PANTJA — Restaurant in Jakarta

I rarely write reviews but when I do, it means one has done something right or just the opposite. Despite the fact that food was really good – I can’t say the same for the host(ess). I had a reservation at 4pm, an early dinner or a super late lunch for a heavily pregnant woman like myself. My husband and I, along with my mom, arrived at around 3.50pm. Most people wouldn’t have lunch/dinner that late or that early, which means the restaurant was empty at the time. (I’m assuming they’d be pretty packed after 5.30pm). She greeted us, and took us to our table. The initial table that was assigned to us was a table that’s in the middle of the restaurant. Which was fine if I wasn’t 8.5 months pregnant. And so I asked nicely if I could have the sofa seating – just to have more back support and not having to have my baby bump touch the table if I was seated in the middle. She hesitated and didn’t look very keen to let us sit on the sofa seating. She kept saying how the table was booked for another reservation at 6pm, and mind you this was not even 4pm yet. So, 2 hrs was very generous for the 3 of us to order, wait, eat, and be done with it. These days I wouldn’t even think of chatting or sitting for too long. I just wanna have my meal and go home basically. I used to be a restaurant host too back in the days where I was in college and freshly graduated. I know exactly what to do and how things run. I wrote this simply because I was just annoyed by the fact that: We were still 2 hrs away until the next reservation arrived. The restaurant was empty so it wasn’t really a hassle that I asked for a more comfortable seating. It wasn’t such a big request that she had to hesitate.

I understand that there are rules that you have to follow, and that you are required to make the tables turn and such. But you have to be situational and see how those rules fit to your clients, who will certainly have different requirements or needs. “Will it cater to their concerns/condition?” “Will it be suitable for this type of customer?”

I guess that’s it 🤷 Food was amazing though. We had truffle sliders, PFC (Pantja Fried Chicken – you could ask for non/spicy ones/mixed), lobster rolls, Korean short ribs (served with a bowl of steaming hot rice), broccolini, and Campanelle (which was the only thing that was quite underwhelming from everything else...

What a mixed experience. The place looks great, music in the background is super well chosen and the menu is perfect. However … our lunch was far from the expectations. We chose number of dishes from the menu and some were better than the others. The chicken suggested by the waiter was just a disappointment even though well cooked but not worth the hype. The tacos however were to die for. A carrot something was served cold. Cocktail not worth it! I don’t even think there was a profesional mixologist on the shift cause it was a gin mixed with syrup kind of a drink. All of that would make for an ok but not disappointing experience if it wasn’t for the atmosphere. The moment we were shown to our table we put a bag with medications we were currently taking due to our trip and it contained a small bottle of water. We wanted to put the bag into the backpack but before we even did it a waitress rushed to tell us we have to remove it from the table immediately in kind of a very stressed tone. Later on I noticed one page of the menu is entirely related to an etiquette, what can you not do. Anyway that would still be fine if not some sort of a manager sitting by the table nearby consuming her lunch from a plastic takeaway box while sipping from her oversized water bottle and working on her computer surrounded by office papers. The moment she stood up her face was showing she’s tired and unhappy. It gave such a bad vibe to the restaurant ambience. Later two other managers or someone joined her and there were three working posts with a food container in plastic bag on the table open laptops a full on coworking space there. Forgot to add we were the only customers in the room. So I guess we were just simply not welcomed and disrupting office hours. I got to mention staff was nice and great. But it’s a place for the evening treat. And whatever those managers were doing is not their fault but someone who didn’t brief them on a...

Excellent food & ingredients used, not so much the service & ethics.

Service: The server kept sending our food to the wrong table, three of our orders went to the next table which was separated even though they were seated by our friends. Our server was completely oblivious and unable to distinguish between orders placed. One of our dishes did not arrive and when we asked the server, he casually mentioned that it went to the other table. After letting him know that we are not paying for food that did not arrive to our table, he did give us a replacement. But not before a little bit of back and forth of him trying to get us to order another one.

Ethics: When asked for food recommendations, our server immediately skipped the starter & pasta dishes and started pushing high ticket items. When we did not order what he wanted, he tried a different way , he offered an IDR 165,000 katsu sando which also came in beef and was his "favorite". Little did we know that the beef was wagyu and it cost a staggering IDR 750,000, 5x the amount and conveniently without mentioning the price to our table.

We paid for the food but what this server did was borderline scamming.

Extremely disappointed with Pantja for stooping to such ignoble tactics. This place has fallen off the top of being one of the best restaurants in town just a...