Category: Bandung

All About Food have visited the mountainous Bandung several times. Bandung is located in West Java, Indonesia and is one of the busies city on weekends.

The GoodLife

Review:

Coffee is usually the last thing I look for when I was in Bandung. Partially it is because I have grown to accept that there are no good ones and settled for flavoured ‘coffee’ like the ones sold in Starbucks – a lot of people love the sugar-induced coffees and a few appreciate the actual quality of the coffee there.

A friend of mine from Bandung took us to this little café at the heart of Bandung called The GoodLife. When we first arrived, I had to check with her to see that we were in the right place. The café is part of a small office house and is quite obscured from the outside. I wouldn’t blame you if you thought it was the office’s garage – but, hey, there are famous companies started off in a garage!

Drinks at The Goodlife

Cold Brew Coffee – 15k

The GoodLife’s cold brew coffee was already pre-chilled for our convenience. It is believed that cold brew coffees have lower acidity and lower caffeine content when brewed in equal volume.

The coffee also came in a nice little pre-packaged bottle… so that you don’t need to wait for it to be processed.

Hot Matcha Latte – 20k

Latte – 20k

The food menu

Dutch Pancake – 50k

It can be said that Dutch Pancake is the ‘signature dish’ at The GoodLife – we ordered three of them!

It was quite a wait because they actually made it from scratch… and also the fact that they only had one oven at that time (you might need another one soon ^_^).

However, I must say it was definitely worth the wait and it was quite a decent portion for me (read: very big for an average Indonesian person). The pancake itself was (obviously) freshly served and the blueberries were the ‘icing on the cake’.

The thing that amazed me from the café was the ad hoc menu. At one stage, the owner told us that she bought this beautiful bocconcini and asked us whether we wanted a bocconcini pizza. She also offered us something that was only described as ‘savoury rice’. It’s exciting and almost felt like enjoying dishes in a fresh-produced, fine dining place -> except that it is still a garage ^_^

Bocconcini pizza – 30k

Savoury rice – 30k

Lebanese Bread – 30k

Panini with extra egg – 25k

The final verdict for The GoodLife

It was a nice experience having a sip (okay, maybe ~~slightly~~ a lot more than that) of coffee at The GoodLife.

Details:

Jl Anggrek 15, Bandung

+62 813 2208 8104

https://www.facebook.com/thegoodlifebdg/

Mar 2, 2016
Bandung Culinary Tourism

In the last few years, we reviewed a few restaurants in Bandung. This time around, we would like to write about Bandung’s local food offerings. You could easily find these food in big malls or plazas in Bandung. However, if you want the ‘authentic’ ones that are loved by the citizens of Bandung, we should really hunt for them.

What is Culinary Tourism?

Indonesians love to eat (including me). Their overabundance love of food enables them to create a whole new phrase dedicated to the journey of finding good food. Hence, the term ‘Wisata Kuliner‘ was born. It was hard to find the English phrase for it. However, after brainstorming session with my friends, we decided to use the term ‘Culinary Tourism’ to describe this phenomena because someone has written a thesis about it.

Bandung Culinary Tourism

Batagor

When we talk about Culinary in Bandung, the first thing that everyone mentions should be baso tahu goreng, commonly known as Batagor. Batagor is a deep fried fish tofu that is usually served with spicy peanut sauce and sweet soy sauce. There are two famous batagor restaurants in Bandung: Batagor Abuy and Batagor Kingsley. In terms of taste, we like Batagor Abuy more. On the other hand, Batagor Kingsley is more suitable to have for takeaway.

Batagor Kingsley is located in jalan Veteran 10.

Mie Yamin

Mie Yamin is the Bandung version of Chinese noodles. It is a bit unclear why it was called ‘Yamin’ noodles. We found an Indonesian article about the origin of Mie Yamin in Jakarta. One of the more famous places in Bandung is Mie Yamin Linggarjati in jalan Balonggede. In addition to its noodles, Linggarjati is also well-known for its delicious Avocado juice.

We actually did not visit the Linggarjati restaurant due to the distance. We used the gojek app that is priced quite decently for food delivery service.

Cireng Bumbu

Cireng bumbu is probably the most common dish on this list (you can pretty much buy anywhere and it would taste pretty similar). Cireng is a tapioca-based snack that is deep fried with fillings (usually spicy ones). It is usually sold just outside a restaurant or in food stalls.

What else is available on this Bandung Culinary Tourism?

