New restaurant an audacious taste of India
Bruce Emond, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The past couple of years have brought welcome additions to the once thin-on-the-ground Indian restaurants in these here parts, joining mainstays Haveli, Queen's Tandoor and Jewel of India, as well as Hazara and Shah Jahan which came on board in the mid- 1990s.
While the number of eateries still does not come close to those of, say, Japanese or even Korean food, the presence of Kinara in Kemang, South Jakarta, Ganesha Eks Sanskriti in BRI II, Central Jakarta, Mantra in Blok M and Sheetal's in the Bank IFI building off Jl. Gatot Subroto, have certainly increased the options for those in search of a choice curry or tasty tandoori on a Saturday night.
Unfortunately, Jakarta is still no Singapore when it comes to the availability of food from the subcontinent, especially the dearth of hawker-style restaurants, with the notable exception of the Akbar Palace outlet at Plaza Senayan. For a minor splurge for curry lovers, however, Haveli's groaning buffet table is hard to beat for value on a Sunday afternoon, although Ganesha is giving it a run for its money with its own Sunday buffet with free flow beer or soft drinks.
Now jostling for space is Papadum Curry House, the newest kid on the block -- it's only a few hundred meters from both Haveli and Sheetal's -- in the former Gondola Italian restaurant on Jl. Gatot Subroto, Central Jakarta.
Now, any restaurant with gushing promotional materials extolling "seamless service" and food that "attacks your nerves and makes your hair jump in agreement" wins points for sprightly copywriting, but is also asking -- begging -- to be cut down to size.
Yet, with all due respect to the old vanguard, Papadum showed during our visit last Sunday lunch that it is about to shake up the local scene up with a bold, young and entirely winning concept of Indian food for all.
It sets itself apart from the rest right from the menu, claiming to be the first restaurant offering Southern Indian food in the country. Food from the south uses coconut milk instead of the rich yogurt and cream sauces of the north, and naan and other breads are replaced by rice and the crisp snack of the restaurant's name.
Daring step number two is the decor, which is clean, unfussy, and minimalist chic, a concept more in keeping with the Dian Purba young-and-trendy concept of restaurant design, not the traditional esoteric ethnic chintz of the established eateries. Papadum has certainly come into the light: Gone is the dimness of Gondola (much loved, but at times it felt like we were stumbling our way through the darkened alleyways of Venice to return to quaintly tacky Jakarta, circa 1982) for clean white walls with a tasteful painting or two.
And there is not a tunic in sight on the almost universally young waitpeople, decked out in T-shirts and pants.
"We want this to be a place for everybody, but particularly Indonesians to come and enjoy Indian food," said Reza Kadir, marketing manager of the restaurant and son of Ahmad Fahmy, the owner of legendary disco Tanamur and one of four co-owners of the establishment.
Reza said that while expatriates and Chinese-Indonesians who travel frequently were familiar with Indian food, Indonesians tend to turn their nose up at the dishes, dismissing them as too highly spiced for their palates.
Southern Indian cuisine may be more to their liking than the curries of the north, thanks to the use of coconut milk, the predominance of mutton and fish, even the banana leaf "plates" and encouragement for diners to forget any concerns for decorum by using their fingers to eat (cutlery is also available for timid souls).
We are not fish lovers, so we eschewed the restaurant's specialties of fish head curry and butter-fried crabs and went up to the buffet display to take our pick of soulfully delicious chicken korma (Rp 20,000 ++); the sambar vegetable curry (Rp 10,000 ++), a soup-like dish which both of us found a bit bland but a friend said would have been better eaten with idli, the steamed rice cakes of southern India (Reza said there are plans to put them on the menu); a very good dish of stewed spinach (Rp 16,000); equally tasty aloo ghobi (potatoes in spices) and an order of the restaurant's namesake.
The PR come-ons got me in the door, but I was truly won over with its refreshing service (including our cheerfully perky waitress, who described the taste of the lassi mango yoghurt drink as "strange" and fretted over any lapses in consideration as we left), the great tasting food and the reasonable price (just over Rp 152,000 for two, although Rp 12,000++ for a 1.5 liter bottle of Aqua seemed a bit steep). We, definitely, will be back for more.
----------------- Papadum Curry House Gedung Citra Graha Jl. Gatot Subroto Kav. 35-36 Jakarta (Tel. 522--4465) Open 11 a.m. - 11 p.m. daily ____________________________