I am so amazed by Jakarta's increasing amount of coffee shops and not only by amount but by quality! There's been a lot of proper coffee shop, where the baristas are all passionate about coffee, and here's right now's top class coffee shop, a branch that is imported all the way from a coffee city, Melbourne, it's the famous ST. ALi!
Located at Setiabudi One, the place is pretty easy to spot, seeing as it's near the front entrance. The place is a semi-outdoor, yet it's not that hot, though I don't really know when it's crowded. They've got everything prepared here, the espresso bar at the front, the filter bar at the center and a lot of tables lined up!
Seeing as how Australians take their coffee very seriously, it was definitely a huge honor for us Indonesian to have Jakarta be chosen for them to establish their first branch in Asia! Yeap, you read that right, the first one! Be proud, Indonesia!
Here's the guy that made it possible! Owner of Common Grounds, where ST. ALi first held their pop up bar at, and he yet again brought ST. ALi to Jakarta, it's Aston Utan!
At this opportunity, we got the chance to see Ben Morrow, the latte art expert, in action! It's obvious that he's very passionate about his job!
Not only coffee, ST. ALi also offers almost all of the brunch menu that they also serve at Melbourne's branch. To top it off, ST. ALi's head chef, Chef Mark Richardson will also be supervising the whole thing here to make sure that nothing is amiss!
KOO KOO CA CHOO IDR 150K
Crispy potato hash with mushroom duxelle, poached eggs, shaved emmental, chlorophyll, and truffle vinaigrette.
Seeing as they used truffle vinaigrette, the whole dish tastes very mushroom-y and since I'm not a big fan of truffles, it doesn't really leave that much impression. It does look the prettiest though and anything with a poached egg will definitely taste better!
ST ALI CHICKEN BURGER IDR 135K
Southern Kentucky buttermilk fried chicken, house pickles, iceberg lettuce, BBQ sauce, and French fries.
This is probably my favorite dish out of the 4 best sellers that they offered! Why I liked this best is probably because it's the most flavorful and besides, the chicken's really tender too. On the bottom of the fried chicken is somewhat similar to a coleslaw or maybe it actually is, whatever it is, it definitely helped the flavoring alongside the pickles and BBQ sauce!
We've seen Ben Morrow with the latte art, now it's time for Matt Perger to go on action with his demonstration of filtering! If you're wondering who this guy is, well, he's the director of ST. ALi and not only that, he's also a Barista Champion!
Since it already feels like the whole coffee gang is here, we shouldn't forget about Yoshi Tanu! Yeap, this IBC 2015 Champion also came to the event and we got the chance to taste a coffee made by him!
MY MEXICAN COUSIN IDR 155K
Secret recipe corn fritters with poached egg, grilled halloumi, corn & cucumber salsa, kasundi, and green salad.
Love the colorful pretty plating! Just full of greens, which means I might or might not like it..lol! It was okay, not really extraordinary though. Since it's mostly greens, the only thing I'm interested in this plate is the grilled halloumi and, of course, the perfectly poached egg!
Look at that hardcore egg porn!!
OMEGA LOVE IDR 120K
Smoked salmon with new season potatoes, red onion, green beans, mixed leaves, olives, tomato, tarragon dressing & a soft poached egg.
I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with this one..not quite the omega love as the name says. Not that it tastes bad, since the taste is actually pretty good but the things in these is what kind of bothers me. Not only am I only interested in the poached egg and salmon, which tasted just ordinary, the others that are tolerable consists of potatoes and greens, but there's also tomatoes, which I don't really like. It's a plate of what I like and dislike, so it's definitely not gonna be my first choice!
Chef Mark also has his signature sauce with his face on it! This one's the Bastard Hot Sauce, lol!
And the other's a Brown Sauce!
Yeah, welcome Jakarta to the ST. ALi family! I do hope that our coffee culture will keep on increasing, considering Indonesia is one of the producers of coffee beans. I hope that many more decent coffee shop will manifest itself in Jakarta, especially in the West area, since it'll be close to where we live..lol!
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