Cafe Batavia – Old School Charm in Jakarta

Readers of this blog know I don’t like skipping the capital and major cities of a country when I travel. A lot of travelers skip Jakarta and head straight to places like Bali. In my opinion, this is a mistake. I will soon be posting about things to do in Jakarta. In the meantime, I want to tell you about a place in the city that I had a great lunch at. Cafe Batavia.

The restaurant in located in the Kota Tua area of Jakarta or the old town. Its in the 2nd oldest building in the area, in what is know as Fatahillah Square. The square has a lot of colonial architecture from the Dutch era, and should not be missed on a trip to Jakarta. The day we arrived, there was also a festival in the square. When our guide suggested having lunch there, and gave me some background about the place, I thought it may be a tourist trap. I was wrong. It IS popular with tourists, but I wouldn’t consider it a trap. The interior looked to be well preserved and I really liked the colonial vibes.

Here’s a view of the dining room from our table, with a view to the square.

Here is a glance at the menu:

We had the chicken sate:

Nasi goreng (fried rice) which was delicious (one of the best I had during my visit to Indonesia):

mie goreng komplit (one of the best I had during my visit to Indonesia):

Iga bakar kecap (beef ribs – it was at this point I realized that when you see ribs on the menu in Indonesia, more often than not you should order them):

longtong medan (rice cakes,beef rendang, coconut broth):

I also had to have a pandan coffee because when I see pandan anything on a menu, I have to try it (in this case, I would pass next time):

…and some dessert starting off with cendol (its like the Filipino halo-halo dessert with ice, some sort of milk and various toppings):

Sticky rice and durian (kind of like the Thai mango with rice but with durian instead of mango):

After dinner, we walked around the square and explored the surroundings:

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Overall, service was pretty good, and the food ranged from ok to delicious, but the real draw was the atmosphere, location and building. It was also Halloween and a lot of the servers were dressed up which was interesting to see outside of North America. Anyway, I would not make a trip to this area just to eat here, but if you are going to be exploring the historical district of Jakarta anyway, I would definitely stop by for lunch.