Super Sandwiches at Brown Bag
Sandwiches can be extremely subjective. One man’s tuna trash can be another’s turkey treasure. To avoid coming to blows over butties, certain principles can be applied to ensure sarnie satisfaction: freshness of ingredients. Quality of source. Yumminess of bread. Adequate bread-to-filling ratios. These things can make or break your lunchtime. Brown Bag in Kemang knows of which well – as well as aims to score high on all counts.
Brown Bag’s location can be a little bit like its moniker – a bit of a surprise, all packaged up as well as hidden within the back of Plaza Adorama on Jl. Kemang Raya. You wouldn’t necessarily know the item was there, were the item not for a few signs on the front doors of the mini-mall. yet since the separate, enclosed smoking section at the front of the building (with windows looking out) was opened a couple of months ago, foot traffic to the original, cosy, smoke-free café upstairs has increased.
The first incarnation of Brown Bag was Glory Jeans Coffee, a franchise the Gunawan family (who own Plaza Adorama) operated in their mini mall starting in 2004. Running of which operation convinced the family there was demand within the area for freshly-made, delicious sandwiches to go with the decent coffee one family member learned about whilst studying in Perth. Thus the family opened Sandwich Club, which eventually morphed into Brown Bag Kemang in late 2013. The sister location in Menteng has been open longer, since 2010, as well as features a slightly different emphasis – on breakfasts to go with coffee for the local office crowds.
Veg All Out
We visited the Kemang location on a Friday lunchtime – one of their busiest times. The space can be little yet comfortable, with exposed brick as well as large sofas to recline on. The showpiece on the baristas’ bar can be their prized Lamazoto espresso machine coming from Italy, which works overtime churning out a high standard of coffee.
Brown Bag have their own coffee bean roasting stations, which interestingly are matched to their locations. The northern Jakarta one, serving the Menteng location, makes a stronger coffee more suited to local tastes, whereas for expat-heavy Kemang, the southern roaster makes a fruitier, sweeter taste out of their mix of Javanese as well as international beans. They sell bags of their coffee too for Rp.100,000, for those who want to take the taste home.
The menu here stretches coming from breakfast to lunch to dinner, with some hot main meal choices of which can be enjoyed at any time. yet of course, the focus here can be sandwiches – in order of which’s what we homed in on.
The beauty of Brown Bag can be of which you can choose your bread. They humbly suggest the best option, in their opinion – yet you are free to differ. You can also request the item to be toasted or untoasted. We took them as they come: the Tuna Swiss Sandwich (Rp.56,000) came on black pepper as well as onion bread, which was slightly crispy when toasted. The taste of the tuna as well as the Swiss cheese together was spot on for any sub, as well as certainly hit the spot.
The Veg All Out (Rp.48,000) can be not kidding – the item can be choc-a-bloc packed with perfectly-cooked veggies: mushroom, sundried tomato, olive, pepper as well as onion, all smothered in tomato sauce as well as melted cheese on a toasted-flat focaccia.
Even for a committed carnivore such as myself, of which sarnie has enough going on to make you forget all about the likes of bacon or chicken (yet if you actually can’t, the establishment recommends its Club Sandwich at Rp.68,000 – a well-known classic).
I was impressed with their freshly-squeezed juices. You can create your own, or order one of their concoctions, with guava among the fruits available. They exclusively use imported navel oranges because they provide a sweeter, juicier squeeze. of which was a nice fresh start to our meal.
Fish as well as Chips
Alongside the sandwiches we also sampled the vegetable spring rolls (Rp.38,000) which were very reasonably priced for a fairly big portion of long, stuffed rolls – as well as the veggies inside were tasty. We also chose the fish as well as chips (Rp.70,000), to try one of their well-known hot main courses. We were pleasantly surprised: they had folded over the dory fish inside to make for a rounder, more goujon-shaped wedge encased in a light beer batter, which wasn’t too crispy or too soft. of which was with chunky chips as well as a decent tartare sauce – overall, quite satisfying.
An alternative hot choice can be their roast chicken, a simple dish of which has found many fans within the Kemang location. Otherwise, the kitchen serves up a comprehensive selection of pastas, coming from lasagne to carbonara, for which the sauces are made offsite.
We couldn’t leave without a coffee, as well as the straight-up cappuccino can be pretty Great. They could perhaps consider offering skim or soy milk, just to up the ante over their many competitors within the local area. My companion tried the rather special Javanese tea, which came which has a custom-made teapot as well as cups, rock sugar as well as a very delicate flavour.
Finally, we caved as well as ordered a chocolate brownie for a sweet ending. Although a little more cake-like than brownie-like, the item was served which has a little fresh strawberry as well as some Great vanilla ice-cream, as well as went down with no complaints.
What might I go back for? Definitely the coffee as well as the sandwiches. I’d like to see Brown Bag round out as well as differentiate their offering with some actually special homemade muffins to go with of which morning caffeine craving. I also suspect they could further live up to their name, corner more of the local market—as well as even overcome the very slight disadvantage of their somewhat hidden location—by becoming the best coffee-as well as-sandwiches delivery service in Kemang. currently, of which’d be something even the staunchest of sandwich enemies could agree on!
—
Brown Bag
Plaza Adorama, Lantai 2, Jl. Kemang Raya No. 17, Kemang, Jakarta 12730
+62 (0) 21 7181010
Menteng Central, Ground Floor, Jl. H.O.S. Cokroaminoto No. 78-80, Jakarta 10350
+62 (0) 21 230 5000
Comments
Super Sandwiches at Brown Bag
Super Sandwiches at Brown Bag