The following dishes might also be available outside the city of Bandung. However, they have been modified to have the Bandung traits.

Yoghurt Cisangkuy

I’m pretty sure everyone knows what Yoghurt is. The interesting bit about Yoghurt Cisangkuy is that it has been in the same venue for, like, forever! If you ask someone from Bandung, I’m pretty sure the person would know this place. They have a few flavours to choose from and also some light snacks.

Sate Ayam Lavie

Lavie is a name of a baby shop in jalan Imam Bonjol, Bandung.In front of the shop, there is a small stall that sells chicken satay. It’s the perfect place for those of you waiting around!

What I love about Bandung’s chicken satay is the one called ‘sate lemak‘. It is literally just a skewer of fat! Pretty unhealthy I must say, but if you just eat the right amount, they are awesome!

Bubur Sumsum a la Bandung

Bubur sumsum is a rice flour porridge with sweet palm sugar sauce. We bought this from a street vendor usually roaming around the housing complex. What separates Bandung’s from the rest is the use of pomegranate.

Coffee from The Good Life cafe

This cafe might be relatively new when compared to the rest on this list. However, you can’t have a list of Bandung good stuff without a great coffee place! Located in Jalan Anggrek 15, this cafe is pretty obscured and part of a small office house. However, it’s hard to find coffee as good as this one in Bandung!

Obviously, there are a lot more dishes originated from Bandung that we could try. However, we did not have the time to try them all… maybe in the future…

The City of Bandung

Bandung is the third most populated city in Indonesia and is just a few hours drive from Jakarta (depending largely on the traffic!). However, the density of the city is twice as much as the second largest city in Indonesia, Surabaya. That’s why if you want to travel to Bandung, I suggest you to avoid the weekends!

Jan 6, 2016
Boemi Joglo

Review:

For this week’s review we travelled up and down mountain side in Bandung to a place called Boemi Joglo. It is quite an interesting name choice that can be translated into ‘The World of Joglo’. Joglo is a traditional house of Javanese people. You can read more about Joglo in Wikipedia as usual.

Boemi Joglo has this fantastic one-page listing of stuff you can eat and drink. It is very simple with no pictures. So, you kind of have to know what you want to eat.

The first thing you have to order is Tempe Mendoan. Tempe mendoan is a deep fried soy bean cake with yummy spices. The difference between regular and great tempe mendoan is its ‘sambal kecap’ dipping sauce. This restaurant has a pretty tasty dipping sauce to complement the dish!

Tempe Mendoan – 7k

Their ‘signature dish’ is Nasi Liwet. There are two options of Nasi Liwet: Nasi Liwet Ikan Asin or Nasi Liwet Ayam Jamur. You need to order the nasi liwet based on the (perceived) number of people on the table. It has a serving for 2, 4, 6, 8, or 10 people. Nasi Liwet Ikan Asin has salted fish as its core ingredient. They put quite a few vegetables in the dish, but I don’t really mind it this time.

Nasi Liwet Ikan Asin – 35k -140k

Nasi Liwet Ayam Jamur’s core ingredients are chicken pieces and mushrooms. I guess this one is for the less adventurous people that have ‘regular’ taste palate. The rice is cooked on a clay pot. Clay pot cooking presented a nice dimension to the rice you are eating.

Nasi Liwet Ayam Jamur – 35k -140k

What I love the most about the place is its Sate Maranggi. This satay has 1/3 of fat content in every stick -> Yes, it’s crazy fattening but incredibly yummy! Sate Maranggi is usually served with chopped chilli, sweet soy sauce and vinegar.

Sate Maranggi Sapi and Kambing – 23k

Sate Maranggi Sapi and Kambing – 23k

The next one might be good if you have fussy eaters: Kentang Sosis, which translates into Fries and Sausages. Nothing can go wrong with fries and sausages… or can it?

Kentang Sosis – 16.5k

This last dish is pretty good if there is only a few of you. Nasi Timbel Joglo + Sayur Asem is the name. You get a pretty good deal for this one: A quarter of grilled chicken, two pieces of Tempe Mendoan, rice cooked in banana leaf, chilli sauce, some vegetables and sayur asem. Sayur asem is a sweet and sour vegetable soup with tamarind as its main ingredient.

Nasi Timbel Joglo and Sayur Asem – 26k

Teh Poci – 15k

The final verdict for Boemi Joglo

Being Javanese I do not normally eat these dishes, except maybe the Satay. Moreover, I usually pass on Nasi Liwet, let alone eating them. However, Boemi Joglo delivered such a killer Nasi Liwet that I cannot get enough of!

