Monday, 8th June 2009

Warung Tekko

Every-time I drove pass the Bukit Golf stretch in Pantai Indah Kapuk,

I would see a whole bunch of cars parked in front of this restaurant.

"What do they serve that makes them that crowded?" i would ask myself endlessly.

I asked around, and I found out from my sister-in-law that they are famous for their "Iga Penyet".

Sounds good! And to top it off, my sister-in-law said the food was REALLY good!!

Since it came highly recommended by my sis-in-law,

I guess it's safe to invest my time and money on this one.

So Monday night, Ddee and I decided to see for ourselves whether or not this restaurant lives up to its fame.

As expected, parking was pretty packed. I had to park quite a distance from the restaurant.

The restaurant gives you an option of sitting outdoors or indoors.

When we arrived at the restaurant, it was packed!

Everything was a mess. Waiters and waitresses were marching around carrying trays and plates.

People who weren't seated just roamed about waiting for empty tables. (kinda similar to food courts)

There was no one greeting us or telling us to wait.

So Ddee just called out to one waiter and ask him for a seat.

He told us to wait and ran inside. That's the last we saw of him.

Then one family who were seated outdoors just finished eating and left, so we quickly grabbed that table.

It took them a while to get the table cleaned.

And when they got to it, they cleaned it without any form of cleaning agents.

Just tissue paper and a few drops of leftover tea.

Hmm…

There were no flies to be seen though.

Something unexpected for an outdoor restaurant. Good!

Ddee then felt bad as we got big table, so we decided to share it with a group of three people.

Then the waiter came, he got confused as we shared the table, thus different set of orders.

The menu was simple. But the waiter kept explaining to us that to get the sambel,

we need to order food with the "penyet" word. eg. iga penyet, ayam penyet, ikan penyet.

All I can say about the service is that, they are trying hard to work as best as they can.

But they just aren't that well trained. Many looked lost that night. They just wandered around aimlessly.

Clueless of what to do next. The restaurant seemed to have hired a manager.

But all he did was serve people their food.

Well, I'm no restaurateur, but isn't a manager's job to control and manage so things go smoothly and patrons don't wait too long?

If I need someone to serve food, I'd hire more waiters, which by the way, is what the restaurant needs badly.

They were shorthanded, and many waiters/waitresses were just waiting by the kitchen for the food to be ready.

So we ordered their famous iga penyet, gurame goreng penyet, tahu kipas, and tempe goreng.

Ddee had white rice while I had the red rice.

After the waiter took the order, then came the long wait.

We waited 20 minutes until out first happy sight.

The waiter came to our table with a tray full of food.

To our disappointment, those were the food for the group of strangers sharing the table with us!

BUMMER!!

Wait a minute, I thought we ordered first? Oh well, stuffs happen.

We waited another 10 minutes for our rice to be served.

Another 5 minutes for our dishes to be served, one at a time at 5 minutes interval.

I guess they were overwhelmed by the number of orders that night.

I tried to see things positively, if they are that crowded, that means the food MUST be really good like people say.

So I started trying out the iga penyet. Contrary to what people had hyped it up to be, the iga was tough.

But as consolation, the sambel was good.

Then I tried the fried gurame. It wasn't as hot as it's supposed to be. I guess it was just at kitchen temperature. Just a little warm.

The sambel with the gurame was the same as the sambel with the iga penyet.

Then I tried the tahu kipas. It was cold, bland, and only 3 pcs?!

Then I tried the tempe goreng. It's pretty good. But also, only 3 thin slices.

The gurame is the only dish that has decent portion.

And the sambel is the only dish worth commending.

So like I said, this is all a bad hype made up by some unknown group of people.

Bad hype, bad hype, bad hype. A bad and expensive hype!

I guess it's the "IN" thing in Jakarta right now.

Another possibility is that the locals are very easily satisfied with food that are bad and expensive.

I just hope these locals can increase their standard of satisfaction.

I was disappointed!

SCORE BOARD:

Service: 5/10

Presentation: 4.5/10

Quality / freshness: 6.5/10

Taste: 5/10

Portion: 6/10

Cleanliness: 4.5/10

Price per person: $$