Rian Farisa

Kahvehane: Kopi Oey (FKA Kopitiam Oey)

Kopitiam Oey is a business venture owned by a famous culinary TV personality, ‘Om’ Bondan Winarno. With all his extensive knowledge and experience regarding food, he utilized it all to create this kopitiam business venture. Kopitiam itself defined like the usual coffee shop and Mr. Oey himself designed it truly like Chinese style. Oh by the way, if you don’t know about it, ‘Oey’ is actually pronounced ‘Wi’ that stands for the first syllable for the surname of the guru. So what I meant as Mr. Oey at the beginning that means it’s for Mr. Winarno.

At first, I didn’t notice that this belongs actually to him but you can see pictures of him all over the place. I knew it later from the internet. As for the interior, it’s Chinese old school with old style wooden seats and tables so that means no cushion at all. Pictures can be seen everywhere on the walls, old advertisements, newspaper/magazine articles, the menu in big pictures, and you can laugh at the funny ones. The place was not that big so you can see the kitchen right away further back. Overall, the place possess a warm and cozy atmosphere, be it in the afternoon or night.

The menu itself was extensive, Mr. Oey seems to be utilizing his knowledge fully and recreating famous dishes from specific areas all around Indonesia. FYI, the drinks are for all day but the dishes are differentiated for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Starting from the drinks you can find many kinds of coffee such as the originally brewed coffee up to Vietnamese coffee drinking style and not to forget, the best thing from this place, it’s the Wiener Melange (IDR 15,000). Wiener Melange is actually a coffee topped with vanilla ice cream. You gonna need a good ice cream for this and once it all got mixed up, it’ll become a great coffee!

You can find also tea in all its forms. You can have the original Javanese pot tea, Moroccan mint tea, and of course the star of the show, Teh Taloe (IDR 12,000). I forgot whether they have the coffee version of this too, but anyway it’s a mixture of tea with milk and raw egg(s). The taste was quite okay, it’s almost like Teh Tarik but you can feel the egg aftertaste which I doubt most people can stand it. It’s not particularly hard to find this drink as you can find it almost anywhere in a Padangnese restaurants. As for the rest, I think you should try Es Cincau Cikini made with milk and ginger and best served for hot afternoon and for only IDR 10,000! So as you can see, the price range for the drinks were quite okay and you can even find drinks below IDR 10,000.

Now here comes the food. I’ve been there until this day around 4 times and for the first time I only tried the Spring Roll for the snack and it wasn’t that good. The second time, we were only having the coffee. Then the third time was when I tried Mie Kepiting Pontianak (IDR 23,000) and it was quite okay, I took a sip for the Nasi Goreng (IDR 23,000) and it’s just okay but certainly has its distinctive taste. Then the last time I visited the joint was at the lunch time, we immediately picked the most inviting among the few available lunch dishes.

I picked Lontong Cap Gomeh (IDR 26,000) and my partner picked Nasi Rames (IDR 26,000). I need to confirm again later for the prices. The portion for the dishes were just fine for me (perhaps Mr. Oey already took careful measure for this). So it was okay for me and certainly too many for my partner. Haha..However, at the first taste for the Lontong Cap Gomeh, the broth was cold so I immediately asked for a warmer one. I was a bit disappointed because of that but lucky for them that the taste was just great. I had a clean slate for that. As for the Nasi Rames, it was good too and I was indeed satisfied. Closed by Wiener Melange, that made the whole lunch very worthwhile!

Indeed, I have to agree to what Mr. Oey said about his place, ‘Koffie Mantep, Harganja Djoejoer’. Though Kopitiam Oey still need for improvements but for this I trust on Mr. Oey high capability and even so, this place still attain one of the most recommended place among such in my heart. Give it a try!

The Judgment (based on scale of 10 score plus the comments):

1. PRICE (9/10)

Koffie Mantep, Harganja Djoejoer!

2. INTERIOR (6/10)

A warm coffee shop with a Chinese Peranakan interior style. Though without cushioned seatings, you’ll enjoy the welcoming atmosphere of this place. Luckily it’s opened in the further side of the busy Jalan Sabang.

3. SERVICE (6/10)

Just fine.

4. TASTE (7/10)

If it’s about the culinary guru, Mr. Oey. You should not underestimate his measure for this one. Even so, the food still needs improvements however for the drinks, it’s an A-OK!

5. OVERALL (7/10)

Has the potentials indeed to become a famous place to dine.

Additional Information:

Location : Jl. H. Agus Salim/Sabang no. 18, Jakarta Pusat.

