THE HIDEOUT KELAPA GADING - JAKARTA - Nice Food and Healthy

Last week I went to have lunch with my sister at this newly opened cafe in Kelapa Gading called The Hideout, and as you can see from the photo below, the exterior looked pretty charming!

For those who are not aware, The Hideout is basically the rebranding of Le Epicure Patisserie, the owners (who are sisters) wanted to expand their vision and changed the concept of the previous shop to a more modern cafe style with more to offer: food and venue wise. The look of The Hideout was totally something that I was excited for, it was totally different than Le Epicure which was more to the feminine style with pastel color, and this one was a little more posh, in a way moody but chic, to me it's almost like entering Bottega but fully aware that it's a cafe not a fine-dining restaurant.

Le sis!

There are several dining areas in The Hideout, after the entrance you'll see two stairs each leading to upstair and downstair, the upstair will lead you to their pastry selections (yup they still sell some of Le Epicure's best selling cakes) and coffee bar, and the downstair will lead you to a dining area, and I like the rather private feel in the dining area, there is also another dining area on the second floor with outdoor area which was also a smoking room (and the brightest spot during the day for your pictures). On the day of my visit, the second floor was almost full and around three tables were occupied on the dining area downstair including the one I was eye-ing on as it was the only spot closest to the sunlight access (aka entrance door) so I waited just around 10 minutes before being seated.

Pastry display and coffee bar, as for the coffee here they're supported by Six Ounces (and when I heard it I know the coffee's better be good) and KAYA tea.

Smoking area, very well air-conditioned

Appreciate that they put this fresh flower on each table!

For the drinks here, you can find various selections of organic tea (supplied by KAYA), mocktails, fresh juices, coffee (supplied by Six Ounces) and non-coffee drinks with general price range for drinks at IDR 20k-40k.

Organic tea: English Breakfast, Earl Grey, Cold Be Gone, Slim & Slender, Jasmine Pearl, Chamomile

Mocktail: Mojito, Berry Mojito, Berry Lemonade, Iced Lychee Tea, Iced Kiwi Tea, Choco Milk Tea

Fresh Juice: Carrot, Watermelon, Honeydew, Orange, Mixed Juice (two options)

Coffee: Espresso, Long Back, Machiatto, Cappuccino, Picollo, Latte, Flat White, Mocha

Iced Coffee: Iced Coffee, Iced Latte, Iced Caramel Latte, Iced Hazelnut Latte, Iced Mocha

Non-Coffee: Chocolate by KORTE, Matcha Latte, Mineral Water

Mocha - IDR 40k

The mocha was delicious to my liking, it had that nice blend of coffee and chocolate with a hint of sweet without overpowering one another even though I still love that the coffee character's still there!

Piccolo - IDR 35k

For the food here you can expect to find selections of snacks, breakfast menus and main courses and they're all mainly Western of fusion cuisine (local-western), and the food range was pretty good too in my opinion (vary & mainly simple comfort food), from 'snacks' you can find menu as simple as French Fries to share, Potato Chips, Mozarella Stick, Chicken Fingers, Chilli Cheese Potato Chips, Spring Rolls and SPAM Fries (that better be good but I didn't try that).

Breakfast: Bacon, Cheese & Scrambled Egg Croissant, Egg Benedict, Smoothie Bowl

Main Courses: Salad, Pork Rendang Pie, Rice Dishes, Pasta, Crispy Dory Lemongrass & Chilli

French Fries - IDR 25k
Pretty much the common FF and nothing to scream about, but I honestly was liking the amount of salt given here or what I normally say "salty goodness" and what matters was that they cooked the fries perfectly.

Chilli Cheese Potato Chips - IDR 45k
Serving size wise, perfect for sharing! A single glance and had a good feeling already that I'll be liking this one a lot, I mean what can go wrong with crispy potato chips topped with beef chilli, generous mozarella cheese, Jalapeno and diced tomato! The beef chilli was nicely seasoned, not exactly spicy-spicy (more to mild for me) but you can always adjust that with additional chilli flakes or chilli sauce depending on your liking, but sure thing, mandatory shots of the cheese porn, oh my favorite workout ever!

CHEESEPORN!

Sambal Matah Over Rice - IDR 70k (NON HALAL)
I know that each person's take on spicy food might be different, but beware as this was their default serving and the sambal matah was very spicy for me, but I gotta admit that I was quite addicted to it and you know I can live with well-produced sambal matah and hot rice (even without protein LOL). I expected the pork to be more generous and tender and zero complaint about the sambal matah as it was delicious enough for me. If I may suggest, I think adding a runny sunny side up will make this dish even more interesting (or maybe you can add it as additional I don't know).

Salted Eggyolk Chicken Over Rice - IDR 60k
Most favorite dish that I tried here on the day of my visit! They managed to cook the kind of salted eggyolk chicken dish that I like! I don't like the ovelry creamy and milky one and I like when I can still feel that gritty eggyolk texture that you normally find at Chinese restaurant! The chicken was tender, it was not spicy for me even though you might be looking at red chili there and yes that's what I was talking about (on the sambal matah dish above): the runny sunny side up should make rice dish even more interesting! Egg doesn't really differ the flavor or texture and I can't explain why I love egg so much and I mostly need it on rice dishes (whether in form of SSU, scrambled or mixed).

Pork Rendang Pie - IDR 60k (NON HALAL)

The pork rendang pie had good potential to be a very good dish, but I just think that it was not bold enough for my 'rendang' standard, I like the kind of rendang flavor which I normally have in Nasi Padang (isn't that the best kind, and regardless the protein you're using I think to produce that signature rendang flavor should be from the sauce and ingredient) and I honestly like an additional mozarella cheese and juicy goodness inside, but the fact that they gave pretty generous amount of meat and potato made this acceptable *wink*

Lately I have been noticing that there are more and more cafes and coffee shops opening in Kelapa Gading, don't know whether it will be the next PIK/Senopati, well maybe. Overall, I had great time here in The Hideout, the vibe of the place was nice, I was digging the interior design, the food and the coffee were pretty enjoyable too, and I don't think people go here expecting they would have the best meal in Kelapa Gading, you go here to have a good time with your friends, family or your couple. They open quite early in the morning and normally during that time it's packed with group of moms who have just dropped their kids to school or even waiting for the pick up, as The Hideout strategically located between two schools.

PS: they closed every Tuesdays! (details below)

I hope your experience here would be as enjoyable as mine, and to The Hideout, keep up the good work!