When ST. ALi, considered one of the best coffee shops in Melbourne (a city known for world-class coffee), did a pop up at Common Grounds in 2014, Jakarta’s most discerning coffee snobs lost their damn minds. So you can imagine the frenzy that was whipped up when it was announced that ST. ALi would be opening a café in Jakarta. After a jittery, caffeine-induced wait, ST. ALi Jakarta finally started brewing at the Setiabudi building earlier this year and, as hardcore brunchers, we had to see if it lived up to the hype.
The Good
We can never have enough good brunch options in Jakarta and ST. ALi’s open-air venue in centrally located Setiabudi One certainly provides a welcome addition to the capital’s mid-morning meal options.
The new ST. ALi has a well-rounded food menu that will cater to all kinds, including a variety of egg dishes, salads and heaps of healthy options. When making brunch plans with a group, ST. ALi is a good pick to make sure everyone is covered.
There are also a couple of dishes on the menu that you won’t find anywhere else in Jakarta, so that’s a big plus for ST. ALi. Some of us were particularly delighted by the array of healthy dishes including salads, filling granolas and high-quality toast (their bread is sourced from local boutique bakery BEAU).
Pro Tip: If you can handle the heat, make sure you add a couple of drops of their superb hot sauce to your dish. It’s spicy and tangy and just the perfect thing to enhance the flavours of the rich eggs and meats.
The café brought its Australian staff to Jakarta to help get the Setiabudi café up and running and the effort doesn’t go unnoticed. Although ST. ALi was slammed the day we visited, everyone we interacted with was as nice as could be and genuinely trying to help.
The Bad
Although ST. ALi is known far and wide for its coffee, the ice coffees and the black Sterling Blends we ordered that morning were inconsistent in taste, with the lowest low being a strong and lingering sour aftertaste. Could it be that we lack sophisticated enough coffee palates to be able to enjoy ST ALi’s complex brew? Possibly… but that was the consensus of four regular coffee drinkers at our table.
While service was very friendly, we did have to ask multiple people multiple times for missing coffees and mineral waters and the quality the coffee. But to be fair, the issues we had during our meal might have come from the café being swamped during the brunch rush hour of Sunday at around noon.
The dishes we ordered were also kind of hit or miss. The “Omega Love”, with generous slices of smoked salmon, was absolutely delicious, as was the crispy “Koo Koo Kachoo” potato hash. But our “Sticky Pork Salad” was drowning in dressing and the “Mexican Cousin” dish was a bit bland (the corn fritters it came with are outmatched by many of the perkedel jagung you’ll find in Jakarta) and not really memorable.
When it comes to the menu, all of those beautifully plated dishes come at a price, and it’s a hefty one. ST. ALi’s signature Hall of Fame dishes hover around Rp. 150,000, making them quite a bit pricier than similar dishes at other Jakarta brunch stars like Benedict and Common Grounds.
The Final Verdict
While not yet a game changer, ST. Ali is a solid brunch option in Jakarta if you’re okay with the price tag.
We would suggest you give it a few more weeks before going, until after all the opening buzz (and crowds) fade. Hopefully by then the staff and the kitchen will have worked out all of the kinks in their service and you’ll be able to have an experience that lives up to the Melbourne original.
ST Ali
Setiabudi Two, Ground Floor, Jl. HR Rasuna Said,
021 52906814
Open: Everyday 7am – 6pm
http://www.stali.com.au/jakarta/
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