Website : http://www.kopitiamoey.com/

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Rian Farisa

Rian Farisa stars himself in a flick about how a culinary correspondent living a life full of adventures as if he will live forever. At the end of the day, he lives to retell the chronicles of his swashbuckling daring gastronomic adventures like a bard singing his tales of beautiful faraway lands. Since gastronomy consists of complex aspects and that is where his passion lies, he decided to unravel how businessmen, hawkers and luxurious restaurants alike, serve their dishes for the patrons. Whether they only serve for the advantages in taste or only the surroundings or whether they really throw anything for the sake of customer’s satisfaction, he shall be solely the only one who can tell and in the name of this noble profession, justice shall be done!

8 responses to “Kahvehane: Kopi Oey (FKA Kopitiam Oey)”

tempo dulu

March 25, 2010

I love old looking places like this. Thanks for the review.

Reply
1. Rian Farisa
  
  March 25, 2010
  
  We all do! Especially with what they offer and the fact that Bondan Winarno owns it. Grab your late afternoon coffee and desserts here while converse with ease with your friends next time. Shud be fun! ^^
  
  Reply
Seika

April 17, 2010

Regardless of the food (I’m no food connoisseur), the place is nice. Quoting a review, “colonial chinese wet-dream” 😀

But I got the feeling some parts are lost. Well, perhaps a justifiable trade-off for comfort. Besides, been there only once.

Reply
1. Rian Farisa
  
  April 19, 2010
  
  Indeed! We’re lacking of ‘peranakan’ style kopitiam here in Indonesia, where you can at ease, find it anywhere in Singapore, for instance, with those unique long hosed coffee jugs and their unique style in concocting the beverage, get yourself a big cup of Coffee O or Milo with milk! It’s nice to see several kopitiam rise themselves to prominence, but even though Oey still not enough. It does not really represents what a real kopitiam concept should be (that’s perhaps why you feel lost there), but it’s the effort that matters to fulfil half of those ‘wet dreams’ you mentioned. LOL
  
  Thanks for coming! ^^
  
  Reply
  1. Seika
    
    April 19, 2010
    
    Actually the lost feeling I had there are factors that will drop the place into image of a lower class segment place.
    
    I imagined smell of oil and more house like aura and noise from the background and older workers. But the place itself is basically, a modern cafe with paid workers.
    
    This is not about “warmth” or “personal service” but the naturality with all the good and bad (such as snobbish arrogant owner who likes to brag to the regulars).
    The place is nice, but after a while, it’s a thematic cafe, just like a ride in theme park (not necessarily bad) and the visitors looks like drinking coffee as part of “lifestyle” instead of “daily life”
  2. Rian Farisa
    
    April 20, 2010
    
    Nonetheless, the existence of Kopitiam Oey itself, despite the flaws, is probably the reawakening of such culture and might usher the creation of more kopitiam all over Jakarta. The least thing they can do about themselves probably to infuse more of the original taste inside their premises but as for the surroundings, it might be harder these days.
    
    Certainly, Jalan Sabang hardly represents such conditions. I can understand your feelings and it’s a beautiful description about the ideal condition of how and where a kopitiam should be. Probably the most intimate location you can find for that would be the districts in northern Jakarta where more densely populated with ‘peranakan’ communities and bring their ancestor culture of this way of life you mentioned before into a whole integrated visualizations. I have to admit that I haven’t scoured the whole area myself but perhaps if such El Dorado exists, then we can find the small heaven we’re looking for and sip the afternoon coffee together or it’s a mission for the visionaries like you to bring it to life one day. ^^
ika

August 13, 2011

sorry,been here n there of ur blog.i reckon u are a critical blogger.xixixiix…

I had d same thing lke u,i dont care who d owner is,whn it’s good-then it’s good.

At the end i think when it comes to taste,there’s no exact thing.when u said delicious,i can say awful.that what happens to pak bondan’s resto.

Been try d vietnamese coffee, i cn make much better than that.i dunno,is it d technique or d coffee.i use the techinique of coffee maker n coffee bought in ho chi minh. Kopi tiam uses the coffee from bandung.

At that time,they gave me only a little condensed milk which made d coffee too bitter,whn i asked some more,they gave me huge of it which made d coffee became too sweet.well,may be it was just nt my day at that time. I tried kopi tiam in ganci-not oey and i fall in love wd d kaya toast.yummmm *it’s just perfect for me though a bit pricey but again,it’s life style*

Reply
1. Rian Farisa
  
  August 15, 2011
  
  Satu hal yang paling konsisten mungkin hanya Wiener Melange saja. Dulu bikin artikel ini pas mereka baru-baru bgt buka di Sabang. Cukup maknyus ko asalkan ada supervisor dapur mereka yg lagi kontrol. Biasanya siang-siang. Ibu2 gitu. Mungkin juga sugesti. Haha..
  Belakangan harganya juga makin mahal. 😦
  
  Reply