Bakoel Koffie — Restaurant in Jakarta

Bakoel Koffie is a historical brand with a modern twist, providing relaxing yet uplifting experiences. The brand works by combining 150 years of expertise in coffee roasting to create rich, full-bodied, and seductive coffee blends while serving it in a hand-tailored, carefully crafted ambiance for the full enjoyment of its patron. IMG2.jpg Cikini, the “Melting Pot”DIRECTION The cafe occupies the old colonial house shop (Ruko) building at the old residential Menteng area in Jakarta. It is located at Jalan Cikini Raya No.25. Its strategic location near the old post office “Kantor Pos” and the performing art center “Taman Ismail Marzuki” has made Bakoel koffie an iconic place to hangout, meet, work or simply surf the internet while sipping a cup of freshly roasted Java.

It has became a melting pot where people with all kind of background and social income class gather around to simply enjoy their cup of Java; from artist to painter, writer to diplomat, politician to business people, teachers to professionals, student to journalists, all mingle together, sharing ideas, socializing, or simply working. The place has become a 21th symbol of cafe society in Jakarta, similar to one described by the coffee historian Ukers of the role of cafe in the 17th century…A Melting Pot.

Reserve Now Ilustrasi Sektor 7_Revisi_30_08_2016.jpg “di Bawah Pohon”Bintaro Sektor 7DIRECTION The cafe occupies a building that was designed and build by a renown Indonesian Architect, Andra Matin. The design is tropical minimalist where the space has no wall limitation. Inspired by the Indonesian abundance trees and childhood memory playing under the trees, the cafe was then tweaked to be blanketed by vertical green and trees, hence the concept of activity based cafe “under the tree” is born.

It is a place to romanticize the olden day memory of people sitting on the wooden floor under the trees, sipping coffee while playing traditional games such as congklak, chess or perhaps doing some exercise such as yoga. Or simply socializing, enjoying the cozy and cool atmosphere of a tropical cafe.

This is platform Where people will feel welcome, even amongst strangers....

I visited this coffee shop on November 2017 around lunch time. Ordered Kopi Kampung which is a somewhat ordinary cup of coffee since I used to having local coffee so it's neither extraordinary nor unique for me. However for those who have been drinking brew coffee or having coffee in modern coffee shops (e.g. Starbucks), this one's quite a good choice. Ah! I also ordered a plate of Pisang Goreng (fried banana - is it?). It tastes good in spite of its expensive price (Its taste isn't really worth the price tho) .

The ambience is really good with its traditional interior and decoration, makes me feel as though I were in Colonialism Era. I really looove the ambience and vibes :) And yes, they have good taste in music since they'd been playing jazz musics repetitively! Love it! (this is very subjective tho, applicable only for jazz lovers! Cheers! Haha). The waitresses were nice and friendly when I asked about the menu, they know their stuffs pretty well.

For your references, I spent around 3 hours here for working purposes, alone in non-smoking area. Most of the reviews said the temperature is quite hot, and indeed it's hot, but only in smoking area since they only put fans there. Non-smoking area is very comfortable unless they have a conference because the conference room isn't soundproof and next to the non-smoking area. At the time I visited, the situation was not crowded and thus very comfortable for completing some works.

Warning: The WiFi is veeeryy sucks. Even the waitress admitted it! Well, in light of some past reviews which also described how poor the WiFi is and as of November 2017 the management hasn't yet taken any efforts to fix the problem, seems like the management is very slow at solving their problems, so don't expect in the near future the WiFi will be good. Therefore, you'd better prepare your own internet connection, especially for those with working purports. If the management read this, please be...

Let's start with where its suck, parking. Although you have the option to park your car cross the road, its almost impossible to park your car right in front of it, unless you have a parking fairy godmother with you or late night.

Now, my word, the place is exquisite, it boasts a Dutch Colonial era architecture or is it post independence, hell, it's vintage. The place got 2 storeys and they did a very good job decorating this place.

Also contrary with most upscale coffee lounge, you can smoke nearly everywhere in this building. Worry not, with high ceilings and open space, they have a superb ventilation. What can go wrong with coffee and tobbacos?

Their seating arrangements varies from 2 up to, hey, did I see a meeting room back there on the second floor? They allow seat reservation by the way.

The crowds, with that kind pricing point you'll meet more office workers than a college students.

Now the coffee, I'm not consider myself an avid coffee drinker, I'm more to the mainstream and their coffee is alright. They have plenty coffee selection though you wouldnt find Blue Mountain and I reckon they use Aqua. They serve Aqua's Reflection, so you can gauge where their pricing is.

The meals, they have from "heavy" to "finger food", you can stick around all day long without worrying having breakfast menu for dinner. Ah yes, they don't have mayonnaise (at the time I'm writing this review) instead they give me this cheese cream.

Conclusion. I'd be suggesting this place any given day for social or formal meetups, an Entourage, or even for study. However if we're talking about something high profile material, nope. Pricing, be ready to spend somewhere 100k to 150k if you're going full course, but, if it's only a cup of coffee you'll get...