Historia Food & Bar Kota Tua

I'm pretty sure many of us, people who stay or born in Jakarta, never step foot at one of the city's historical place, Kota Tua (read: old city). I was not born here but I have lived in Jakarta since I was a baby, and shamelessly admit that it took not my nationalism, but my love of food to finally have my first visit around a month ago. It's funny how even tourist finds it important to visit Kota Tua but not us me. Being someone who not care about history and all, I guess in this case, I have Historia to thank.

Aside from Cafe Batavia, it's odd to find a new nicely designed cafe opens at Kota Tua. I even won't be knowing the place if not because of my foodie friend, Ellyna.

Historia is an old building turned into a spacious bar and restaurant. They serve traditional Indonesian food with modern concept aside from having a bar filled with beer and cocktail selections. I find it smart how they mix the two above on their menu, seeing how the location is at the tourist place who mostly curious of Indonesian food, but can't leave their habit of drinking beer while having meal. At Historia, they can have both.

People will find their interior design to be artsy with the pretty murals representing Indonesian heroes, the vintage chairs, the overall unique presentation.

The price here is ridiculously cheap! We had their Historia platter for only 25k! With three kinds of fritters, fried shrimp dumplings, corn fritters and fried soya bean cake, the platters is surely a nice bargain. The Gado - Gado (Indonesian mixed vegetables with peanut sauce) 25k was pretty good. We asked them to make the peanut sauce spicy and it really did bring some heat and we loved the thick sauce.

I am not a sweet tooth, but among other cuisines, when it comes to dessert, I find Indonesian's hard to resist. We tried the Es Palu Butung (25k), a dessert from South Sulawesi made of steamed banana covered with corn flour, served with ice and syrup. It came as a sweet and refreshing dessert in that sunny weather. Too bad we didn't really like their Gemblong pisang (grilled banana dipped in melting coconut sugar) 15k. It was so sweet that it could make your tooth ache in a second, and it just a weird dessert to have a grilled banana coated with coconut sugar. 

I would have to say Historia does make a quite impression. Though I don't see my self coming back in near future due to the location, but it's nice to know I'll have a decent place to have lunch the next time I go for passport renewal who happens to be only few buildings away from Historia.

Btw, I haven't been posting for quite some time. My stupid laptop was broken, again, so I finally got another new laptop and hasn't really have the time to adjust with the new windows. God I hate changes. Anyway, thank you so much for reading! :)

Historia Food & Bar 
Jl. Pintu Besar Utara No. 11
Kota Tua, West Jakarta
Ph. +6221 6904188
Opening hours: 10am - 10pm (until 12 midnite on weekend)
Price range: 15 - 45k