READLIFE Coffee

Short review on a hang-out place near my house! I've been wanting to visit this place since several months ago but it was just realized last Sunday :)

READLIFE Coffee

Mall of Indonesia, Ruko Italian Walk blok C 46

Jl. Boulevard Barat Raya, Kelapa Gading, Jakarta Utara 14240

As for the concept, it was a simple but stylish coffee place with the touch of Japanese concept. The Japanese concept mainly can be seen as they have one spot with "zakka" or miscellanous goods on the back side, and several touch of book shelf and everything simple-decorated inside the shop.

As for visitors type, don't be surprised that quite a lot of Koreans visit this place, maybe mainly because 1) lots of Koreans stay on this apartment area, and 2) somehow this coffee shop style is a little bit Korean-ish too. And so they put on Korean songs all the time..

For the food, I ordered the latte and fried banana set for 50k, and additional fruit tea for around 58k. 

Can't say much about the coffee as I'm not an avid coffee drinker but it was very acceptable on the taste side. It was not bitter and a very mild latte. Fried banana was nice and sweet, plus point for lots of crunchies on the plate.

The fruit tea was very nice though! It was mixed with slices of lemon, lime, mint, and apple. Minus point is that it better be finished asap as the more you let it be, the more the water heat pull out the bitterness from the lemon and lime skin. Other than that it was great!

See those stylish pot ~

Very small cup by the way. But since it was pretty, it's ok. Haha.

Overall, it was a pleasant visit and nothing to be complained about. The service were nice, ambiance is nice too, recommended to go at night maybe (?) to avoid crowds. And since it was very near my place, I will definitely come again some other time!

That's it for today's post (told ya it was gonna be short) and will see ya on the other one!

Yolanda

Blue Bottle Coffee Aoyama

On my previous day off I finally got a chance to visit the famous second Blue Bottle shop located in a very stylish district which is in Aoyama, Tokyo.

For those who didn't know at all about this famous coffee chain store story, to make long story short, Blue Bottle Coffee is known as a coffee shop with vintage brewing machines and artisanal coffee as their major selling points. 

Their first store is in California and since then they developed so fast mainly famous in LA, NYC, and these several days, 2 shops opened in Tokyo.

As the drip-style coffee is very famous in Tokyo from the start, the Blue Bottle Coffee's launching here are soon catching people's heart.

As the cafe is located on the second floor, without the big sign of the famous Blue Bottle logo in the front, it's kinda easy to miss.

Entering the main door, the delish smell of coffee AND the crowds are a little bit of a surprise for me.

However one look I just fell in love by how they make everything simple and clean; from the stylish cafe design, fast service flow, and not to mention their coffee menu is very easy to understand too.

Took the store's layout photos from my seat on the back while enjoying the coffee.

I've tried their Iced Americano and indeed it was good. However unfortunately It was not their best selling one, I suppose. Their best selling one should be the drip coffee and kind of regretted not ordering that one instead.

Finish with my coffee (and about 1 hour plus long talk with my friend), we decided to go and before that of course we didn't forget to take a slight look on their accessories spot near the main door.

They sell their fresh coffee bean plus all the accesories from mugs to bags. All of course with the famous Blue Bottle logo imprinted there.

Kinda wanting the coffee mug there!

Overall it was such a great visit for me. The crowd (that kinda bothers me, not to mention it was Tuesday) was another thing but their coffee brewery, staff service and cafe's nuance it was all perfect. 

It will soon entering autumn and while the temperature keep dropping these days I've thought of making another visit here and tried their drip hot coffee for sure! I hope my next visit will be better and much better!! 

Giyanti Coffee and Kopium Review (Jakarta part 2)

Hi again here! Continuing from the last post, I assume this post will not gonna be as long as the previous post that I made as most of the food that I had in Jakarta, I've mostly already shared it there. 

Although this is part of the meals that I had in Jakarta during my holiday, I thought this post will gonna be mainly focused on coffee reviews, so there's the post title!

So, back to topic!

This time, I wanna share with you these 2 coffee places that I went to.

During my stay in Japan for almost two year, stylish indie-style coffee shop seems like becoming a thing in Jakarta. Everywhere in even in every hidden spot in Jakarta, if we see it enough (and search for reviews, of course..) we will found several hidden gems here and there. So me and friends finally decided to try several places during my stay.

The first one that I wanna share is this coffee shop named Kopium.

Placed hidden between old house complexes but you will definitely see it from the crowd (or, should I say, cars) right from this coffee shop front gate.

They have this kind of retro styled mini cafee with stylish mini paintings and posters here and there. It's like going back to Marilyn Monroe era kind of feeling.

And this is the interior inside. Pardon the mahjong auntie on the front.

