Common Grounds - Pondok Indah Plaza — Restaurant in Jakarta

Common ground located in Pondok Indah Plaza 2, infront of Kari Umbi.

There are 2 floors, the bottom floor with square tables and sweets display, suitable for coffee time. And the upper floor provides bigger tables setting, suitable for dining. The interior was modern but cozy. Designed beautifully. But unfortunately, the seating was not comfortable for a long period of time setting.

We went there on two different occasions: for dining & coffee time.

We ordered: Naked burrito bowl - a bit tasteless for me. Need more spices. Phil's fried chicken -this one was my favorite. The chicken was crispy, the sauce was flavorful, served on a hotplate, with chips on the side 👌 Cheese sandwich - i think it's a temporary menu. Need more seasoning, a bit bland for me. Magnum dessert - i forgot the name of the dessert but it was too sweet for us.

For coffee time: Egg tart croissant - the egg filling was soft with a creme brulee like texture. The croissant was too thin for me. Thicker pastry would balance the filling better. Burnt butter twist roll - we could taste the burnt flavor, but the roll was a bit dry. Boston cream eclair - the filling was too dense and just too ordinary tasting for me.

But what i like about common ground is that they served: Perfect coffee everytime. Always consistent on their coffee.

The menu was a bit overwhelming. Too many choices. Sometimes simple menu is better than 50+ pages of menu to...

Terrible, terrible meal. I ordered 115k BBQ beef sandwich and got 25k worth supermarket’s sandwich instead smh.

→ The shokupan bread wasn’t grilled, it arrived plain, wet, and soggy like day-old bread at home. I sent it back to be properly prepared/grilled as shown on the menu.

→ When it came back, it looked like the picture attached. I sliced it and took a bite—turns out the onions were completely fresh, aka raw, even though the menu description said “grilled onion.” That’s what I liked and one of the reasons I chose this menu item. And instead I got raw onion. Perfect.

I complained to the manager, and they said, “It seems like there’s a typo in the menu. That’s just how it is, because in our QC process, we’ve never had an issue before.” Wow. Just wow. 🤣

A customer pays 115k expecting to get what’s shown and described on the menu, but instead, they get a poorly made, cold sandwich that looks nothing like the menu description.

Now I remember why I tried Common Grounds a long time ago and never came back—TERRIBLE FOOD...

We expected Common Grounds to deliver, especially since their coffee and drinks at the Citywalk outlet have always been excellent. However, our experience this time was an utter disappointment. We ordered the Matchaberry Cream Latte, and it completely missed the mark. The flavors didn’t blend well at all, and the matcha topping was incredibly difficult to mix, refusing to disintegrate into the latte. It left us wondering what the drink was even trying to achieve.

Adding to the disappointment was the steep price of 70,000 IDR, which felt completely unjustified given the quality. On top of that, the toilet was in a disgraceful state. There was pee on the toilet seats, and both the unisex and female-only facilities emitted a disgusting smell. For a place that charges premium prices and markets itself as upscale, this was completely unacceptable. It felt like just another pretentious spot prioritizing appearances over substance, and we left feeling...