Lapo Ni Tondongta

Let's review something different and extremist this time. This time I'm featuring Bataknese food. Why I call extreme food? Because some of their dishes are made from dog meat and cooked with its blood. Yeay!

The Bataknese food is usually available at what they call Lapo or Warung Makan in Bahasa. Simply translated as small restaurant in English. Because usually the place is indeed a small restaurant and sometimes doesn't have sign board, because they serve dog meat and pork which are haram food for Moslem. The most famous Lapo in Jakarta is Lapo Ni Tondongta, simply means Warung Sahabat or Best Friend's Restaurant. The main branch is located at Jalan Pramuka, but I am their regular customer of the other branch in Puri Indah.

As I mentioned before, their dishes are mainly dog meat and pork. But they also have others like fish, chicken and vegetables, but not popular. The locals call the dishes by B1 and B2, where B1 is dog meat and B2 is pork. My favorite dish here is Saksang B2. I tried Saksang B1 once long ago, but I didn't like it because the meat was a bit tough.

Saksang B2 is pork, chopped in cubes, and cooked with its blood, made the appearance is a bit like rendang in Padang food. Taste soooo delicious. I don't even smell the blood taste. The blood actually enrich the taste in my opinion. A must-try dishes for pork lover. Other famous pork dishes here but I don't really like is their Panggang B2 or Roasted Pork Chop. In my opinion, Chinese roasted pork in Chinese Mix Rice is more delicious. But for others who don't like or disgusted by the blood, they usually come here to enjoy Panggang B2. Both Saksang and Panggang B2 was priced at IDR 20K per portion.

Their other dishes are Sop B2 (pork soup), Arsik (fish, similar to fish curry), chopped cassava leaves, etc. And I heard that their dishes are using Andaliman leaves as one of the ingredients, which only grows at Bataknese home land in North Sumatra. Anyone dare to try this extreme food? Well, I'm a fan of them.
Food - 9/10
Cleanliness - 5/10
Service - 8/10
Ambiance - 6/10
Price/Value - 7/10

Lapo Ni Tondongta (Puri Indah Branch)
Jl Pesanggrahan No.9 Puri Indah
Jakarta Barat
+62-21-32462758
Business Hours : Mon to Sun 11am - 3pm

Ya Udah Bistro

This year's holy week of Easter was a very long weekend for me. And this gave me chances to explore new eatery places. After a long pending, I finally visited the famous pork place Ya Udah Bistro today.

I have heard about this restaurant about two years ago when my ex Indian boss and my ex colleague (Yes, you, Theresia Pelengkahu) told me about this restaurant almost at the same time, made me think : "Are they a new hip hangout place in town?". My ex boss was a fan of pork and at that time he suddenly summoned me to his chamber just to tell me that he found a good and very affordable pork restaurant. Hahaha.

Basically, Ya Udah Bistro is a German food restaurant. There was no sign board in front of the restaurant saying that this is Ya Udah Bistro. You can spot the place by it's bright yellow color building with big red round shape painting at the top part of the front building, almost like a Japan flag. Have no idea why they make restaurant sign like that. They offer many varieties of Bavarian dish such as varieties of pork sausages, Bratwurst, Leberkase, and not to forget Haxen or Pork Knuckle. And along with lots of German beer brands. Particularly for the Haxen, they need approximately 2 hours of preparation time before it ready to serve at your table, so I skip ordering this dish for this time although actually Haxen was my target menu today.

Pork Neck Steak with Mashed Potatoes - IDR 79K

I chose this dish in order to compare it to the one I had at Paulaner Brauhaus. Appearance wise, it was very simple like a home-cooked Bavarian dish rather than the one that served at restaurant.

The meat was tender, but less juicy and too dry. However, the seasonings was absorbed till the inside of the meat and it was very nice. There was nothing special about the mashed potatoes. I know it is not fair to compare it with the one I had at Paulaner because of the price, but I prefer the Paulaner one. Maybe because Pork Neck steak at Paulaner already marinated with beer for 24 hours before grilled.

Original Milanese Pork Picata with German Fried Potatoes - IDR 61.5K

The second dish that I ordered was the Picata, with the choice of chicken or pork. It was an easy choice that I select pork. Hahaha.

This dish consist of two pan fried of pork loin battered with flour and cheese. And the German fried potatoes was stir-fried with onion. Personally, I prefer the Picata rather than the Pork Neck Steak, because the taste was more complex and the pork loin was more tender. The side dish was okay.

Apologies for the low quality of the photos since the place was quite dark. Maybe because this is a bistro bar, a place for people to hangout and having beer. Oh, and there was no air-con in this restaurant.

Overall, I'm not very impressed with the food. It was okay. I'm not saying that the dishes was bad, not at all, but just nothing special. The plus point for Ya Udah Bistro was that the price is very affordable for this kind of dishes, and the food is not bad. If you ask whether I plan to return for their Haxen, well, let's see.

Frohe Ostern und bon appetit!

Food - 7/10
Cleanliness - 8/10
Service - 6/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Price/Value - 9/10

Ya Udah Bistro
Jl. Johar No. 15 Kebon Sirih Menteng
Jakarta Pusat
+62-21-39090100
Business Hours :
Sun - Thu : 8am - 12am
Fri - Sat : 8am - 2am