There are a lot of good places to eat in Jakarta, but finding a local haunt for Saturday lunch, hungover Sunday or maybe even a 2am snack somewhere in between isn’t so simple. That’s why we were so pleased to stumble upon not only a Dimsum Inc not 500 metres from our apartment, but open 24 hours no less. This could be the start of a very unhealthy relationship.
Unlike most of the restaurants that we’ve visited in Jakarta, Dimsum Inc always has a customer or two tucked into the cosy wooden booths, a testimony to its relaxed atmosphere and extremely good food. A blackboard of Dimsum’s most popular dishes, as well as over 10 different types of beer, spell out the name of the game: delicious Chinese served fast and simple.
Unable to wade through the multitude of steamed and fried delights, we opted for a mix platter, including har gau, shiu may, guo tie and dao sa pao to name a few (don’t worry, we had no idea what these were either), all for the very reasonable price of RP99,000. Within 10 minutes, a beautiful platter of bite sized delights arrived, two of each type, accompanied by an array of soy, chilli and sambal sauces.
My favourite thing about Dimsum Inc is that you can really taste the fresh flavours in the food: a prawn dumpling actually tastes like prawn, as oppose to an unidentifiable ball of fishy-tasting mince. Steamed or fried, all the bites on offer at Dimsum Inc have been carefully and thoughtfully prepared, and unlike most fast food, all hour-joints, don’t leave you with a seedy feeling of regret.
No matter what the time of day (although I’m yet to start eating fried delights for breakfast, give me another month or two), Dimsum Inc is the perfect spot to satiate your hunger on the fly. Quick, convenient and delicious, I’m all in favour or permanently phasing out McDonalds and KFC and bringing in the 24 hour dumplings instead. The only question now is – when do they start to home deliver?
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