Lara Djonggrang
Restaurant When you enter the restaurant, you will feel like you’re in a museum. A lot of Buddha statues, ethnic and antiques stuffs decorate the place, creating a mystical vibe around the place. The restaurant has many private rooms with different touch of decorations, such as: China Blue – decorated with Chinese ceramics and dominated by blue and red colors; La Bihzad bar – a cozy bar with huge antique pillars (it used to be pillars of an old temple), decorated with a repro-painting by La Bihzad on the wall and some imported antiques rice barns; Marilynn Monroe room – a private room embellished with Marilynn Monroe’s classic pictures on the wall; Bali room – a private room, perfect to have a formal meeting, decorated with some Balinese artifacts.
The main room is called Lara Djonggrang room, where the Lara Djonggrang statue is located. In the corner of the room, one can find a Buddha statue as well. Up above the wall, you can find some “wayang kulit” shadows, as if those shadows tell you a story of Lara Djonggrang.
If you like antiques, you can buy some art works here, to beautify your house ;). There’s one corner where you can find some antiques stuffs, “wayang golek”, small Buddha statues, etc. I don’t really enjoy standing for a long time at this corner, I think it’s kinda creepy :p
How's the food? You might want to ask this question, huh? ;) Well, Lara Djonggrang restaurant offers wide range of Indonesian food: meals that are famous from some areas of Indonesia. You can order different type of rice as well: nasi brongkos, nasi jagung, nasi uduk, nasi pandan. For the main course, you can order bebek panggang, different type of satay, soto, prawns/lobster, veggies, etc. You might get confuse to choose what to eat when reading the menu, coz everything sounds delicious! (The best way is to go there with bunch of friends and let each person orders different meal, so all of you can taste each meal written on the list!)
Despite all the good things about the restaurant, I have to admit that for a vegetarian, the restaurant doesn’t offer much. The satay tempe does not taste as delicious as it looks. However, I’ll give four stars for their tumis bayam jagung. It tastes really yummy! Oyeah, they also have “tahu telor” and “gado-gado” as well, but not that special… standard lah.. :D
I’ve been to this place couple of times, but I don’t know what to eat for the next visit coz the restaurant doesn’t have any other meals to offer for a vegetarian like me! :( huhuhu… too bad coz I love the place and its ambience so much… Next visit, I’ll just try their desserts and special drinks! ;)
*Address: Jl. Cik Ditiro No. 4, Menteng, Jakarta Pusat*