Did you know?

Dago is quite a large (and famous) part of Bandung. They have shops, cafes, boutiques on the lower part and restaurants with nice view of the city at the Northern part, called Dago Pakar.

One small warning though: Going there on a weekend would seem like a struggle, because of the tiny road being run over by millions of people.

Rating for Boemi Joglo:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $3 – $5 per person

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

Jalan Rancakendal Luhur No. 17, Dago Bandung

+62 22 250 1344 / 9112 1679

Oct 3, 2014
Bakmi Jowo DU 67

Review:

This week review is a restaurant in the city of Bandung called Bakmi Jowo DU 67. Bandung and most part of West Java consist of mainly Sundanese that has quite distinct Sundanese language and culture. Therefore, having authentic Javanese cuisines in Bandung is quite rare. I understand the irony of Bandung being in the island of Java.

The amazing thing about this place is that they cook our dishes using ‘arang’ (charcoal). Bakmi Jowo DU 67 is located in Jalan Dipati Ukur 67, Bandung (hence the ‘DU 67’ name).

Bakmi Jowo DU 67’s signature dish is its Bakmi (Noodles). They have three versions of the noodles: Goreng (fried), Godhog (boiled, with soup base), and Bakmi Nyemek. Nyemek is a Javanese word for a dish that’s neither dry nor soupy. The noodles dish was served with green vegetables, eggs, ati ampla (liver and gizzard) and chicken.

Our next dish was Bihun (glass noodles/vermicelli). Similar to the noodles, you can have Bihun Goreng, Godhog or Nyemek. It has quite a similar configuration to Bakmi Nyemek, but the Goreng version was cooked with sweet soy sauce.

I chose its Nasi Goreng Mawut as I love good fried rice! The word ‘mawut’ (chaotic) is for mixing noodles into the fried rice. It is chaotic as one would not normally mix rice and noodles!

All of the dishes above are priced at Rp 20.000,00. That’s less than AU$ 2. They are also served on a pandan leaf that enhanced flavours.

If you think you can’t finish a whole plate of them, I suggest you share it with someone else. The half-portion version of the dish would cost you Rp 18.000,00 (that’s only 2k difference!).

The next two are add-ons that some of you might not enjoy. One is Krengsengan Ati Ampla and the other is Krengsengan Brutu. Krengsengan is a stir-fried dish with sweet soy sauce. It costs between 80c – $1 and you can have four different choices: ati Ampla (liver and gizzard), brutu (chicken’s butt), sayap (chicken wings), and paha (chicken thighs).

For a more authentic feel to your meal, try its Teh Poci drink for only Rp 6.000,00. Teh poci is a special tea served hot in clay pot. They also use rock sugar if you like your tea sweet.

The final verdict for Bakmi Jowo DU 67

Bakmi Jowo DU 67 offers the resident of Bandung authentic Javanese dishes without actually going to Central Java! Thanks to its char-grilled Bakmi and Nasi Goreng.

Did you know?

Our last review was an all you can eat restaurant in Jakarta costing us $40 per person. A plate of noodles in this restaurant, costs us less than a mere $2!

Furthermore, $2 won’t be the cheapest food you can find in Indonesia. It just shows the discrepancy of buying power amongst Indonesian citizens!

Rating for Bakmi Jowo DU 67:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $2

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

Jalan Dipati Ukur No 67, Bandung 401320

+62 22 7053 5874

http://www.bakmijowodu67.com/

Sep 3, 2014
Tizi Restaurant

Rating:

7.5 / 10 Taste: 7.5/10

Price: $5 – $10

Place: 7.5/10

Review:

This week we will flashback to a legendary German-influenced restaurant in Bandung, Indonesia. Tizi’s restaurant has been there even (I’m pretty sure) before I was born! Unlike other restaurants that underwent menu changes or any other changes, Tizi still sticks to its core! From back in the days till now, they still have their legendary Schaschlik – more about schaschlik as we went through the review.

The unique trait of this restaurant is its integration of Western dish with Indonesian flavour that would suit Indonesian tongue back in the days. Oh, and looking at the price, you can find that they are so affordable and you can have great value for your money, when compared to those over-hyped mall restaurants. Without further ado, I present you three of our favourite dishes when we were at the restaurant.

