The Sanderson Coffee Rawamangun

It’s a piece of London, hidden on Balai Pustaka Street, Rawamangun, East Jakarta. Decorated with bright red telephone booth, shadow of Sherlock Holmes and the Palace Guards paintings, The Sanderson Coffee is as interesting as our journey there.

East Jakarta is way beyond our regular date destinations, and we don’t expect a coffee shop with a concept to be present in that part of Jakarta. It’s a one-day public holiday in the middle of the week, and we want to step out of Kelapa Gading, which is currently a huge mess due to construction. We don’t want to drive too far though. We turned to Google and The Sanderson Coffee showed up first for “coffee shop in Rawamangun” keyword. Google’s recommendation of Sanderson Coffee comes with a silhouette of Sherlock Holmes on the picture. We’re sold right away. Why not? London sounds good for a change of atmosphere. Still, it’s a stranger land and we let GPS leads our drive through Pemuda street, turning right to Sunan Giri street through schools, mosques and a market before finally finding the coffee shop on the intersection between Balai Pustaka and Sunan Giri Streets.

The cafe opens at 9AM but we’re there at around 10AM. Still early enough that we can park right in front of the cafe, which can only fit around 6 to 8 cars at one time. The front wall is decorated with paintings of Palace Guards on the street of London. Then we enter the coffee shops. We love the ambiance right away and found a good table on the corner, near the Sherlock silhouette and the red telephone booth. Dudu explored right away, trying to open the booth and peeking into the restroom which has signs like London’s Underground. It’s interesting overall. I moved to the counter and ordered coffee.

They served breakfast food and regular menu. Dudu had wanted omelette (Rp. 40k) so we orderd one. I had my usual Americano (Rp. 28k). The omelette is honestly tasty with generous fillings of cheese, paprika. ham as well as other stuffings. But it’s Dudu and he liked his eggs plain. It comes with fries and salad decoration on the side which unfortunately has chili sauce on top. A note for us to ask for no sauce next time.

So, Dudu is still hungry because he only finished three quarters of that delicious omelette and we ordered Breakfast for Champion (Rp. 60k). The meal consists of sausages, eggs, beans and mashed potatoes. Browsing through their menu, I felt like their food is quite expensive for a cafe with most dishes being on the range of Rp. 40k to Rp. 60k (for Meatball Cheese and Spaghetti Bolognaise). I ended up with Chicken Fajitas (Rp. 40k), which is also surprisingly yummy. So, setting the price aside, their food actually tastes good. Maybe next time we should come for brunch instead of lunch and enjoy the meal.

Their coffee wasn’t special but it’s good coffee. But again, I only order the standard Americano, while they have a range of other option on the menu. I would like to try their single origins next time around. Indonesian coffee comes to Rp. 38k and the international ones are Rp. 48k, all can be served with Aero press, V60 and Syphon. The Frappes are Rp. 40k each for those who drink them. Too bad the Vietnamese coffee (Rp. 38k) is only available hot. The non-coffee drinks like Lychee Ice tea (Rp. 36k) is also available.

Well, our bill in total comes up to around Rp. 236k for three dishes and three drinks, which isn’t so bad considering we stayed for more or less 2+ hours with smooth wi-fi connection. We received discount because we posted pictures on instagram. It’s becoming more and more busy as the hours go up, confirming that mornings are best for coffee shops like this. The sun is high and the weather is hot when we walk out of the place to our car.

But we’re full and deadline is done before noon is over. We’ll have all afternoon for ourselves. Where to go next?

Our date is at:
The Sanderson Coffee
Jl. Balai Pustaka Raya no 2A, Rawamangun, Jakarta Timur
(021) 22473216