Indonesian food is infamous for its humility yet boldness when it comes to its character and texture. The usage of fresh and complex ingredients is the reason why indonesian cuisine earns a place in many people hearts. Talking about it, we often see many Indonesian food on the street, houses, yet we rarely see it establishes in a medium to upscale restaurants. Of course when I talk about Indonesian food, it doesn’t just involve nasi goreng or ayam goreng! Indonesia is rich in its cultures, characters and those resulted in a vast diversity, meaning there are plenty of foods available to be enjoyed.

One of the few well-known Indonesian restaurants is Sate Khas Senayan which most of us might agree that they do serve wonderful Indonesian food, especially the sate (skewers). But did you know that there is Tesate Restaurant, a restaurant with a similar take on Indonesian food but with an upgrade?

You might have heard or even passed the outlets, but some of you might never have visited this place, have you?

It’s my second visit this time, and it’s Tesate’s outlet in Menteng area. It was still early when I visited the place. Oh, they open at 10.30. They don’t serve breakfast (yet) unfortunately, but 10.30 means brunch time, so it might be a perfect restaurant for brunch if you’re into Indonesian-style of brunch. 😉

The outlet here was a stand-alone building with 3 levels, from Ground floor, 1st floor and 2nd floor.

The first floor is where you’ll be coming in from and greeted by the waiters. You can choose to sit outdoor or indoor on this first floor. The dominant colour involves clean white paint, resulted in a very clean elegant atmosphere. The ground floor is another indoor dining area, with a semi open kitchen where you can see the skillful chef smoking the skewers to perfection. Don’t worry about the smokes, tho. The grilling area is partitioned with glass, so bad smelly hair and smoky clothes won’t happen to you.

In the ground floor, there are two private rooms that guests can use. One room is a bigger room with capacity of 20 guests and the other is a smaller room with capacity of, perhaps, 10 guests.

There is a bigger private/function hall on the second floor, which could probably hold around 30-35 guests. You would love the all-white interior on this second floor, with whole glass window on both sides. Bridal shower and birthday celebration would be gorgeous here.
A bule even walked here during my brunch, snapped some pictures and smiled to us while saying, “It’s a pretty place here” while we smiled back and nodded in agreement. 🙂

Shame on me as I forgot to snap a pic or two for this area. But you might be able to see what I meant about the clean white interior in some of my pictures.

Oh, reservation is recommended though if you want to use any of the private rooms.

Okay, let’s talk about food.
In this brunch, we had two drinks and two main courses, both the specialty in Tesate Restaurant. Check it out!

Pretty drinks!

# Lychee Tea (IDR 35k)
Who doesn’t love lychee tea? People who do not love lychee! 😉

# Siam Orange (IDR 45k)
One of the recommended drinks here. Siam Orange was very refreshing, and it came in a pretty glass too!

# Sate Ayam Ponorogo (IDR 69k)
Basically, this is a traditional sate ala Ponorogo but with an upgrade. Like I mentioned earlier, sate is a skewer and in this case, our comes with fat chunks of chicken meat, skins and quail eggs. The sauce is a blended peanut sauce. Unlike the signature chicken sate in Sate Khas Senayan which the peanut sauce comes in a very smooth blended texture, this sauce we had was in a slightly more rough and coarse texture. The chicken skewers were juicy and simply wonderful, and the chicken skins were lovely too.

To accompany our sate, we had purple rice (IDR 18k). Don’t frown, purple rice is not literally purple. It is more of a darkish red rice, which is said to be high in fiber and rich in both antioxidant and iron.

# Lontong Cap Gomeh (IDR 111k)
This dish is a unique one. Serves in a long tray, there are three components to eat along. Look at my picture. In case if you’re an expat and have no idea about this dish, it is actually a dish with rice cake, chili prawns, drenched in bamboo shoots curry. But the Lontong Cap Gomeh here, like I said, has received an upgrade, so the ingredients mixed here are more of a bonus as to enhancing flavours. The complex ingredients worked perfectly here, and the Lontong Cap Gomeh here became our instant favourite. <3

Oh, desserts! Who’s in?
# Es Puter (IDR 36k)
It is a smooth and creamy coconut ice cream served with bread chunks and pink jelly. As a traditional iconic dessert, I wonder how Tesate would upgrade it. Turned out, they just don’t! Instead, they stay true to its component and go with enhancing its flavour.

# Pineapple Klapper Taart (IDR 48k)
To put it simply, this was a major suprise to us. The klapper taart, which is a yound coconut cake, came with distinctive pineapple flavour. The fragrant pineapple laid at the near-bottom layer and resting on the crumble-base. It tasted more like a cake-version of nastar. Never knew coconut and pineapple could actually be friends. Oh, for this dessert, it will always be accompanied with coconut ice cream. Feel like going to the beach right now.

Our brunch was really great. We of course, didn’t have any doubt about it when coming here. Afterall, we love Sate Khas Senayan, and certainly think that Tesate, under the same management, will certainly be at least equal (of not better) when it comes to taste.

Price-wise, it might be a big steep. But, so far, everything is just worth it. The food was pretty much awesome, and the ambiance in this specific outlet is very nice. The service couldn’t have gone better!

In case you’re curious about other Indonesian dishes that they have, I might be able to mention some that Intrigued me. Iga Sapi Paniki, Nasi Liwet Semarang, Nasi Goreng Buntut Belacan, Ikan Bakar Dabu Dabu, Kerapu Bakar Jimbaran, Gule Sengkel, and more to go.

Okay, this is a temporary goodbye then. See you in other posts!

PS. When craving for something truly Indonesian, keep calm and head here.