The Barrels (Summarecon Mall Serpong)
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Tibs
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The Barrels is one of the few decent beer-drinking joints you will find in Serpong/Tangerang. It is inside Summarecon Mall, on the downtown walk, and it is basic but lively. You have a big poster of a cave with barrels on the walls, some high tables and chairs in line, and the barrels... For a little above Rp250k, you can order a small barrel of Bintang to share with your friends. They also have local live music bands on weekends. Opening Hours: 10am to 1pm The Barrels Summarecon Mall Serpong (Downtown Walk #DGF-3), Tangerang Phone: +62-21 4586 4959 Instagram: The Barrels 1767 & The Wine Place
I had been to Camden bar in Bandung , but never to their two branches in Jakarta. I corrected this mistake last weekend by visiting both Camden Gandaria and Camden Cikini in one evening. Both bars are very popular, almost any day of the week with a clientele of Indonesians in their early 20s. Cikini's crowd is more upper-class (including a few foreigners - backpackers and interns) while in Gandaria you have mostly young students. Typically, they will buy a beer tower (IDR250,000) and share it at a table with some snacks.
It may seem like an obvious thing to say, but if you are looking for the best Chinese food in Jakarta, you should go to its Chinatown, in Glodok. I had already tried a few weeks ago Hunan Kitchen , and I had promised myself to come back to try some of the other popular Chinese restaurants in that area. Lac Mei Che Huo Kuo is also specializing in Sichuan cuisine, but with a focus on seafood. It was full when I entered, and apparently the customers are mostly Indo-Chinese, from the upper-class. The main room is pretty basic, just some boring tables and decoration. The only thing you will notice is the aquarium, with live fishes, turtles and some weird, huge oysters I had never seen before.
Abuba Steak sounded to me like Abuja Steak, the capital of Nigeria, so I had a strong feeling against this restaurant before visiting it... Fortunately, it was a great surprise and a place I recommend to everyone, excluding vegetarians. The outside doesn't look so great and would need some painting. The inside is similar to that of a warung, basic but clean, with some posters of meat ads. You have about 30 tables, and 1/4th of them were taken when I visited. Many people seemed to complain on internet about the smoke of cigarettes, but in the Abuba I visited, in Wahid Hasyim, no smoke at all since there is a private/closed room for smoking. There is also a small musholla for praying in the back... My only concern was that the AC was not functioning very well, so it was a bit hot for eating. Click on the picture to see the menu
Ampera is the largest chain of Sundanese food restaurants in Indonesia, with so many branches that it would be hard to list them all. I tried the one in Jalan Agus Salim (Sabang), near Sarinah.
Bumbu Desa is a chain of Sundanese food restaurants, popular in Jakarta and in other Indonesian cities. There are quite many branches, at least 27, so I cannot say if the quality is the same everywhere. The one I tried was in Bandung, near Paskal Hypersquare.
I came all the way from Sudirman to Jalan Pangeran Jayakarta, in Glodok, because I was told this street had some of the best Chinese street food stalls and warungs in Jakarta. When I arrived, it was already late but some venues were still crowded. I chose one of them, Chasio Garing Acc, for a simple reason: They had air-conditioning. It turned out their unit was not functioning very well, so I had a chance to sweat a little, and also to get a few mosquito bites. There isn't much to say about the inside as it looks like any typical warung: 4 walls with kitschy ornaments and posters, basic chairs and tables, and uncertain hygiene. I had eaten the best Grilled Duck ever a week earlier in Liyen , and the one in Chasio Garing Acc was quite disappointing. Since it is twice as cheap in the latter, there wasn't much to expect anyway. I also tried the Beef Kwetiaw: The ingredients were not very fresh and the meat low quality. I only had a few bites and couldn't
Ikan Tude Manado is a cheap and basic restaurant in Jalan Blora, between Jalan Sudirman and Plaza Indonesia (Pronounce it "tooday"). The food in Tude is manadonese, my favourite Indonesian food, and it is particularly tasty. Very popular, it is packed with Indonesian office workers every day at lunch... Just like in any Manado restaurants, expect the food to be very spicy! The cost for one meal is between Rp. 35k to Rp. 70k.