Harum Manis Restaurant, Jakarta – Indonesian food!

This is my first time in Jakarta (I was in Solo and Bali last year) and though it was primarily a “work” trip (we are here for the Asus ZenFone launch), we are Malaysians with an insatiable stomach so food was very much a big part of our itinerary.

One of our Indonesian food affairs was at this elegant Javanese restaurant with traditional contemporary interiors. The venue cleverly accentuates the ambiance of both an elegant high-end fine restaurant and a warm comfortable Ningrat House.

Throughout the night a small band played and sang evergreen tunes to serenade the diners. Well, it’s easy to see why Harum Manis Restaurant is a popular choice for large groups and tourists. Good food – check, ambiance – check, service – check! 🙂

I’m not much of an Indonesian food connoisseur since my experience with the cuisine has so far been limited to Sari Ratu and some roadside Minang/Padang food in KL. I hardly qualify as a food critic for this cuisine but nevertheless I could assure you that food was tasty and definitely redolent with spices. No bland or boring mild flavours here!

Dinner began with 3 appetisers; all pretty similar to our Malaysian tastebuds. The Martabak Kare Telor is our local murtabak, the Loempia Warisan Turn Temurun is our pohpiah (spring rolls) and the Otak otak is alike our Terengganu lekor but boiled version.

Martabak Kare Telor (IDR38).
Traditonal Indonesian crispy cake with egg and sliced onion, leeks, minced beef, spicy palm sugar sauce and pickled cucumber

Loempia Warisan Turn Temurun (IDR34).
Crispy brown spring roll with yam beans, slcied onions, minced chicken, plam sugar sauce

Otak otak (IDR56).
Authentic char-grilled minced king mackerel rolled in banana leaf with chopped chives, and spicy and sour peanut sauce.

Then our selections of mains were served. The Ayam Bakar (IDR 135) – Slowly braised and chargrilled free range chicken served with fresh vegetables and special paradise sauce was too salty for me. But the juicy meat and delicious marinate serves well for our eating pleasure.

This is a soft shelled crab with egg drops; egg drops referring to the fried crispy shred of eggs floss on top. Official name is Kepiting Soka Goreng Telor (what’s a mouthful!) for IDR 88 per serving.
Underneath the pile of egg floss is about 5 pieces of soft shell crab fried in batter.

But the highlight of the meal here was the sate (meat skewers). We had a selection of Sate Sapi Wagyu, sate kambing, sate pentul (beef & lamb), sate lilit, sate ayam mbok ayu, sate sapi maranggi (loin beef) and sate kleweran (tempeh). The other 2 that was missing was sate kikil (tendon) and sate lidah (tongue).

These well marinated and tender, juicy skewers came at the last part of the meal so we were quite stuffed by then. Still, these were so good that I wished I had more stomach space. The marinate are certainly what makes it different from our local satay or even your Izayaka joints kind of skewers.
This is Indonesian indeed.

Here are some of the other dishes we tried.
I’m off for some sight seeing for now and I’ll be back to update on the flavours of each dishes tonight! 🙂

NOTE: All prices IDR XX means IDR XX, 000 (3 zeroes at the back).

MENU: http://harum-manis.com/sites/default/files/download/HM-DOWNLOADBLE-NEWSPAPER-MENU.pdf

Harum Manis Restaurant, Jakarta
Pavilion Apartment Retail Aracade
Jl. KH Mas Mansyur Kav.24, Central Jakarta 10220, Indonesia.
Opening Hours:
Monday – Sunday:
11:30 – 14:30 (Lunch)
18:00 – 22:30 (Dinner)
Closed on: Idul Fitri & New Year’s Holiday

For Reservations:
+6221 579 417 27