Tantalize Those Taste Buds at New Jakarta Festival

Dining out seems to have become a national hobby in Indonesia.

According to the latest research by online restaurant reservation website, Qraved.com, Indonesians spent aroundaround US$ 1.5 billion on dining out in 2013.

“We’re surprised with those numbers,” said Steven Kim, co-founder and CEO of Qraved.com.

“We believe that a majority of those numbers are from Jakarta,” added Ivan Aditya, marketing manager of Qraved.com.

According to Ivan, there are currently more than 30,000 restaurants in Jakarta, and they serve a myriad of delectable local and international cuisines.

“And their number keeps on increasing,” said Ivan. “Each week, there’s a new restaurant opening in Jakarta.”

To celebrate the exciting multicultural dining scene in Jakarta, Qraved.com is presenting the “EatJakarta Festival.”

The festival, which started on April 21 and runs through May 18, engages over 100 mid to high-end restaurants in Jakarta, all of which vary in the cuisines and ambiances that they offer. These restaurants offer exciting set-menus between Rp 100,000 and Rp 600,000 ($8.60 and $51.60).

Among the participating restaurants are French fine-dining restaurant Amuz, classic Indonesian restaurant Harum Manis and the classy molecular gastronomy restaurant Potato Head Garage.

In total, there are 15 different cuisines being offered by the restaurants participating in the festival.

“EatJakarta has an amazing list [of restaurants],” said food blogger Stanislaus Hans Danial Subianto. “These are the restaurants that serve excellent food and are definitely worth a visit.”

Some of the participants such as Rosso, which offers Italian cuisine and Japanese restaurant Nishimura of the Shangri-La Hotel are award-winning restaurants of five-star hotels.

“I think that the festival is a very smart platform to reach more diners in Jakarta,” said Felicia Setiawan, communications manager of Shangri-La Jakarta.

“I hope Rosso and Nishimura can penetrate a wider market through EatJakarta,” she added.

If you want to enjoy the 28-day festival, check the list of participating restaurants and the set-menus on the website eatjakarta.org, which will then direct users to Qraved.com to make a booking at your preferred restaurant.

“As long as the restaurants have available seats, there is no limit to the number of persons in the reservation,” said Kim.

You can also walk in to the participating restaurants and order their EatJakarta set-menus.
Food blogger Julia Veronica is excited about the EatJakarta Festival.

“I love to eat,” said Julia. “And I love to sample many different restaurants. With the EatJakarta Festival, everything becomes so affordable, so that I can sample more dishes in more restaurants without burning a hole in my pocket.”

During the festival, diners can also take part in photo competitions via Instagram and quizzes via Twitter to get many interesting prizes.

The grand prize in the competition is Rp 500,000 dining-vouchers in top restaurants in Jakarta.

From May 5 to May 11, the EatJakarta Festival will also present a ‘Restaurant Bazaar’ in CityWalk Sudirman, Jakarta.

During this bazaar, all the participating restaurants in EatJakarta will have their booths at the main atrium of CityWalk Sudirman, where they will showcase their menus and special promos.

“There will also interesting cooking demos by chefs of these restaurants,” said Ivan.
Some of the participating restaurants will also offer samples of their favorite dishes during the Restaurant Bazaar in the CityWalk Sudirman so that visitors of the mall may taste them.

The EatJakarta Festival targets to reach local and international foodies in Jakarta.
“I can’t give you the exact number, but it could easily be more than a couple of hundred thousand people,” said Kim.

Qraved.com aims to present the EatJakarta Festival annually, with more participating restaurants each year.

“What EatJakarta wants to do is to highlight the eating options in Jakarta and letting the world, and also the people in Jakarta, know how great Jakarta is, and how much of a culinary capital it is in Southeast Asia,” said Kim.

Source : Jkartaglobe