Javanegra Gourmet Atelier — Restaurant in Jakarta

Javanegra Gourmet Atelier is hands down the best private dining restaurant in town. Each visit is always a pleasant one.

I wouldn’t have guessed that the plant-covered homelike architecture that I’ve passed by for the last 5 years is actually a popular private dining establishment. Although it didn’t come as a surprise. The restaurant is located at the corner of the busy Kramat Pela street, and it is always crowded even on the weekdays. It’s a rare occasion to find its parking lot empty. If so, it is usually fully booked for outside catering services or private events - or because of the pandemic, perhaps. Some of my friends and family members who are epicures, or who like to call themselves restaurant connoisseurs, speak highly of the place and have great respect for the Chef. After a few memorable visits, it’s safe to say that the place certainly lives up to its fame.

The dishes here certainly display the Chef's expertise in navigating the Mediterranean delights with aplomb. One of the most recent dishes that I’ve tried here (and I genuinely recommend) is their black ink seafood pasta. It was richly seasoned with delectable buttery-garlic spices that gave the dish over-the-top deliciousness. The dish perfectly represents the Chef’s signature fresh and exquisite flavors.

Aside from the Chef's contemporary Mediterranean cuisine, another must-try dish at this restaurant is their signature dry aged steaks. The Chef has an in depth knowledge of the meat quality. He loves to walk his guests to the dry ager fridges to introduce the dry-aging process where they intensify the meat's character and flavor. Believe me, they know what they are doing. The steaks never disappoint.

Another thing that I love about the restaurant is their rustic and homey ambience. As guests walk through the door, they are welcomed by its cozy interior that features Spanish brick arches alongside an open kitchen area. It feels like they are inviting their guests to delve deeper into their food culture. Combined with curated wines neatly displayed in the corner, and splendid services, this place is absolutely meant for...

Started out well, then the food and mosquitos arrived. Now we understand why it was empty but for some reason we had to pay 1million minimum per head, which is never a problem for us because we don't mind paying a premium for good food.

Approx IDR 3-4 million/kg for steaks (with min order weight of 450g) and as tender and tasty as they were, had an overwhelming flavour of bacon. Our guess is its aged or cooked in smoked bacon fat.

Paella at 300k for half portion looked authentic but was not very nice, though the prawns were well cooked and fresh. Also I think a whole bulb of garlic in giant half raw chunks was used in here.

It seemed like the chef thinks adding ALOT of garlic makes things taste more authentic. It does not. I love garlic, this was overkill. The dry octopus starter had about 2 tablespoons of confit minced garlic, just not pleasant at all.

Wines all well above 1 million, which is fine but the 2018 cloudy Bay that you can get for about £10 in a supermarket in England was priced at OVER £100. Over 2 million rupiah, we were shocked.

Then came the rock hard frozen baileys cheesecake. I was going to ask the waiter if it was meant to be an ice cream cheesecake but we knew it wasn't. My husband took one bite and just said, No. By this time I was SO ready to go as my son and myself had been bitten about 6 times by the mosquitos that were flying over our head all night.

We then overheard the only other table in the restaurant say, "I am never coming back here again I am so angry!" turns out when she asked for a cheeseboard with a couple of cheese, she didn't expect to be charged 800k for it.

Like I said, we had high hopes as the ambience was great, great little space but the food just wasn't up to par. Especially not with those prices. It's taking the piss imo.

One star was for steak and the...

I came here a couple of times before the pandemic and we were happy with it. However today it's quite disappointing.. The venue is OK, food presentation was nice as before. But service was not too good, quite messy. We came at 11 for lunch (they open from 8am for breakfast). Upon arrival they asked if we had reservation and acted as if all tables were booked, turned out nobody came until we left at 1pm. We were served by someone who's got no knowledge about the food. I dont think he was even a waiter. While other people were gathering around the kitchen, not helping this poor guy.

The ceiling AC spilled some water on my chair. Luckily I was standing up when it happened. Geez..

Food: Croquettes de gambas was served in cool temp. Gambas Al pil pil were quite good. The Tagliatelle that's supposed to be cooked in parmigiano wheel was basically just tagliatelle with bechamel sauce. What ashamed! The lamb shank was way too spicy (the "waiter" didn't advise us eventho we did told him to separate the green chilli because we don't eat spicy food). We didn't eat it at the end. The Pluma a la plancha was nice. *Unfortunately there was quite a long pause from the lamb shank to the pork dish so we were kinda "full" by the time the pork dish arrived.

Note: We love the quiet ambiance and beautiful plates. Also the satpam outside was v v nice and polite.

Quite speechless with the experience, especially I was introducing this resto to my older...