Ritz-Carlton Hotel

Sundays are usually reserved for brunches. We have never been to a proper brunch together (can you believe it?), I mean, the kind of brunch where it's an all you can eat buffet at a hotel. Don't get me wrong, we have both been to brunch before (it's Jakarta after all) it just so happen that we had them before we were together. It took us a while to decide where to go. Marcel had his regular place (Mulia Hotel), I had mine (Meridien Hotel). In the end we decided on the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Kuningan...yes the one that got bombed last year. We chose it because it was somewhere we both hadn't been, reasonably priced, and drinks included.

It was not a good start to say the least. Even though we reserved a table, we still managed to get the worse seat in the house. We were squished in a dark little corner by the stairs with a huge column opposite the corner that we were at. I joked to Marcel that they must have thought that I was the secret girlfriend that noone was supposed to know about.

The food was so-so, I think it was catered more for Indonesians. They didn't have pancakes or waffles (at a brunch??) and you couldn't really put anything to the breads they had, like a selection of cheese or spreads. It was more Indonesian cuisine so martabaks, grilled fish, nasi goreng, quite heavy stuff that you couldn't really eat for brunch

In no time the place was filled. I guess the host wasn't joking when she said it was a full house. Although, it was filled with Indonesians which means lots of guests with kids and pembantus. So in the end we ended up having the best seat in the house because we didn't have a flurry of people running around behind and around us.

All in all, I guess the recent bombing didn't really affect the Ritz-Carlton whatsoever. The senior staff came across like they didn't really need or want anymore customers and were neither impressed or tried to help when we asked to be moved to a better table (I thought that was the whole concept of reserving a table, I mean, you never really call in advance and request for the worse seat in the restaurant, right?). They really snubbed us off and gave us the impression that we should be grateful to have even been in the restaurant at all. Only the staff on the floor who re-filled drinks made sure that we were taken care of, ok, it was only the one guy who really gave us the impression that we were in a 5 star hotel, so we left after about a couple of hours and tipped him.

Brunch
Non alcohol Rp 216,000++
Alcohol Rp 360,000++

Jakarta Asia Restaurant
The Ritz-Carlton, Jakarta
Jl. Lingkar Mega Kuningan Kav E.1.1 No. 1
Mega Kuningan, Jakarta