Here is the scenario. One day my boyfriend played soccer with his buddies for 90 minutes, scored 3 goals, extremely tired and hungry, drove more than 15 km to central of Jakarta from the South area for an event, and from there they stopped by at this restaurant to eat. It’s his friend’s fave place in the area. I gotta phone call that night from him saying “You gotta try this one, Babe..the fried rice is sooo goood! So as the boiled noodles and the *tongseng!!”. Wow! Really? It’s been a while since he got so excited over food like that, especially fried rice, cause he likes that dish.
And so a few weeks later, he brought me there. We got a little bit lost around the area and spent more than an hour searching, only to find that it was closed. Bummer! So this time, maybe a month later, on a bright Wednesday night, not on holiday, 7.30 pm, not lost anymore, it better be open! From afar I can see the light and name board of the place. It opens! Yeay! This 40 seating restaurant is located in Pejompongan/Penjernihan Street Jakarta. You can reach it via Bendungan Hilir or Slipi. Many local culinary tents surround the modest building, so you better pay attention to the name of the restaurant “Bumen Jaya 2” while looking for it, or you will miss it.
We order 3 main courses, “Goat Fried Rice”, “Tongseng” and “Boiled Noodles”, as advertised by my boyfriend, plus 2 big glass of ice coconut water and some fried tofu. I wonder how they taste like.
20 minutes later…..
To me personally the “Tongseng” is seriously good! The fried rice (which my boyfriend almost finished before I even tried) is good enough, and the noodle is okay. Maybe if I come here in a hungry mode on, they will taste much much better. But overall they are okay for me and it’s quite recommendable. The restaurant itself has been operating since 2006 and gains more visitors since. The power of mouth has done its work properly I guess. For our meals tonight we have to pay Rp.104.000. Not bad for the price, right?
On my way out, I am watching the workers grill some satay. I do wonder how the “Goat meat Satay” which is also on the menu would taste like, cause I saw most of the other visitors order it, but I am too full now. Well maybe next time. If you wanna try it for me, I’ll give you a direction to get here (X)
*tongseng : Javanese lamb and cabbage stew
Photos taken by M.I
