Abunawas Restaurant - Kemang Branch — Restaurant in Jakarta

One of the best middle east restaurant in Indonesia! Period.

So the story was, i was driving around kemang area and was confused deciding what to eat for dinner.

Some of the junction was crowded and traffic jam is everywhere. But when i was driving, i saw this unique building with an arabian style facade, the name of the restaurant is abunawas.

It was not hard to know what kind of food served there, but i have never researched about this restaurant before.

Even so, me and my wife decided to test our luck and get into the restaurant. Little did i know what i was getting into.

Once inside a greeter comes to me and ask whether i have made any reservation. Obviously i havent because i am a walk in customer. I answered no, and he politely say that it's fine but the only place available was on the table seating.

I wonder if i heared it correctly, because arent all restaurant supposed to be table seated? Apparently they have the sitting on the rug arabian style eating on the second and third floor. This style offers you a more authenthic middle eastern dining experience.

And after getting upstairs for a quick look, luckily the waiter said that they still have one more room left but the air con is broken. I'm okay with that, so we took that option.

The room was spacious with middle eastern style rug and some pillow, it's very comfortable for you to chit chat and eat. After seated, the waiter give me the menu book with a huge menu variation, most of which is considered alien to me, both the name and flavor.

We order hummus, chickpeas paste with olive oil and bread, mandi rice with lamb and umm ali, middle eastern dessert.

The bread is soft and the hummus is great, and it is even better than the one i ate in dubai. Umm ali also tastes great with the raisin and cinnamon complementing the flavor.

But, the bomb of the dinner was the mandi rice with lamb. It is served with some sambal and lime on the sides. Rice is very fragrant and full of spice, it is very flavorfull as well. You cannot ask for a better one.

The lamb is very succulent and soft, it has all the right spice and it hits all the right note with the flavors. The meat falls from the bone and the surface of the meat has it's charred texture and smoky flavor.

Though some of the menu was not available during our patronage, for example the baklava, which is the traditional dessert with pistachio, the ones that they have is very supreme. The service given is also top notch as all of the server is very knowledgeable and they served with smile.

Last but certainly not least, we are pleasantly surprised to know that there is "COVID" discounts of 15% which is very nice considering thay we didnt know that the discount is there.

I will certainly come back to try out...

The worst place to have dinner, full of flies and mosquito's, trust me guys this place was extremely dirty, when i read the reviews at google i thought we should have an arabic family meal there, but we ended up paying for the worst food ever to cut the long story short, after we placed the order we were informed we have to change our order since they are sold out with bread with french fries etc, the very first thing which i saw was a dead big fly on the table on my request the waitress came and took that particular one with a tissue paper, after we started with starters my son dropped his toy on the floor and i was surprised to see more dead flies on the ground, there were flies on sofa's as well, service was slow food was cold nothing about this place was good, manager tried to call the owner on my request but the owner never answered his call the guy who was the duty manager said we just opened after eid thats why its dirty, I asked him would you like to have your family or kids have such meal where there is so much dirt and insects flying around, he was himself ashamed but still we paid for that incomplete dirty order, the guy took my number that he will ensure that owner will call for an apology but so far no call or apology, kindly think before visiting this resturant i would never recommend this place to anyone.

Updated on 15 June 2019

Dear Mayyada,

I accept your apology and i appreciate that you have taken those important actions regarding the cleanliness of your restuarant, just wanted to hightlight the issues to you and i believe you must have got them resolved by now, i will definitely reconsider visiting again...

5 STAR FOR FOOD 3,5 STAR FOR PLACE

Definitely delicious food. I tried the Nasi Sakas with Mutton and the mutton is soft and succulent with no mutton "smell" which often present in mutton dishes. The rice is spicy but the right taste to my palate. Next I would like to try the Nasi Mandhi.

Also tried the Nasi Biryani that my husband ordered and it was also tasty. He ordered it with Fish which is great coz not many Arabian dish with fish and my husband is a Pescatarian.

The Mango juice is also great. Perfect to balance the "heavyness" of the dishes.

Service is fine. The waiter was helpful and pleasant to us.

The place is okay. We ate on the second floor which is sitting on raised platform with carpets and eating the dishes on the plastic-lined carpet. Parking is limited to around 6 cars but we did not get trouble parking when...