72 TRAVEL+LEISURE | APRIL / MAY 2020
former manager of Hakkasan, whose opening last year set a
new bar for restaurants. Like many, he compares the dining
scene to Bangkok. “But like Bangkok 10 or 15 years ago, before
food really took off. I think Jakarta can do that, too.”
“People think Jakarta is boring,” says Christian
Rijanto, the founding partner of Ismaya Group, a restaurant
company with 80 outlets in Jakarta. “We want to prove that
F&B can be as good here as anywhere in the world.” Ismaya
opened 30 eateries last year, and Rijanto says the group is on
pace to double that number in 2020, and head overseas.
Much of that growth is mid-range, targeted at the rising
middle class, but Ismaya also splashed out in October with
Gunpowder: modern Indian fine dining on the ground floor of
Plaza Indonesia. With its smoking cocktails and low lighting,
Gunpowder looks like a jazz club, but the flavors are explosive,
hence its name, which is slang for podi, the fiery blend of
powdered spices found on tables in South India. Gunpowder
serves modern Indian fare from chef Manjunath Mural, famed
for claiming the first Michelin star given to an Indian restaurant
in Southeast Asia, for his Song of India in Singapore.
Ismaya is also known for a variety of casual restaurants
styled like Social House, a do-it-all local institution that was
originally inside Harvey Nichols department store and was
revamped and reopened in December. The menu remains
fusion and comfort food, with plenty of pasta, salads and an
enormous wine selection—more than 150 labels. Harvey Nichols
shut, yet diners had continued to flock to the restaurant. And so,
Aldo Volpi, an Italian who is group executive chef, was careful
not to tinker too much with Social House 2.0, keeping classics,
like the rich crispy pork belly carbonara. “But we wanted to
upgrade the quality, to match the new design.” Pizzas now bake
in a wood oven—the quattro formaggi is cheesy bliss—and a
fancier chef’s table is geared to finer dining. There’s also a new
VIP area for wine-tasting parties and a huge bar. “In Jakarta
these days,” he says, “you need to keep up.”
The next step in the evolution of a burgeoning fine-dining
scene: showpiece restaurants centered on chefs rather than
hotels or malls. It’s a progression made in all Asian food
capitals, as chefs move out of hotel kitchens to open their own
spaces with more independence. Jakarta hasn’t completed the
great leap food-ward yet, but there are promising examples.
One new place getting justifiably ample buzz is Txoko, in
Senopati. Chef Oskar Urzelai has worked in Jakarta for a
decade, having most recently sold out of Spanish restaurant
Plan B to go it alone with an ambitious showcase of authentic
Basque food. Txoko means “cozy corner,” and Urzelai explains
that he wanted to create a place where people would gather to
eat, gossip and drink wine—just like in his native land.
Set in a two-story building, upstairs is open air, with breezy
views over a park. Painted white with blue highlights, it has a
lively Basque vibe. The food is wholesome, simply presented,
like platters of whole roasted vegetables. “Grilled prawns”
come in thin, raw slices that are torched right at the table.
There is a wide selection of tapas and a great wine list. “People
come for breakfast or lunch, stay a few hours,” Oskar says
proudly, “then come back for dinner.”
The newest hotspot is Animale, the Jakarta debut for native
chef Andri Dionysius, who left Indonesia in 2000 to study in
the U.S., and didn’t return until 2014—to
open the Jakarta branch of celebrity chef
Akira Back’s Japanese restaurant and AB
Steak in the same building. When an
Italian place closed on the top floor, the
owner asked Andri to take over.
“I told him I couldn’t do classical
food. I wanted to do something fun.”
The resulting Animale is modern
Mediterranean. “I didn’t want to be
pigeonholed into any cuisine,” he tells
me. “I said, ‘let’s go crazy!’” He did with
the design, odd cutouts in walls and the
ceiling lending a science-fiction look. But
there is a method to the madness. He
took out one wall to provide breezes,
and views in a section with a
Mediterranean seafood feel. The
entrance is packed with drying racks—he
ages everything, not just the meat, but
also the fish. And there’s a big pizza oven
right in the dining room, next to the
open kitchen.
The food is fantastic. “My target is
Indonesians, and they really don’t know
what is Spanish or Italian. I give them
the flavors of the Mediterranean.” That
includes an enormous selection of
pastas, all handmade on the spot.
Waiters take samples in a giant display
box to tables. “Nobody really knows allStalking the somm
at Social House.Opposite, clockwise
from top: The bright
Basque interior of
Txoko; views of
Jakarta from
Animale; tuna
tataki with spicy-
tomato-and-onion
mousse at Txoko.