Me and my friends here ordered several menus, such as:

Matcha Latte, friendly for non coffee drinkers.

and the next one was Piccolo on the left, and I forgot the one on the right. My friend said it's all bitter. I'm not an avid drinker of coffee so I can't explain too much about the taste, I'm sorry. But here's the appearence as a compensation! 

Me myself ordered Brulee; they roast caramel on top of the coffee foam so the final combination taste is bitter yet quite sweet. Perfect for those who can't stand the too-bitterness of coffee.

and Cheese Stick as snacks!

So far, so good. We enjoy all the talk, coffee and the food here. 

Finish with the first place, not wanting to waste more time, we directly flew to another happening coffee shop named Giyanti Coffee.

By rule, I cannot take photos inside. but, I've taken all the photos when finally I realize that I cannot take photos in it. Too bad but this girl ain't gonna delete her archive so yah, here is the interior inside!

It's definitely bigger than Kopium, and we got the second level balcony table.

Here's the view from the second floor balcony. It's quite crowded to be honest for a coffee shop that's quite hidden from the main street. 

Our order was this:

 

Cold and Hot Ice Moccha on the top and bottom, plus 2 Piccolo (again!) on the middle. 

I thought the moccha here will be the sweet one like they sell in supermarket or Starbucks. but its so different. It's the real bitter moccha!! Its damn purely nice, in my opinion.

and then my friend said the Piccolo here taste better than the one in Kopium too. I don't really understand the different though.. but I thought it is worth to try.

This place, top rated. 

We also ordered the brownie and the chicken pie as snacks.

Nice combination for moccha and coffee. Both tast awesome. Yums. Definitely will go here again If I have time in the future.

My short journey to these two coffee shops is definitely worth it. I don't know when will this coffee booming will end soon but I'm quite glad here in Indonesia they use this chance to explore more about their own coffee style and develop it more in depth to produce this unique taste. Not like in Japan though.. they mostly rely only on Starbucks. Also knowing that Indonesia is one of the top coffee producer, I hope this culture will stay on developing. Proud to be Indonesian!

But still, I can't be a super coffee drinker; my stomach can't take it. (too bad!)

Well, and thats the end of my (coffee appearance) review.

I'm sorry I didnt have enough clever words to pick and describe, but I hope my post will be useful even just a little bit. 

See you on next post!

Hello Kitty Café Odaiba : Café de Miki by Hello Kitty

Earlier January I went to this Hello Kitty Café impulsively with my friends, Shelley. Impulsive as we really didn’t have any plan at all, and she suddenly blurted out, “Oh I wanna go to Hello Kitty Café in Odaiba” and I directly said “Okay then let’s go now.”

We didn’t regret it!! Impulsive decision is still the best. Hahaha.

We went there by train stopping at the nearest station, called Odaiba Kaihinkoen (お台場海浜公園)　and walk around 5 minutes to a shopping mall called “Diver City” as the café were inside the building.

Great thing about Odaiba is, along the way, we can see several famous landsight too such as the Liberty Statue (which very resembles the one in America), the famous Rainbow Bridge, several illumination, Fuji TV building, Gundam Real Life Statue and so on. 5 minutes walk become 20 minutes longer, taking photos here and there.

Once we reached, progesterone level went high.

The interior inside were so cute! It has British theme all over.

Notice as the main middle table’s chair had ribbon on it.

A small kitty shop selling merchandise were right next to the cashier.

We were quite confused at that time because how can there were no people at all at that time? Maybe because it was weekdays? We went there on Tuesday indeed, around 18.00. But no people at all seems so strange.

Anyway.

Good thing that all the café spots are available for taking photos without being interfered by other people!!

High Five.

After being mesmerized by all the cuteness, we finally ordered our meal directly at the cashier. I can’t remember each set price but If I were not mistaken it cost around 700-1.500 yen per set. Both of us combined spent about 3000 yen there.

My order was the Choco Banana Kitty Pancake.

And my friend’s order was Hello Kitty Apple Pie set.

Both come with one drink that we can choose, but we both choose coffee as the bitterness will somewhat balance the sweetness well.

The food taste... normal. We cannot complain more since we both know that the selling points of this kind of café were not the taste of the food but the whole nuance of eating meals surrounded by Hello Kitty cuteness.

After finishing our meal, we went for taking several photos more and we decided to go and to explore more of the other side of Odaiba. 

Pardon my dirty face and lousy fashion sense. In my defense, impulsive decision requires no makeup and I dress to survive in winter, not to look fashionable. The pain of a tropical kid..

We’re both went out from the café with triple amount of happiness added in our face.

Even though I’m not a Hello Kitty fan at all, but who will not melt with Kitty cuteness once entering a café like this? A café worth visiting.

Any recommended cute café in Tokyo? I would like to try and review if I can!!