Teratai, Hotel Borobudur, Jakarta

In term of dining, Hotel Borobudur Jakarta is one great place to find spots that can fulfill our cravings of specific cuisine. There are many restaurants in the hotel, from Bruchetta (Italian), Miyama (Japanese), Bogor Café (Indonesian), Singosari, Churchill, etc; this time, we visited Teratai Restaurant, which specializes in Cantonese cuisine, located on the lobby level of the hotel.

“Teratai” is the Indonesian word of “lotus”, is open everyday for lunch and dinner. Just a little observation result, though, it’s funny that there is no lotus spotted in the area, but the flower decoration is mostly orchid. XD The restaurant has 4 Chinese chefs who bring the highest quality of Cantonese dishes, including delicious All-You-Can-Eat Dim Sum menu for only IDR 188,000++/person every Sundays and public holidays.

The restaurant is accessible faster through Musro lobby, and the restaurant is located just on the left. Entering the place, we were politely greeted by the reception staff, and just like other restaurants in Hotel Borobudur, Teratai also has its own cozy-looking waiting room. Pretty neat!

The restaurant is divided into 2 main area, the center area is designed more for bigger tables for larger groups, while towards the left, we can find more casual-style area with smaller tables but this area is much better because it directly overlooks the green scenery which are visible through the glass windows. Chinese-themed decorations like Chinese men statues, ceramics and flowers give a beautiful impact for the room ambience.

Teratai also provides 4 private rooms for 6 guests and 1 private room for 16 guests, one of the room looks like the image below.

Teratai offers extensive selection of fine Cantonese dishes, from Appetizers, Soups, Noodle/Rice, Hot Pots, until Luxury Dishes such as Bird’s Nest, Abalone, and Foie Gras. Just like other restaurants in Hotel Borobudur, the price is quite high but we can say that it’s all worth the money you spend.

Skipped the Appetizers and started our lunch with the soups.

Hot & Sour Soup

Honestly, this is one of my favorite Chinese soups ever! Whenever I go to Chinese restaurants and see this on the menu, it’s automatically included in my order list. Teratai’s version was very delicious with balanced spiciness and sourness, and complimented with generous fillings such as bamboo roots, mushrooms, tofu, and of course, the ginger.

Thick Soup Pumpkin with Seafood IDR 88,000

It didn’t look so convincing but I like the natural sweetness of the pumpkin that was kind of addictive.

Triple Boiled Pigeon Buillon with Dried Cordyceps IDR 108,000

A very simple yet luxurious looking soup, very tasty and rich in flavor despite its clear color.

Since our visit was on a Sunday noon, we got to try some of the dim sum menu as well as a la carte menu, too bad we didn’t get to try the basic ones like dumplings, steamed rice cakes etc. 🙁

Sweetened Bun With Egg Yolk Filling IDR 28,000

A delicious set of sweet buns with irresistible egg yolk filling that makes you forgetting your diet. The buns were soft and warm, while the egg yolk instantly melted in my mouth. Heaven!

Steamed Chicken Feet with Black Peppercorn Sauce IDR 28,000

Good but nothing special about this.

Green Beans with Salted Egg Yolk

Whoah, this one was a winner! The thick salted egg yolk layer clearly enhanced the simple taste of green beans and made it a delightful, unique dish. Simply a MUST TRY because this is just too good to be missed!

Stir-fried Beef Tenderloin, Cashews, Garlic Chips, Green Horseradish Butter IDR 188,000

Thick and super tender beef tenderloin were well-seasoned and complimented with lots of condiments and strong flavors. A brave and impressive dish, especially for beef lovers.

Spicy Stir-fried Garoupa Fish Fillet, Glass Noodles, Lemongrass, Chili, Fish Sauce IDR 118,000

One of the steaming claypot menu, I must say I was impressed by the size of claypot: big and tall. On the bottom, there was stack of glass noodles, that were topped with the fish fillets. The fillets were awesomely cooked, very soft and smooth, and pretty tasty too, eaten alone. The soup was fragrant, thanks to the herbs and spices involved, such as lemongrass, chili and fish sauce.

Crispy Roasted Smoked Chicken with Garlic

I love roasted chicken, and I love garlic, so this definitely worked for me. The chicken had a beautiful smokey aroma and flavor, enhanced by strong aromatic, crispy garlic. Super delicious.

Crispy Chinese Pancake with Red Bean Paste IDR 58,000

One of favorite Chinese desserts, although this one tasted good but I prefer thicker pancakes with not so flaky crusts.

Almond Tofu with Longan IDR 48,000

Almond tofu pudding or such is usually my favorite but this one failed to impress. With a not so appetizing presentation, I could just rely the taste on the longan, while the almond tofu itself barely had any distinctive flavors.

Chef’s Trio Dessert Special IDR 68,000

So this is Teratai’s special dessert, created daily by the Chef, so it’s always different for each visits. I got a chrysanthemum (?) jelly with goji berry, cempedak (a kind of jackfruit) fritter, and a chocolate pudding.

The jelly was not too sweet (which I love), and the goji berry didn’t only give colors to the cup but also had health benefit.

The cempedak fritter was a bit surprising to be found here, but it was a nice addition to the set. I love how it was not smelly at all yet still had the strong cempedak flavor.

The chocolate pudding almost looked like a traditional Indonesian snack called “ongol-ongol” but it wasn’t. The texture was very solid and dense, it wasn’t really my cup of tea because the taste was a little strange to me.

Durian Pudding IDR 58,000

The color is white-ish and didn’t look so much like durian but taste-wise, it was satisfying. If you like durian, don’t forget to try this.

Mango Cream Sago Topped with Balinese Pomelo IDR 58,000

The most beautiful dessert of the day, the mango cream sago was actually frozen so it was almost like eating mango cream sago shaved ice or something. I think it would have been better if the texture wasn’t like that, but more like smooth cream texture. The tropical fruits on top were given generously and gave nice flavors to the “ice”, but the supposedly star topping (Balinese Pomelo) wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for. The taste was basically just bitter and kind of ruined the whole dessert.

Overall, we tried some great dishes here at Teratai and next time we definitely will come back for the Dim Sum menu. Although the food were great, I noticed that service was lacking of direction, pretty surprising because I have dined at other restaurants there and didn’t have any problems whatsoever with the services. Here at Teratai, the staffs weren’t as attentive as I would expect from Chinese fine dining joints with the same class.

Nevertheless, we’ll drop by again soon.

*All prices are subject to 21% service charge & government tax

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

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