Rendezvous at budget Warung Monas Jatim

Fitri Wulandari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Just as you would expect in a city that never sleeps, there are plenty of eateries in Jakarta that are open until after midnight, even up to dawn. Most of them are sidewalk warung (food stalls).

These warung are nice, friendly and economical places to hang out with your friends.

I got to know about Warung Jatim Monas when my friends and I were looking for a place for a late supper after an exhausting boogie session in a club.

At first, I didn't really think it was a good idea to go to a warung located inside the Senayan sports complex. What came to my mind was that the food stalls in the area would be offering overpriced food of mediocre quality.

I was wrong. When we arrived at Warung Monas Jatim at Parkir Timur Senayan, I found the place to be pretty decent and serving excellent food, too.

It's open from 8 a.m. until 2 a.m. the next day even during the fasting month of Ramadhan. The place is never fully booked out, as far as I know, but visitors are always coming and going. Reservations are definitely not needed.

How to get there: You can reach the place by just about any means of transportation. If you don't fancy walking, you can go by taxi or car as public transportation does not enter the Senayan complex. For a shortcut, you can go from the Hilton main lobby, all the way to the Lagoon tower, and then walk across the street.

Looks: The Warung Monas Jatim is very modest. It has a nice, shady front porch and the diners are seated in tent-like gazebos. with wooden tables and chairs. It is a lovely place to have your dinner out in the open. The plants and trees that surround the porch protect the diners from the scorching sun.

At night, the place is good for a romantic dinner. A piece of advice: don't forget to bring your mosquito repellent. The annoying insects are highly persistent.

What's it got: Like many other Indonesian eateries, the menu goes straight to the main course. No appetizers. And what they have on the list are green-pepper-fried ox tail, classic nasi goreng (fried rice), nasi goreng teri Medan (fried rice with small fried fish), nasi goreng kambing (goat fried rice), bakwan jagung (corn fritters), gado-gado (vegetable salad with peanut sauce), and capcay (Chinese stir-fry vegetables). Some specialties from East Java can also be found on the list, such as the famous nasi rawon (meat cooked in a dark soup), tahu campur (fried tofu with sprouts and fish sauce), tahu telur (tofu omelet with fish sauce) and lontong sayur (vegetables with rice cake).

As for dessert, well, forget about mouthwatering cheesecake, banana split or tiramisu as they are not on the list. In fact, there are no desserts on the menu. But baked banana sprinkled with cheese and chocolate rice could possibly be considered as desserts.

For beverages, the list is very modest. There are typical soft drinks, hot and cold tea, instant coffee, ginger coffee, and regular coffee. There are different kinds of juices if you want to go for a natural flavor.

Taste factor: After scrutinizing the menu, I finally plumped for the green-pepper-fried ox tail and rice. For drinks, I ordered good ol' hot tea.

The food came in perfect, even quite generous, portions. There were five or six lumps of meaty oxtail, all perfectly fried. Crisp, but still juicy and tender. They were stir-fried with green pepper, green chili, garlic, onion and soya sauce. They were not too sweet and not too salty, with quite a strong spicy taste. For all you die-hard fans of spicy food, this is just the food for you.

My friends decided to try another speciality -- nasi goreng teri Medan. This consists of fried rice with tiny salted fish (teri). The portion was just the right size and was accompanied by emping (traditional crackers), a poached egg, sliced meat balls, fresh tomatoes and cucumber.

My other friends had oxtail soup and nasi rawon. Both dishes were declared quite tasty.

For drinks, as it was a rainy night, we all ordered hot tea.

Service: Very polite and fast.

Price points: Considering the delicious food and the portions, the price was by no means outrageous. A dish of green-pepper- fried oxtail and rice cost Rp 12,000. The oxtail soup plus rice was Rp 10,000 and the nasi rawon was Rp 8,000. Meanwhile, a mug of hot tea cost only Rp 1,500. The total bill for five people was Rp 53,000, with no tax or service charge.

Minus points: Mosquitoes.

Verdict: If you looking for money-saving place to hang out, then this is the right place for you.