I came to Jakarta with a long food list and left with a lesson about Jakarta food trends instead. Some of the list was repeats. I noticed that I always end up eating the things I already know, and never the ones I added last time and failed to try. The last of those was sate taichan. This time around I hardly saw it on the street at all.
Jakarta has moved on. In a year! It is no longer onigiri and tahu jeletot. So it is on me to keep up and Gojek the current ones.
Here is what I noticed on Jakarta Food Trends in 2025:
Korea influenced
KBBQ everywhere, and the black sesame latte. The grill table has stopped being a special occasion thing and become a normal Tuesday, and every other mall floor has someone doing unlimited sets. Black sesame has taken the slot avocado juice used to hold on cafe menus. Dark, nutty, much better than it sounds.
Fine Indonesian Dining
Indonesian food, plated up and priced up. It is a strange feeling to pay restaurant money for something Amma makes better, and also to admit that some of it is very good.
TikTok
My Amma algorithm, in this case TikTok determines where we eat next. Some or them are good, some are not. Influencers!
Matcha
Yes, here too. 2025 was the year the world drank so much matcha that Japan could not keep up, prices jumped and cafes were rationed, and Jakarta joined in anyway with matcha bars, matcha soft serve and matcha in things that did not ask for it.
Mie Bangladesh
The famously spicy noodles, which are not Bangladeshi at all. They come from Sumatra, and they are essentially instant noodles rebuilt with a heavy bumbu and served nyemek, slightly soupy, usually with a half cooked egg stirred through.
Cumi asin
Salted squid. It used to be a side, the salty thing that makes you eat more rice than you planned. Now it arrives with green chilli as the dish you actually came for.
Tin sambal
Sambal in a tin, sold to be carried home and given away. It keeps for months, it survives a suitcase and it does not leak on your clothes, which is the whole point. The target market is people like me who live somewhere else and want the taste within reach.
There are endless choices and it is all good.
Follow me on Instagram @KultureKween for more recent updates.
[…] was wetter than the kabuli I usually get in Melbourne, and one third the price. (Jakarta food trends are slightly wet these days.) It also doesn’t taste as curry-ey, although they do sell the kari […]