Okty was my guide and she was a lovely person, nice personalty and knowledgable. We started in an old Chinatown Coffee shop and tasted Malaysian chicken and potato curry and chilli fried fish accompanied with Fried Bread. We moved into a wet market which was an eye opener and had delicious strong sweet iced coffee in a very old coffee wharehouse. More wandering through the wet market and then try Asinan Sayur a cousin to more famous Gado Gado. We then spent some time in the Indonesian Muesum in the old square which was interesting to appreciate the history. Final stop was the fantasticlly preserved slice of Colonial History that is the Batavia Café for another version of coffee with coconut milk and a version of Cendol. Overall interesting but light on tasting, no lunch as such and tour was finished by about 11,30 so only 3 hrs. Interesting but not value for money as I paid $80 as a single person.
My tour started at 9am, we walked into Chinatown and had a breakfast of 4 dishes, a fried bread, a chicken laska, gado gado and a type of fried chicken- all pretty good, (open sitting area stifling hot). Next headed off for a traditional coffee, again very good. Walked thru a Chinese temple, before taking a tuk-tuk to Dutch old town. Tour finished after 2.5hrs in beautiful old Batavia Cafe with 2 deserts.
I was toured alongside my school group and all 7 of us found Icha to be amazingly knowledgable and professional. The food locations we went to had a mix of budget authentic stalls to formal European restaurants. All in all, we would like to thank Icha for sharing such an incredible side of Jakarta and we look forward to coming again.
I was lucky to be the only one on the tour and still have two tour guides! We even got to ride out of the tuk-tuks since I wouldn’t be able to negotiate a ride on my own. We walked all around Chinatown and ate many Indonesian and fusion things. We ended up at Cafe Batavia in the Square. My guides even stayed with me afterwards to take me to a coffee shop to buy beans! Most of the world’s coffee beans are grown in Indonesia and yet it’s hard to buy whole beans here. I really appreciate the extension of the sense of hospitality. They even accompanied me to the two museums in the Square following the tour ending in Cafe Batavia. And it was wonderful to be able to learn about Indonesia and chat with locals. Definitely recommend this company (Good Food Indonesian) and I know they do several other tour. My only suggestion is giving out a card with the names of what we ate at the end of the tour or a follow up email containing a list with recipes, as I have received on other food tours in other countries since the foreign words are difficult to remember.
Had a great tour through the back streets of China town in Jakarta trying a variety of food that I would not have ever found on my own. Bimo was an excellent guide, very knowledgeable and easy to talk with. Had an excellent few hours.