YALLA is a newly-opened restaurant specializes in Middle Eastern street food, located in the same building with STOCKROOM, a shop featuring various Indonesian brands for men’s wear. The 1 month old restaurant is easy to find and accessible from Kemang Raya street, just go forward until you find KOI Kemang by your right, turn right at the first traffic light you see, go “downhill”, and YALLA is inside the shophouses complex on your right.
I didn’t expect too much about the place, but still, I was quite surprised to see how small and “plain” it is. The tables and chairs reminded me of my classrooms back in the old days, but the tidbits and ornaments screaming Middle East helped a little. I wouldn’t say it was bad, but I was hoping for something more.. serious, perhaps. I mean, interior and decoration are NOT everything but if you serve something specific like this, I think it’s better to create the total ambiance since the first step, no?
YALLA also has outdoor seating area where we can also see the open kitchen. One of the most interesting part was to watch how the pita bread was grilled.
Pita Bread IDR 30,000 (6 pcs)
Pita Bread is also known as Syrian/Arabic Bread, is made from wheat flour. Texture was soft, and there was an aromatic grilled smell that made it nicer. If you buy any dish here, most probably the pita bread is already included or you can also substitute this with Mejadra rice.
Turkish Menemen IDR 35,000
Turkish-style egg dish (scrambled or sunny side up) cooked with tomatoes in a hot pan.
Visited this place for this and wasn’t disappointed. The dish was unique, spicy, full of flavor, and simply delicious. It was good eaten just like that or with the pita bread. MUST TRY!
Turkish Lamb Tomato Stew and Coconut Milk IDR 80,000
Diced young lamb cooked in spicy tomato with Turkish style.
We were hoping for something heavier since this is a main course, but this turned out to be something like soup. It was runny, a confusing taste that reminded us of Korean instant noodle soup, salty enough to kick our taste buds but not strong enough to leave a good impression. Lamb pieces were too small, but no annoying smell and actually tasted pretty good.
Plain Lassi IDR 30,000
A drink made from yogurt, milk, water, and honey. This was no your regular lassi because it was a little too sweet than it should have been, and we barely tasted the yogurt.
In conclusion, we probably only tried really few of their dishes to actually comment on the whole place, but we don’t think we will visit again. Service was okay but the staffs looked super bored and it somehow put me down seeing such kind of atmosphere. In the neighborhood, there are plenty of restaurants serving Middle Eastern dishes so we think YALLA needs to improve to win guests’ hearts. Just our two cents, and see you in another post! 😉
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*All prices are inclusive of service charge & government tax
*The Food Escape team are not paid whatsoever for writing this post.
** This review is written based on our visit on 9 March 2016.
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YALLA MIDDLE EAST STREET FOOD
(1st floor of STOCKROOM Kemang)
Jl. Kemang Selatan 8 No. 55A
Kemang 12730
Jakarta
Tel. 62 21 2970 4981
Opening Hours:
Tue – Sun 10AM – 10PM
