The capital and largest city across the vast archipelago of Indonesia, Jakarta is often used only as a gateway to accessing the many beautiful islands of the country or historical sites of Java. It's worth spending a few days at least however to see the city just for the delicious restaurants you'll find all over Jakarta.
Seribu Rasa
With food that tastes as good as the elegant, high-class design of the restaurant, Seribu Rasa is the place to go if you're looking to be impressed. The restaurant offers classic Indonesian favorites but often gives them a refined modern twist. Prices are quite a bit higher than other similar restaurants around the city, but the food is high quality and the decor and interior of the restaurant is beautiful, well worth paying a little extra for.
Soto Betawi Haji Husein
Serving bowls of this classic local Jakartan dish, Haji Husein has been serving and delighting locals with their soto Betawi for years. A kind of rich and flavorful soup made with coconut milk and beef, soto Betawi has long been a favorite dish to eat in Jakarta. A family run no-frills restaurant, Haji Husein opens until they sell out, which can often be as earlier as 1 PM, so make sure to get there early.
Restoran Beautika
Beautika specializes in specialties and dishes from one of Indonesia's most underrepresented cuisines, Manado. Largely different from the food you'll find around Java or Bali, Manado cuisine is a fiery, spicy range of foods from Northern Sulawesi. For those that like a lot of heat in their food, Beautika is one of the few restaurants even in the capital that feature this delicious cuisine.
Remboelan
The perfect place to try classic home cooked Indonesian food, Remboelan has a large menu of traditional Indonesian dishes. It's great for those that want to get a good perspective of this delicious cuisine in just one meal, make sure to go with a few friends and share some dishes. Even better the prices are quite reasonable for the quality of food and ambiance of the restaurant.
Garuda
Eating at a Padang restaurant while in Indonesia is so much more than just a meal, it's an experience. Offering some of the most delicious dishes in Indonesian cuisine, waiters will be bring almost every dish available to your table before you've even tried to order. Instead of a menu, diners just pick and choose what they want to eat from the dishes in front of them. At the end the bill is calculated by checking what you've taken. All the food produced for that day is also stored in the window of the restaurant, so you can check what they've got before heading inside.
Little Ubud
In North Jakarta's beloved restaurant district known as Pantai Indah Kapuk or PIK, Little Ubud serves up classic dishes from the popular island of Bali. Nasi Bali is a plate of rice covered with different dishes famous to the region, at Little Ubud you get to choose which ones to put on your plate. The shredded chicken and spicy fried potatoes, kentang balado, are both recommended. Also make sure to sate babi, sticks of grilled pork and crispy fried duck.
Conclusion
With over 17,000 islands across the vast archipelago of Indonesia, the cuisine and dishes on offer ranges hugely between its different areas. Fortunately it's easy to sample the diverse spread of food in the capital, Jakarta, where you can find specialties from each region on offer at the restaurants here.