
I may have tried about 400 restaurants in Jakarta, and I would say only 25% of them taste good enough. Restaurants with Asian food are usually better, especially Indonesian, Chinese and Japanese ones. For Western food, it is very rare to find a restaurant that serves good food unless a westerner is involved at some point (as a manager, chef, owner or consultant). My most common criticisms: Low-quality ingredients, over use of industrial cheese, sauces too salty or too greasy, no real butter, too much sugar, absence of taste, over or undercooking, etc... Only when eating in the most expensive places (usually in 5-star hotels or reputed chains), the standards are satisfactory, though fast to deteriorate. Very few venues in Jakarta, to my knowledge, offer constant good western food at reasonable prices. For Asian food, I consider that most restaurants serve street food quality at best. If you do not mind the hygiene and hot weather, you'll eat better sitting on a bench in M