Bako B.
Yelp
Having lived in Indonesia for years, when I saw this restaurant, I thought it might make a nice change of pace for dinner. What I didn't expect was the most expensive restaurant in the (quite expensive) neighborhood offering tiny, child-sized portions. You can't really see much of the menu from outside, so it was a surprise. The food itself was reasonably good -- we got rendang, gado-gado, and a nasi goreng -- but the prices are astronomical for what you get, and it wasn't much better than what you'd eat at an decent street-side warung in Jogjakarta for a couple euros.
There is nothing in dishes like nasi goreng or gado-gado, which I often cook at home myself, to justify these inflated prices. It's not as though you're getting a better cut of meat or fresh sea food or anything like that, it's just things like peanuts and garlic and eggs and tamarind paste. Comparing this place to its European neighbors, the profit margins are surely much higher considering what goes into the dishes. When you're charging 20 Euros for a cup of fried rice with a little chicken, something's really wrong.
If you're rich and you are really craving Indonesian food, you could do worse, but for everyone else, just hop on a plane to the real Jakarta; the trip will pay for itself after a few lunches.
