Jakarta offers a wide variety of good Chinese, Korean, European, Japanese and Indian restaurants besides those that serve tasty Indonesian dishes. Here are some suggestions for you to choose from in Jakarta:

Jakarta is a world-class culinary hybrid where ethnic Indonesian and global influences come together to produce diversity and a spectrum of intercontinental fusion foods with a local twist. As the capital of a developing, predominantly Muslim country, it possesses a profusion of modestly-priced halal fare. That said, however, this is a city where you can eat anything from curried pork to grilled kangaroo and order drinks from a lychee mocktail to a glass of Chateaux Lafitte. On the same block, you can spend IDR8,000 on a hearty plate of fried noodles and IDR800,000 on an artful tableau of cold-water raw fish.


Food Stalls set the Scene

Most eating in Jakarta takes place in the street. Even the most casual observer cannot miss the mobile army of warungs (food stalls) and snack vendors in perpetual search of customers, weaving their way among jalopies, juggernauts and BMW sedans. These vendors sell nosh, the quintessentially Indonesian satay or bakso tok-tok (Chinese soup) from as little as IDR500 a portion.

Visitors are more likely to encounter the breed of vendors in office blocks, shopping areas and popular entertainment districts. And miraculously, these peddlers also spring up around more itinerant crowds at building sites, queues, traffic jams or even demonstrations! They serve Indonesians on modest salaries, foreign visitors on a very tight budget and long-term foreign residents with pride in their strong stomachs. As a rule, these stalls have no access to running water, and vendors either bring along non-refrigerated cooked food or cook in the open, dusty, humid, traffic-clogged street, where patrons also eat. Consequently, as quaint or exotic as this experience may seem, it is only recommended for the intestinally courageous.

Fast Food and Global Grazing

The city is home to the usual Third World assortment of First World fast-food franchises, plus a flood of inexpensive local clones and other modest eateries. They proliferate around busy shopping areas like Blok M and at food courts in fancier air-conditioned malls such as Plaza Senayan, Taman Anggrek and Plaza Indonesia. There you can graze your way around the world in minutes for less than the price of a sandwich on Madison Avenue or a gin and tonic in a London pub. Choose from a huge selection of foods such as pizza, quiche, tacos, kebabs, curry, sushi or hamburgers. Follow this with low-fat yogurt, ice cream, tropical fruit salad or chocolate-chip cookies. To accompany your meal you can order from a vast array of fresh fruit juices, soft drinks or a limited choice of alcoholic beverages, such as the local Bintang beer, and end with a cafe latte or a bowl of green tea.

Jakarta : General Information | Attractions | Entertainment | Food & Eat Out