe all the food i ate that day, Oil. I'm pretty sure its because my lack of knowledge resulted in me ordering the two most oily dishes on the menu, but the level of oil in both these dishes made an oil well look dry. The entree came out very promptly, even feeling quick considering i was dining alone. Aside from the oil the Entree was nice enough, and the sauce accompanying it blended well with the flavours in the patty. The main was massive and came with rice and the while i couldn't fully appreciate the flavours of it due to the oil, the sauce seemed to have an interesting flavour, especially when combined with the bits of chicken and some rice to draw the oil away.
While i believe this visit was unfruitful, i believe that i will be visiting this place again to try something else in the hope that i accidentally stumbled across the two most oily dishes on the menu.
Makanan Indonesia is open for lunch and dinner Tuesday to Sunday, BYOB, and is halal.
The entree cost 6.50, the main cost 13.5.


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