1945 RESTAURANT - FAIRMONT HOTEL JAKARTA

The old saying “an apple falls not far from the tree” metaphorically describes how I see the F&B scene in Jakarta in the most fashionable way (of wording). As an Indonesian, I think there’s this urge for us to keep missing Indonesian food, face it, Indonesian food is our jam! I do love other food genres, but Indonesian food will always have that irreplaceable space in my heart.

Sari Rasa Group is undoubtedly one of the most successful F&B groups in Indonesia, along with their culinary brands such as Sate Khas Senayan, Sate Khas Senayan Express, Tamani Cafe and Tesate that are spread all around Jakarta and doing very-very well, especially Sate Khas Senayan, I don’t see I’ve ever seen an empty Sate Khas Senayan, it’s almost always packed, which should be a good thing for them!

Recently, Sari Rasa Group launched its new culinary venture, or should I say, more posh culinary venture. This time they’re trying to expand their market to fine-dining enthusiasts by launching “1945”, an Indonesian fine-dining restaurant hoping to elevate your vision and taste bud for Indonesian cuisine. If you think Tesate is the more posh version of Sate Khas Senayan, take “1945” as the more posh version of Tesate, I bet some of you are probably scrolling down this blog straight to the photos! Wait, just keep reading.

This restaurant opened its door for soft-opening on August 17^th 1945, exactly on Indonesia’s independence day, and almost a month after the opening, I’ve heard quite a rave reviews about this restaurant, and that’s pretty much why I couldn’t wait to sample their food myself. Located just across “Sapori Deli” at the newly opened Fairmont Hotel Jakarta, from outside, the restaurant’s outer look was dominated with simple and sophisticated feel to it, and yet when you entered the restaurant (and oh that rolling door), there’s this additional classy feel to it, especially with all those neat table-settings and quiet lunch atmosphere, the “fine-dining ambiance” was just quite there.

The restaurant consist of three areas: the fine-dining area, the VIP rooms (4 rooms, including the egg room), and the lounge. On the fine-dining area, if you see tables with rose petals on it, that simply means the tables are reserved, but once you go to their lounge, almost all tables had rose-petals on it, that’s just the part of the setting.

Even though they serve mostly Indonesian food here, but I notice that some menus are actually “fusion menus”, the easiest way to describe their menu generally is “Good old Indonesian food made creative, made fancy, made pretty and made classier”. The guests here will be served in Rijstaffel style dining, where the traditionally dressed waiters and waitresses will be in line to serve you personally, in a way, it’s a little like the royalty, but it’s true that every guest is a king. Talking about their service, I was pretty fond of their attentive and classy-but-casual service, the waiters were friendly and helpful, also with good product knowledge.

The price range for sate & appetizer here starts from IDR 100k-190k, main courses from IDR 140k-800k and desserts for IDR 80k. Okay, let’s now surf their menus!

Their beverages are PRETTY! If you think ice-cubes are so outdated, here comes the slushee ice and the ball ice (es gandul). The Teleng Punch was my favorite and claimed to be made from real bluepea flower, it had this sparkling “coke” character to the flavor, and served in a very pretty presentation using the ball ice! The Tamarind Jasmine Tea should have more Tamarind character to the flavor as the jasmine flavor outshined the Tamarind, while the Mulberry Mocktail was fresh, fruity & sweet.

Gorengan

Presentation wise, sure was one of the most good-looking gorengan I’ve seen in my life. The plates here are all custom designed special for 1945 with the logo carved on the back, so you can’t find them anywhere else. Their gorengan consist of fried cassava wedges, tricolor yam fries, prawn fritters, and rempeyek (Indonesia’s traditional dry & crunchy cracker with peanuts), the gorengan was paired with homemade peanut sauce & little green chilis. My favorite one was absolutely their prawn fritters! They’re just perfectly cooked with crunchy with moist inside and the seasoning was right on! I could finish all by my only self.

Pecel Kembang Salad

It’s certainly one of the most beautiful salads I’ve ever seen, especially with all those pretty edible Bluepea flowers (bunga telang). For me, the strongest element to a salad dish has got to be the ingredients first, then the sauce, and they know how to complement each other without overpowering one. The ingredients were very fresh, clean and their rich peanut sauce (not noticable on the pic as they’re located underneath) just made this even better, the black sauce on the side is the spicy sauce, and it was indeed quite spicy, but that good and tasty spicy.

Foie Gras Duck Timlo

Now this is an expensive looking timlo, and they even have foie gras inside oh my goodness. As you can see, the duck was cooked perfectly while maintaining the meat to still be tender and perfectly pink on the center so that it won’t overcook after the searing hot broth poured on it. The broth was light in flavor & the meat was indeed tender. The additional Foie Gras somehow successfully interprete how an ingredient mostly used in French cuisine, cooked gracefully in a local way.

Duck Galangal

Their Duck Galangal is actually a duck confit served with Asian greens salad and served in Galangal sweet sauce. The duck was cooked beautifully with light seasoning and crispy coating without leaving the meat to be dry, If the meat could be just a little more tender it would be even more amazing, but the one that I had was still very acceptable.

To accompany your delicious main courses, you’ll be served three types of rice (white, brown or yellow rice) that you can choose depending on what you want (I went with all three...absolutely), and their homemade local chili. Since it’s buffet, you can freely ask for more rice and chili, their green chili was the bomb!

Lobster Pesmol Thermidor

This was my favorite dish throughout the lunch, first, I freaking love lobsters! I seriously feel sorry for those who can’t enjoy seafood as they’ve missed out A LOT of goodness in their life LOL, and secondly, most Indonesian food cooked with coconut milk just works for me, and instantly became more delicious! I’ll take this menu as their fusion menus, I don’t see a lot of Indonesian dishes with lobsters (unless traditionall grilled ones), but we do a lot of prawns. The lobster was super fresh and perfectly cooked with soft meat, and there’s just something about this soft and gooey texture that compliments the creamy pesmol sauce very well, and the pesmol sauce was also tasty with good balance of sweet & savory.

Frozen Srikaya Souffle
OK this one is surely unique, just something that I never find anywhere else. This frozen srikaya souffle is indeed best served cold, and when I say cold, I mean spend one single minute taking picture and then have ‘em! The souffle was solid but easily cutable, creamy and the srikaya filling was not overly sweet. I love how the shredded coconut covered the surface adding this little semi-crunchy texture.

Tape Cheesecake (Tape = Fermented Cassava)

Presentation wise, simple and pretty. Never imagine the pairing between tape and cheesecake but I guess they did a pretty good job. The stronger flavor character of the tape dominated the cheese flavor but not in the scoop of overall, the creamy texture didn’t bore out your palate, you might probably wanna dig till the end.

My lunch was pure joy! The food was good, the desserts were really creative. Thank you 1945 for making Indonesian food seemed more fun and definitely prettier looking (haha). Is it good enough to make me come back? Read the first paragraph.

1945 Restaurant
Fairmont Hotel 3rd fl. (Across Sapori Deli)
Jalan Asia Afrika No. 8
GBK Senayan, Jakarta Selatan 10270
021 - 2903 9179
Opening Hours: 11:30 AM - 10 PM
Credit cards and cash accepted
Dresscode: smart casual
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