Ya Udah Bistro

Ya Udah is an unpretentious restaurant which serves German food. It was originally located in the down-to-earth backpackers’ street of Jalan Jaksa but then closed for some reason (I assume the rental couldn’t be extended). A little while later the restaurant resurfaced in the suburbs of Kelapa Gading before the owners wisely decided to move it again to its current location at the end of Jalan Johar, just a stone’s throw away from where the original restaurant operated all those years ago.

Thankfully it’s easy to spot Ya Udah – a huge orange circle is painted on some garish yellow blinds (meaning quite what, I don’t know) – and there is plenty of room for street parking outside.

Verdict

The ambiance
Like the sort of cheap and cheerful tourist restaurants you can find in Bali, Ya Udah is open-air in design. So nope, you won’t need a jacket to cope with the chilly air-con. There is no air-con. But hey, that’s no bad thing: air-con isn’t good for your health anyway and, moreover, you can also take satisfaction from knowing that you are doing your bit to save the environment!



The food
Stereotypically, German food is said to be just a mix of beer and sausages. Personally, I’d be quite happy with that but Ya Udah also serve fresh salads, steaks and other stuff like a number of pork dishes. All in all, westerners should like it here although it is perhaps not the best place to bring your devout Sumatran girlfriend for a meal. She might also be a tad surprised to find that the steaks are served on a slice of bread!

Value for money
Excellent value for money. Most dishes are in the Rp30-70k range.

The service
All got a bit Monty Pythonesque at the end of my meal when I asked the waitress for my bill and a loaf of bread to take away. Anyway, after about five minutes over comes a box full of fried chips. The girl had interpreted “bread” as “fried” and, as Indonesians do when they don’t know, simply guessed at what I wanted. So she goes away and then 10 minutes later comes back for the second time - with some garlic bread! Realising that this charade could take all evening, I ask her where the bread is kept and she takes me over to a freezer where I promptly point out what exactly a loaf of bread looks like. By this time of course, the disposition of the young waitress has radically changed, there is steam coming out of her ears, and she glares at me with an expression of such enmity and hatred that I’m concerned she might go to the kitchen to pick up a knife and decapitate me there and then. So I quickly whack down the bills on the table, get up and get out as fast as I possibly can!

Ya Udah Bistro
Jl. Johar No. 15
Kebon Sirih Menteng
Jakarta
Telp: (021) 3909 0100