Talaga Sampireun Ancol Jakarta

Talaga Sampireun is opening its second branch in the Ancol neighborhood, finally a closer access to this Sundanese feast giant *confetti*.

Talaga Sampireun or translated as "the rest area beside the lake" is one of the biggest and most successful Sundanese restaurants in Jakarta at the moment, following the success of its first branch in Bintaro, Talaga Sampireun is opening its second branch on a 1,8 hectare area in Taman Impian Jaya Ancol, north Jakarta, twice more spacious than its first branch.

To be honest, I was mesmerized by how stunning the place was, it was really huge and still really clean, neat and organized since it's still new and still on the soft-opening days. I was super fond of how they still put the "green" here and there (and hopefully more) to keep the place looking earthy as well as alive! The dining area was divided in four main areas: the restaurant in-dining (250 seats), the VIP room (located upstrairs on a different building - 250 seats), outdoor area with 24 tables, and the cottage. There are 23 cottages available and for the cottage seating, the minimum payment condition will be applied to the costumers, but since it's the coziest, most relaxing and also private area to dine in, you might want to consider.

Talaga Sampireun Ancol is also the appropriate place for any private and intimate events like meetings (4 meeting rooms), company gathering even to the merrier one like wedding solemnization and reception! For a standing reception, it could hold from 500 to 1500 people (whole building rent). I could not tell you how would it be until you come and check out the venue yourself. What you see speak louder than words!

The fresh seafood served in Talaga Sampireun are all self-breed, they had their own fish breeding pond as well as for the prawns, squids and many others. They wanted to keep the ingredients and the food as fresh as possible and that's why they're still applying the conventional processes starting from the breeding, cleaning to the cooking but still with a little sophisticated touch here and there. We're getting to that in just a second.

Enough yakking, here comes the food!

Nasi Liwet

IDR 45k

This was delicious and since most Sundanese food protein sources are seafood, chickens, and soybeans products, Nasi Liwet is just the perfect companion to them, if you don't know what Nasi Liwet is, it's actually rice cooked in coconut milk and chicken broth, some traditional ingredients were added on the cooking process like garlic, salam leaves, pandan leaves, ginger and tiny anchovies. That's why the flavor of Nasi Liwet is rich and succulent. This one is a decent example of Nasi Liwet and you should have this on your visit here.

Sop Iga Garang Asem
IDR 69k
I have always been a huge fan of Garang Asem and my curiosity of this dish has not been stopping, I always manage to order myself one in each traditional restaurant which happen to have this on their menu. This one was actually refreshing, but it just lost that "kick" that I expected earlier from the look, it should be a little more sour and spicy (but thank goodness you could customize the spiciness level). However, the meats (beef ribs) were tender.

Dori Bumbu Lychee
IDR 49k
Deep fried Dori fish with lychee fruits, overall this was a good dish, the Dori fish was cooked perfectly smooth and in just the right texture and the addition of lychee fruits added the texture and flavor play even though it's not that significant because the sauce of this dish was already sweet and sour.

Udang Bakar Madu
IDR 85k
This was my favorite menu of the day, grilled prawns with honey sauce. I love how the honey was given generously all over the prawns but without overpowering the whole flavor of the fresh prawns. As simple as that but that worked pretty good.

Soya Beancurds and Cakes
IDR 9k

Tumis Bunga Pepaya (Papaya flowers)
IDR 27k
This was my least favorite because it was just too bitter for my taste bud. Surprisingly with this level of bitterness, the chef told me it was probably the "sweetest" among the other restaurants serving this.

Patin Bakar Bumbu
IDR 99k
Okay, this dish was clearly NOT photogenic (having such hard time capturing it), it's because the fish was stranded somewhere in the generous ingredients. By the way, the ingredient tasted lovely, the fish was soft and smooth but just too much freaking fish-bones (the case of Patin fish). It might look spicy but this wasn't even close.

Gurame Terbang (700 grams)
IDR 79k
The good old deep fried Gurame fish which still is one of most favorite Sundanese menus. This was also good in general but just a little dry. The coating and tail were crispy and the seasoning was light but that's the beauty of it.

Es Sirsak Talaga Sampireun
IDR 29k
Generous amount of fruits given to a portion and this was a pretty refreshing and fruity.

Es Jeruk Kelapa
IDR 29k
This was a pretty refreshing beverage and a pretty generous amount of coconut meat given to the orange juice. The orange juice had a decent balance of sweetness.

Ice Lychee Tea
IDR 23k
As simple as the good old iced lychee tea, this was another simple decent beverage, scanning the menu and saw this and directly order this. Bet I don't have to explain further, ait? ;).

After having lunch, we were escorted to see the kitchen area following a little presentation for the Talaga Sampireun team. I was impressed by the kitchen area, so so huge and it was clearly a busy day for them. I even saw the fish breeding pond where they breed the fish, their freezing rooms and happen to see some behind the scenes.

While their food may not be out of the world good, I am still captivated by the beauty of the venue. There WILL be next visits, but maybe to buy the ambiance and going here with your family and having this kind of food might be perfect. I suggest going here by night because I saw from the internet and #talagasampireun, the ambiance duirng the night was so vibrant.

They also provide catering service for minimum 100 pax and they're currently working on opening another branch in Puri Indah, can't wait for that. Another thing that you might want to consider about eating in Taman Impian Jaya Ancol (TIJA) and probably one of the most unpleasant things to do is the fact that we have to pay twice, first of all clearly the tickets and charges applied if you want to enter TIJA.

Talaga Sampireun
Jl. Lapangan Golf 7
Taman Impian Jaya Ancol (Pademangan Utara)
Jakarta Utara
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