Fab Cafe: A perfect rendezvous

If it stands alone, Fab Cafe may remain a stranger. But when you says Fab Cafe, Gramedia, Grand Indonesia East Mall, it will no longer be anonymous. 

Raining berries - JP/Moch N. KurniawanInstead, located just across the road from the iconic Hotel Indonesia traffic circle, the cafe is a perfect rendezvous.

Upcoming author Ahmad Fuadi, who recently spoke about his bestselling novel titled Negeri 5 Menara (Nation of 5 Towers) during the Meet the Authors and Photo Exhibition to help needy students held by the Singapore International Foundation (SIF)-ASEAN Fellowship Indonesian alumni at the cafe, commented: “Having a gathering in here reminds me of a famous book store with a cafe abroad.”

Another speaker, Ubaidillah Nugraha, who is also the organizing committee co-chairman, said the cafe was easily located which was one of key factors that ensured an event would be successful.

The cafe just fits our plan, he said.

He claimed his event had more than 115 guests and raised donations of Rp 30 million (US$3,300) in just two hours. 

In a month, the cafe says it hosts between two and five such events with the client organization paying for the food packages it chooses. 

All event organizers have to do is to check that that their laptops and projectors can connect with the café’s electronic devices and that these connections work well for when they hold an event in the café, as it is equipped with a big LCD screen, two microphones, and a sound system fitted into the ceiling. 

That’s not the only strength of Fab Cafe, since the food and beverages are worth trying as well. Try raining berries, a healthy juice made from blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, yogurt, milk and honey.  
When I tasted it, I found it fresh and it persuaded me to drink more of it. Its color is also tempting violet with two or three slices of strawberry being put in the juice.
Double chocolate hazelnut will be my next recommendation. Neither too soft nor too hard, it’s just right. It is also not too sweet on the tongue.
“Hmm, I like this cake,” I told the café manager, Aldino Atwir and he responded swiftly: “Thanks, it’s also the choice of our group hotel general manager, who sent his chef to learn the recipe after he tasted it.”
For the main course, I tried a bite of a smoked salmon with apple jelly, rucola, and wasabi mayo, and compared it with a beef burger with tomato, onion, pickles, and lettuce. I preferred the former. The look of smoked salmon was more convincing, not to mention its taste. The rucola also attracted me better than the lettuce.

Smoked salmon (front) and beef burger (background) — JP/Moch N. Kurniawan
However, my judgment over the main course is different from most Indonesians because, according to Aldino, local people generally preferred the burger to the smoked salmon.

“European people usually love our smoked salmon,” he said.
The cafe also served me with a Mexican dish called chicken quesadilla. The chicken pesto, the natural cheddar cheese, and guacamole, were wrapped in a flour tortilla.

As a fan of Mexican food particularly burrito, this time I was not really excited with the quesadilla because, perhaps, the taste was average. But if the cafe could provide me with a burrito, I think I would frequently come and eat there. 

Wild cherry ice tea may be also worth testing to know how wild the drink is. But for me, the red-color drink was too tasty particularly the taste and the smell of the cherry. I needed to add sugar so that my taste buds could take it. But, still I found that the freshness of the drink quickly affected my body.

I will definitely visit this cafe anew with friends because I am a regular visitor to Grand Indonesia, and when I do, I know what to order.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/10/31/fab-cafe-a-perfect-rendezvous.html