Boemi Joglo Restaurant: Bandung, West Java

More and more people today are increasingly concerned with the atmosphere of a restaurant than with its menu. In fact, it is atmosphere that has attracted thousands of tourists, mostly from Jakarta, to spend their weekends in Bandung.

In its pursuit, tourists do not mind crawling through the traffic on Jl. Juanda (also Dago) at weekends or over a long holiday. They are only after a unique dining atmosphere at an altitude of over 800 meters above sea level.

Boemi Joglo is one such restaurants, found at some 1,000 m above sea level on a gravel road in Rancakendal Luhur, Dago, a place rather difficult to reach. Its name consists of the Sundanese word boemi and the word Joglo, a kind of Javanese roof.

It is crowded with guests, although its menu is quite modest.
“We have only 20 tables and 100 seats,” said Badar Rahman, the 23-year-old manager of Boemi Joglo and the owner’s son.

Although the restaurant has been in operation for three years, Badar said, it is yet to expand its seating capacity.

This is because the slope of the terraced Dago hills are at a 30 to 45 degree incline, which makes any construction proceed slowly. Many visitors thus have to wait or make reservations to dine at this restaurant, particularly on weekends.

The restaurant only boasts a total of 15 dishes, such as rice, chicken, toast, French fries, spaghetti and fried tofu. The menu also includes 21 standard beverages. However, the delicious dishes at affordable prices are a great lure for guests.

Favorites include Sate Maranggi from Purwakarta — roasted skewered meat served on a hot plate — and mendoan, a unique dish of lightly fried battered tempeh from Banyumas, Central Java.

“All the dishes here are specially prepared by my mother and are quite different from similar dishes you can find in other restaurants, as these are family recipes,” said Badar.

The recipes are a result of a cooking experiment carried out by his mother Dedeh Rahman, who “recruited” her husband Rahman Kosasih and their two children as food tasters.

The restaurant offers two kinds of steamed rice: steamed rice with salted fish and pete (a kind of smelly bean) and steamed rice with chicken and mushrooms.

His mother, Badar said, prepared the rice by combining the steaming methods of Solo and that used at Islamic boarding schools. Usually, the rice is cooked in a steel pot — or kastrol in Sundanese — on a stove. Dedeh, however, prepares it in a covered clay pot.

After the rice and other ingredients are cooked on the stove, the clay pot is then placed on an open fire. It is served with slices of red or green pepper and fried thin slices of onion.

The amount of steamed rice served depends on the number of guests, and ranges from Rp 25,000 for two and Rp 125,000 for 10 people.

“Steamed rice is my favorite dish here, aside from mendoan,” said Sastia, a 21-year-old French literature student at Bandung’s Indonesian Education University. She often eats at Boemi Joglo with her parents and elder sister.

Mendoan is prepared in a slightly different way from the original Banyuman recipe. The tempeh is sliced thinly and coated with a batter then fried in hot cooking oil, and served with thick soybean paste. One portion costs only Rp 6,000. As for the Sate Maranggi, a portion costs only Rp 15,000, with a choice of either beef or goat meat.

Badar said he had learned how to run a restaurant in the Rancakendal area from the manager of Warung Lela, a neighboring home-cooking meatball restaurant that is always packed.

“He advised us not to set our prices too high. And that it is not necessary to advertise our restaurant in the newspapers or on television, as it is costly. Let the guests promote the restaurant by word of mouth,” said Badar, a management graduate of Widyatama University.

As there are only 100 seats at Boemi Joglo, it can only accommodate about 400 total guests at weekends. During peak times, its turnover reaches Rp 7 million a day.

Guests can also get lucky and come across popular entertainers from Jakarta, among whom Boemi Joglo is a favorite. Entertainers like Luna Maya and Titi DJ, and Foreign Minister Hasan Wirayuda are said to have dined here.

Sastia said the only weakness of Boemi Joglo is its limited seating capacity and small parking area.

At a glance, the restaurant looks like a house with a narrow yard for parking. The structure has no eye-catching colorful ornaments.

Badar said his parents, who love traditional furniture and antiques, erected the 200-year-old Joglo house in the Jepara style. The building was formerly a residence and then a gallery. Today, this house is the main dining area with the conventional interior of a family home.

When Rahman retired, the family thought about starting a business in antiques.

“We had to make money to cover daily expenses but if you sell antiques, you cannot be sure that there will be a buyer every day. How could we survive then?” said Badar.

Finally, it occurred to them to use their yard, covered by leafy trees, to build a restaurant.

True to the original concept, almost all structures in the restaurant compound — the residence, the employees’ dormitory and the kitchen — are in the Joglo design.

Knowing very well that their plot was located in an area prone to landslides, Badar’s family has kept the trees, which cover almost 60 percent of the compound. These trees have become a special attraction to guests, who can sit and dine at tables laid out among the greenery or in a corner of the garden.

Boemi Joglo thus provides a rather intimate ambience, even if the city lights are not clearly visible at night, blocked by the Dago hills.

But diners can expect a new attraction soon — the family plans to build at least four guest houses and a new restaurant specializing in European cuisine.

Yuli Tri Suwarni