John & James BSD City — Restaurant in Serpong

Good service, atmosphere, and affordable prices.

But the food was very disappointing 😥 It's hard to find good Italian food in Indonesia, so I give this place 3 stars considering the local market. But if I ate this food back in Europe, I'd definitely give it 1 star...

So, having lived in Serpong for months, I had hoped to get a taste of Italy here. NOPE. The restaurant caters to the Indonesian taste bud and in doing so, completely sabotages the essence of Italian food.

The ingredients are cheap substitutes of fundamental Italian essentials: The tomato sauce on the pizza tasted like ketchup. Maybe they added sugar to it, or maybe they simply didn't make the sauce themselves. The restaurant probably get their sauce from a supplier that sells literal ketchup as "tomato sauce", because this is a common misconception in Indonesia.

The cheese was not fresh mozzarella. Probably processed cheese that's falsely labelled as mozzarella.

The salami tasted bland and unusual. It was made of beef I think. That makes sense because Indonesians don't eat pork.

The dough wasn't fully cooked so some bites had raw dough... grrr :S

The fettuccine pasta couldn't have been made from durum wheat. The supplier must have used common wheat (bread wheat).

The sauce was creamy but did not taste of cream. Not sure what ingredients they used for the sauce but I'm betting against real butter...

In conclusion, John & James is okay if you want an affordable bite, but you shouldn't expect an authentic...

Parking: * Plenty of parking space since the restaurant located inside a big shop houses complex Ambience: * Cozy and homey place. Lighting and interior design was awesome. Few tables in first floor where the cashier and kitchen are located. More tables at the second floor, suitable for groups. Third floor also available for more private area. Food: * Pizzas are yummy, thin dough with good quality cheese. Spaghetti also nice. Mushroom soup taste great. They provide extra virgin olive oil, home made olive chilli oil, Tabasco, chilli and tomato sauce, and also grape vinegar at the tables. You should ask for their special home made hot chilli sauce, it was fantastic. Service: * Plenty room for improvements. Was invited to a birthday party at the second floor with about 40 people attending, the service was quite slow to refill the food and drinks. Price: ** It ain't cheap, but the quality of the food is worth the money you...

Great designs, nice service. Fair price, just not quite stellar in terms of food and drinks. TBH, I can only recommend the bread and salad.

I tried the pizza lunch menu which included 2 starters, a pizza and 2 limited-choice-drinks.

The salad tastes good with fresh lettuce, loving the balsamic vinaigrette. Comes with a slice of toasted bread. Love the bread tho.

The minestrone is well seasoned and big enough to share for two. Includes green peas, chickpeas, spirelli pasta and carrots. The shredded carrots cooked with diced carrots was odd... Comes with a slice of toast too.

Margherita pizza was the biggest disappointment with no basil and no sliced tomato. Literally only thin crust pizza with sweet marinara sauce and cheese. Not recommended.

Had a cup of iced Americano after. They boasted using frozen coffee as ice cubes (so it doesnt dilute the coffee) but the sourness ruins the fresh coffee. My partner had a simple espresso, that was...