After a short visit to the Australian Embassy, we went to the Ambassador Mall, a local Indonesia shopping mall. The two were pretty close to each. About 10-15 minutes drive, depending on your luck on the traffic.
Ambassador Mall is a good place to find cheap electronic products. Actually when thinking about cheap electronic products, there are two shopping malls come to our mind: the Ambassador Mall and Ratu Plaza. Of course, we can also find cheap electronics in China town, but that’s a bit fishy in our mind.
Anyway, by the time we were at Ambassador Mall, it was almost lunch time. We started to see office workers coming in, loads of them, dressed in local office attires: either normal western shirts, pants or dresses; or local batik shirts and batik dresses with the full muslin headscarves etc. We could tell from the badges they wore, the same as those office workers going to lunch in Sydney.
All these office workers didn’t stop much at the electronics or clothing stores. Most of them go straight to the top floor of the Ambassador Mall building. You know, most of the shopping mall top floors were Food Courts here in Jakarta.
And yes, we were right, another Food Court:
See what we had found:
A buffet lunch station as soon as we enter the Food Court. And the price got us so very excited: it was written on the wall: RP15,000.
RP15,000, that’s like USD1.5! Can you believe it? So how to order? We watched the other office workers. One by one they got their Nasi Puti (steamed white rice, there was also yellow rice from memory, not sure). Then they picked their main meals, such as a piece of Chicken (Ayam) or Fish (Ikan). There were 4 kinds of chickens and fish to pick from.
After that, they picked whatever they wanted for the vegetables or tofu. We counted and there were about 8 of these. Beans, bean sprouts, egg plants, cauliflowers, etc, etc…
There, we were done. For US1.5, this was what we got (minus the chicken, we forgot to take a picture of it). And yes, we had been very moderate, the other male office workers had twice or three times as what we had. And they were paying the same price! See the office workers in batik below. They ate a lot more than us and seemed really enjoy themselves.
After got our meals, we got to order drinks too. For RP5,000, we could choose water, or tea, cold and refreshing right out of the fridge.
And yes, the buffet owner actually speaks English. So no problem if we don’t know how to order. They will show us in our own familiar tongues. How good was that!
Oh, if you are not a fan of Indonesia food. There are plenty other choices. How about KFC? Or some steaks? Come on, you can afford them.
And the verdict on the taste? Well, it is authentic Indonesia food, with lots of chilli. Just like the ones we would find in any other local Indonesia restaurant, minus the price tag. Not a fancy Indonesia restaurant, alright? But simply a normal, everyday Indonesia fast food eatery for middle class Indonesia office workers. Just like the ones back in Sydney, the lunchboxes at an everyday shopping mall.
Related articles:
Midnight Visitor 
Great price and if the locals eat there you know it has to be okay. It looks good!