Blue Jasmine, The Maja, Jakarta

Blue Jasmine is a beautiful restaurant inside The Maja building in Kyai Maja street, Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta. Located at such busy area, it is almost easy to miss the spot from the street, as the buildings in the neighborhood are quite packed one to another. The good thing is, because mostly the buildings are quite “abandoned” or having the “old” feeling in them, The Maja clearly stands out, thanks to the European-inspired style building, complete with the glass windows and doors.

Blue Jasmine specializes in Indo Orient cuisine, and it’s no secret that many Indo Orient (or Peranakan) cuisine restaurants have super lovely decorations and interior/exterior designs here in Jakarta. Blue Jasmine is certainly not an exception, and clearly we can see that they put A LOT of effort in creating a very rich and classy environment for the restaurant yet still giving the feeling of comfort to the guests.

Personally, I like how the building looks like that it’s occupied only by the restaurant and finding parking spot was quite easy when you visit on the weekdays. Well, from the entrance, we can see that there will be second and third level, but currently they are still empty so most all the people go there to visit the restaurant. Blue Jasmine itself is a popular place amongst youngsters to elderly people, and I notice some guests actually use this place to work.

From the entrance, we’ll be greeted in the reception area and we can choose to go straight to indoor seating area or go left to outdoor seating area. The greeter asked whether we had made any reservation before, we didn’t, and she brought us to outdoor area immediately. We were okay with that because we wanted outdoor seating anyway. The funny thing was because she told us that there was no more table available in indoor area although it was clearly empty. FYI, we arrived at 4.30PM that day and until we left around 7PM, no more guest came and there also seemed to be no reservation made for the indoor seating area. I wondered why?

The outdoor seating area is not “outdoor” in literal meaning, basically it gets more nature-friendly feeling, complete with super great natural light. Not only beautiful to the eyes, it’s also very comfortable sitting there for hours! Here is also a smoking area but the room is nicely supported by air conditioners.

While the outdoor seating area looks nature-friendly and inviting, the indoor seating area is dominated with blue and white color representing the name “Blue Jasmine”, and the yellow lighting giving an elegant and luxurious ambience to the room. Perhaps the outdoor seating area is less intimidating and more casual, while the indoor area is more appropriate for a romantic date, business gatherings, or more formal events.

As I mentioned earlier, Blue Jasmine offers selection of Indo Orient cuisine, not only the food but also the beverages. When I browsed through the menu, I was quite surprised that the selections are very interesting, from traditional food to fusion menu, many options are available here. Although we wanted to try a lot, that time we just finished a big lunch so we just tried few items only.

Prices range from IDR 25,000 to 175,000.

Blue Opium IDR 45,000

Lemon juice, ginger, blue curacao syrup, served with longan and white fungus.

This drink was absolutely refreshing. Blue curacao syrup is always one of my favorite ingredients for mixed drinks. The lemon juice and ginger complimented each other nicely, and the beautiful blue color is just icing on the cake.

Purple Orchid IDR 45,000

Lemon juice, basil leaves, violet syrup with longan.

Didn’t really read the description when Mr. K ordered these drinks, turned out that both have quite similar ingredients. This mocktail looked cute but tasted weird. The violet syrup tasted sour yet fragrant, left an aftertaste of floral scents in the mouth. It’s interesting how one or two different ingredients can result in such different tastes of drinks!

Kopi Malaka IDR 30,000

Black coffee with malacca palm sugar.

The so-called Kopi Malaka actually is served in a style of Vietnamese coffee, complete with the French drip filter, a glass with ice, and a cookie. In the bottom of the coffee, there is already a layer of malacca palm sugar (and sweet condensed milk, I believe), so basically we just need to wait until the coffee finished dripping to the glass, then added the ice according to our liking.

I personally really enjoyed this coffee as the taste was very “traditional”, means that it brought back a lot of memories since the first sip. I usually call this kind of black coffee as “kopi supir” (or “driver’s coffee”) as I always associate the aroma and taste of such coffee to our coffee-drinker drivers. 😀

Pizza Sate Ayam IDR 75,000

Pizza with grilled chicken satay with peanut sauce dressing.

For the food, we started with (supposedly) lighter starter, which turned out to be not so light anymore (in a good way). The pizza has rectangle shape, cut into 8 smaller rectangle slices, and looking so fresh and “full” with the salads and chicken satay chunks. The pizza had thin crust which was nice and addictive, especially with the finger-licking good peanut sauce dressing. The chicken satay was given quite generously and I loved the aromatic grilled flavor combined with the fun eating it altogether with the crunchy vegetables. YUM!

Ifumie Siam IDR 95,000

Crispy deep-fried noodle with seafood Tom Yum soup.

Couldn’t miss this one as Ifumie is one of my faves and this is served with Tom Yum soup, wow! The crispy noodle was good but unfortunately the soup wasn’t. I don’t understand why most all Tom Yum soup I find in Jakarta are always sweet and unimpressive? I mean, come on, Indonesia has countless herbs and spices which I don’t think can lose to what Thailand has right?

Nasi Goreng Bebek IDR 85,000

Wok-fried rice with crispy duck slices.

When this was served, I was stunned for a while because I wasn’t expecting something like this. The fried rice was served in the most attractive way possible, giving a maximum wow factor to the presentation. However, like Mr. K said after tasting this, some food are meant to be enjoyed by eyes, and I couldn’t agree more. The fried rice, despite looking so colorful, was bland and almost tasteless. The crispy duck slices were meaty and pretty, but lost their juice, somehow were quite dry and unpleasant to swallow. I didn’t say it was terrible, but it needed alteration in many parts.

Although we didn’t try many things there, we enjoyed our time in Blue Jasmine that day. A very beautiful place with average food, perhaps I will come back for the scene rather than the feast. Service was a bit slow and staffs tend to gather in one spot rather than spreading around to take care of the guests. Short to say, perhaps Blue Jasmine is still premature in bringing the actual concept of great dining in beautiful surrounding. Hopefully when we return again, we can see improvements! *crossing fingers*

 *All prices are subject to 7.5% service charge & 10% government tax

*The Food Escape team are not paid whatsoever for writing this post.

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BLUE JASMINE
The Maja #G-01
Jl. Kyai Maja 39
South Jakarta 12120
Phone:+62 21 29053990

Opening Hours:
Mon-Sun 10AM – 10PM