Beef and Egg (Rp 49,000) is more like a breakfast menu than dinner. It is a simple dish of roast beef with cheese and a sunny side up egg. Beef and egg also came with a side of fries (or mashed potato) and tomato ketchup. If you are looking for a dish that simply can do no wrong, Beef and Egg is the absolute choice. However, you might look into an extended run at the gym given the calories intake for this dish.

My personal favourite is its Schaschlik. Being a German restaurant, it has quite a different feature than middle-eastern shashlik. Just a quick overview, schaschlik is like an Indonesian satay on a steroid with a mixture of vegetables (namely capsicum, onion, and tomato). Tizi offered an option of having one, two, or three skewers. Two skewers would be enough for an average Aussie bloke. They grilled the schaschlik with a homemade BBQ sauce that might be quite sweet for non-Indonesians. Nonetheless, the meat was grilled to perfection and personally, the bite size was just perfect.

Last but not least is a dish that I guarantee won’t likely be in any restaurants but Indonesian steak houses (especially here in Australia!), Oxtongue Steak. Oxtongue is actually quite a common ingredient found in quite a few Indonesian dishes. Although it’s called steak, the method of cooking it was actually pressure cooked, not grilled (as it would alter the texture of the tongue). The dish came with quite runny mushroom sauce and the usual sides of mashed potatoes and vegetables.

There are quite a few other dishes in the restaurant, such as the old-school Potato Salad and their rendition of Bratwurst. But it’s quite a stark contrast when compared to the real German sausages.

The final verdict for Tizi’s Restaurant

There is no better restaurant to bring back such nostalgia as Tizi Restaurant. Tizi offers great value for money dishes and cosy backyard-setting restaurant. Tizi is well-known for its Schaschlik.

Details:

Jl Kidang Pananjung No 3, Bandung, Indonesia

+62 22 250 4963

Nov 19, 2013
Sate Kelinci Pak Sapri

Rating:

7 / 10

Taste: 7/10

Price: $2 – $2.5 per plate

Place: 7/10

Review:

This week, we will take you to a typical Indonesian restaurant with a pretty unusual (for some people) ingredient. Sate Kelinci Pak Sapri is a restaurant specialises in rabbit satay. Great-tasting restaurants in Indonesia have predominantly one champion dish with some other dishes that people rarely ordered.

As expected, the first ten items in their menu are all about satay and all of its variation. However, since it took a while to grill them, the first two that came was ‘Gule Kelinci’ and ‘Paha Kelinci Goreng’. ‘Gule Kelinci’ is a soup-based, curry-like dish that was a bit spicy and quite bone-full. ‘Paha Kelinci Goreng’ (deep fried rabbit’s thigh) on the other hand was quite yummy and perfectly accompanied by the pickles and tomatoes on sweet soy sauce.

Now comes the rabbit satay. The regular ‘Sate Kelinci’ came with the usual peanut and sweet soy sauce, with a side of pickles. Rabbit meat is considered a white meat, so it tasted quite close to chicken, although some claimed to be healthier. The second one was a variation of it, Sate Kelinci Barbeque. So, instead of the peanut sauce, they were soaked with pre-made barbecue sauce. It is definitely quite an interesting combo, but I still like the regular one.

The next two items weren’t on the menu but we know it’s there, because we asked them. The first one was Karedok. Karedok is a kind of vegetable salad with peanut and garlic sauce. It is a dish originated from West Java and you could pretty much find it in any traditional restaurants. The second one is called Otak-otak. It is a grilled fish cake wrapped in banana leaf. They are enjoyed with spicy peanut sauce. Otak-otak is a pretty interesting dish because it’s soft and charry with a rich peanut sauce taste.

The final verdict for Sate Kelinci Pak Sapri

Sate Kelinci Pak Sapri gave us an authentic lesehan experience with a nice and affordable serving of satay. This might not be the restaurant for rabbit lovers, or people allergic to peanuts, because there are plenty of them.

Did you know?

There are quite a few of ‘Sate Kelinci’ restaurants on the way to Lembang. However, we picked Sate Kelinci Pak Sapri restaurant because it has a pretty spacious parking and the restaurant looked pretty presentable. This restaurant is pretty un-miss-able because it is located at a right bend of the road.

You can either enjoy your meal the normal table and chair way, or ‘lesehan’. ‘Lesehan’ is when you enjoy food in a restaurant where you sit on the floor/mat-covered floor, instead of sitting on the chair. I always choose lesehan, because it creates a sense of informality.

Details:

Jalan Raya Lembang, West Java, Indonesia

Aug 26, 2013