Bakmi ABOEN — Restaurant in Jakarta

Legacy should be maintained, preserved by any means, history should be kept, but unfortunately not with this noodle establishment. Bakmi Aboen could be considered one of many old, legendary eats in Jakarta but I personally think that this place is fall behind their competitors; new and old one.

As a hidden gem of the past this noodle place offers varieties of noodles, toppings and side dished which I vividly remember as one of the good places to visit and introduced to my overseas friends and families. But now, I won't even bother to do that. To start off, I ordered three menu all with pork toppings, bakmi babi, kwetiau babi special, loucupan babi and I finished that off with a portion of their famous swekiau. All of them are tasteless, not sweet, not salty and I need to add soy sauce and their chili sauce but that doesnt even help either. It tasted like you just barely cook the noodles then tossed them with the meat and toppings and then served them to the table without bothering to add any seasonings beforehand. The swekiau? Pretty much tasted like boiled dumpling skin with a bit of soy sauce and that's all there to it. I really love their swekiau in the past, that snappy texture of the meat combined with the sweet, salty, umami taste of the meat really work beyond wonders. But for now, I'm wondering wth I'm bothered to order this. The soup tasted like watery, plain chicken soup. Not a good taste at all.

Then come the price, for a kwetiau babi special it is almost 60k. With that price you can enjoy a proper nasi campur with a lot and good tasting toppings. Bakmi and loucupan babi priced at 35k each, seems like a good price until you taste them. For a hidden gem, a culinary must-visit list for travellers, they are so disappointing and to be honest there are many, many other hidden gems that I wish I wanted to show to you guys later on, which are much cheaper, tastier and leaving you with a good smile to your belly and pocket. They give good and fast service, quite a clean place but their food is, if not already, becoming a myth.

Taste are taste, I encourage you to try them if they are suitable for your palate or not. if you are a culinary gourmet which already tasted many noodle places in Jakarta, you'll see my point. Quite a...

The best bakmi babi jamur in Passer Baroe area.

If there is a noodle shop that accompanied most of my childhood life, this place may be it. The first time I came here was when I was in second grade (or third grade, it was kinda blurry now, some 40 something years ago 😳 😅) with my aunt and uncle. Back then the noodle dish already tasted exotic to my undeveloped palate, and it was one of the moments that nurtured my love for noodle dishes (in Indonesia especially).

Fast forward to high school, I went to SMAK3 in Gunung Sahari area, a stone throw away from this place. Quickly this place became our escape point when we're late or just didn't feel like going to school that day 🙃. But this place was really expensive for our high school budget then 😅 so we had to save some of our allowance in order to be able to eat here.

Fast forward again to our adult years, especially when it's the time to tie the knot with our loved one, Passer Baroe is THE best place to shop for wedding dress fabrics and knickknacks. So after a whole day of shopping with the families and "will be families", there's no better way to celebrate and wind down than having a bowl of noodle with es cincau together at Bakmi Aboen.

So for a place that is always been there for us in most of every step in our lives, 5 stars feels...

a very nostalgic place for lots of older Jakartans. They serve a variety of somewhat modern take on chinese noodles and rice dishes complete with all the fixings. They also have delicious side dishes on offer - of special note is their fried pork meatballs. They also serve chicken based meals, but really the main reason to go there is for the pork as they seem to know how to clean and prepare them better than most other eateries in Jakarta. That said, given the quality of their ingredients, they do serve well made classic dishes - although perhaps not the most umami laden or flavour bombs that other newer outlets might offer.

The rice with pork sweet and sour ribs cost 41 K IDR while the pork fried noodles cost 37 K IDR. Also of note is the locupan noodles which not many outlets offer - the texture is quite chewy in an interesting way.

Finally, they also offer well made classic drinks such as coconut water and meat with orange juice for 21 K IDR and coconut drink with kolang-kaling (atep) for 15 K IDR.

Worth a visit for a taste of Jakarta in the 70s and 80s albeit being a bit pricy considering...