It Took a Cikini Middle Eastern Joint to Change My Mind About Lamb

Middle Eastern food is pretty common in Jakarta, but few places do it as well as the restaurants in Cikini's "Little Arabia." The neighborhood the beating heart of the city's Arab-Indonesian community, a place where you can find legit Middle Eastern cuisine. Most of the city's Arab immigrants live out in East Jakarta. But a lot of them own businesses in Cikini, taking advantage of the nearby hotels. It makes the neighborhood the kind of place where tourists from Saudi Arabia go to get a taste of home.

This probably all sounds great if you love quzi, shawarma, and Arabic martabak. But that's not me. Well aside from the martabak. What Indonesian doesn't love martabak? The problem for me has aways been the strong-smelling fatty meats and all those spices. I stopped eating lamb 20 years ago and, maybe because of that, I was never really a big fan of the Idul Adha feast. I even once declared that there wasn't a chef alive who could make me eat lamb again. Dramatic, I know.

Thankfully I was with my friend Rizky, who actually likes lamb. We were on a quest to find the most-legit Middle Eastern food in the city. But when we arrived there were so many places to eat we quickly felt overwhelmed. At least we were in one the right place. One of them had to be the best in the city. Right?

Raden Saleh
This is the OG spot on the block, the first Middle Eastern place to open up in Cikini. The restaurant's influence quickly cemented the neighborhood as the go-to place to find amazing Middle Eastern food and a must-stop for visiting tourists.

Amira
This humble-looking eatery is famous for its mutton. It's so famous in fact that the manager scoffed at the idea of talking to us to get more press. I guess some places are just so well-known that they don't even need to talk to the media anymore. Sometimes mutton speaks louder than words.

Al-Basha
The waiters at Amira told me to wander over to Al-Basha if I wanted to taste real Middle Eastern food. This place felt about as legit as you can find in Jakarta. The decor was heavy on the golds, greens, and reds, and the upstairs offered privacy partitions for families eating with women who wear the burqa or niqab and aren't supposed to eat in public.

I was here with my friend Rizky and we started with two orders of bread (the humongous Al-Basha bread and the smaller Arabic bread) and a spread of some of the best hummus we ate in our entire lives.

Al-Basha had an international feel. The restaurant was owned by an Indonesian woman and her Jordanian husband, so some of the dishes took on the flavors of Jordan. But Al-Basha itself is part of a chain with a headquarters in Guangzhou, China. Weird, I know. Apparently someone figured out that there was a lot of demand for halal food in China, but few places to find it.

For the main course we ate some briyani with heavily spiced tandoor-style chicken. It was seriously so juicy that I think it might be the most-moist chicken I've ever eaten. And I once ate nothing but fried chicken for an entire week.

We also ordered a kebab, the restaurant's speciality. The lamb was soft and smooth. And to my surprise it got better with every bite. Guess there was a chef out there who could get me to eat lamb again. I just needed to find the real thing.