Brunch at the Ritz Carlton, Jakarta

We don’t often tend to go out to restaurants at night, we could here in Jakarta as we have access to a driver and cheap childcare, we just prefer to have family friendly dinner parties/BBQ with our circle of friends.

We like to save up and go to the big balls (Irish Ball in March booked and paid for!!!! German ball and British Fashion Ball coming up in April and May) as well as do family groups for brunch.

Sunday Brunch is institution in Jakarta; all the big hotels offer it.

I think that the Ritz Carlton does it the best!

Brunch starts at noon and is supposed to go until 3pm (we get very politely asked to leave a lot later lol) and all have an option of free flow sparkling wine etc with a scrumptious buffet.

Last month we tried something new at the Ritz Carlton, a private room for Chinese New Year.

WOW, what a great idea it was.

There is no extra charge, as long as there is a minimum of eight adults.

The service, as usual, was superb and we had a great time.

There was no background noise and not a hint of disgusting smoke.

We were recently introduced to the Martini Brunch @ Prime , also in the Ritz Carlton.

WOW very, very nice but not suitable for kids—it is quiet, sophisticated and refined. Our usual group of co-brunchers (do you like my cool new word I just made up lol) has a minimum of 10+ kids….I can’t see the Ritz welcoming us back if we let them loose in the Martini brunch!

We are having an adults only Valentines day brunch this weekend at the Martini Brunch.

I will take photos!

Brunch in a private room at the Airlangga Restaurant, Ritz Carlton Jakarta.

What do you do when you are asked to go home from Brunch at the Ritz Carlton....you continue the party at home. This turned out to be an 11 hour brunch......I think you should be able to see that we all love to brunch; oh, and that I need to buy a slightly bigger chess set!

Georgias 10th Birthday

Georgia has made it into the double digits!
We have managed a few celebrations so far...
The first was a party at Ultimos Italian restaurant in Seminyak, Bali last Saturday night.
The next was at Hard Rock cafe in Kuta, Bali while we waited for our flight home.
Today was cup cakes at school.
The party is in the planning stage still...I will combine all the birthdays into one big party later on in the month.

We tried out something new after brunch at the Ritz, ten pin bowling. Actually it should be Bubbles Bowling, because there had been a lot of sparkling wine action before hand.....
The joke is that now I have found my sport........Most of my friends are extremely fitness and sports minded. I could never be described in this way, ever.
I actually manged to knock over some pins!

As with lunch, the genders were segregated...

And the winners were:

The Ritz Carlton, Jakarta,

Sunday Brunch.

We had a great Australian Fathers day brunch last Sunday. As usual, the Ritz Carlton was wonderful! We were seated in a new location (I know, it sounds funny to have usual seats at the Ritz !) as they made my reservation under Jamie Wayne......This doesn't even remotely sound like my name!
For some reason all the guys decided to sit at one table, while the ladies at another. It actually turned out to be a great idea. We weren't offended by the guys jokes and we could talk uninterrupted...

Kids club was fun as always- nail polish, tattoos, face painting, music etc

There is a special middle eastern theme this month in the Airlangga. My camera couldn't capture how splendid these dancers were, the lady was dancing with a lit candelabra on her head.

Dapur Babah, Jakarta

We had a work dinner here on Friday night.
The decor was fabulous. I found the food only average, BUT, only because it was not to my tastes.
I would have liked to stay out later but due to being up before 4am to put the finishing touches on a 30 page (7200+word) teaching assignment I was a bit tired.........

Chocolate martinis

I tried something new the other weekend, a chocolate martini.

It tasted just like cough syrup with some sprinkles on it.

I won't be having another.

The Harbour View Hotel

We had the most wonderful lunch at the Harbour View Hotel in the Rocks area of Sydney.

This place is amazing, it is under the Harbour bridge and the view is amazing.

The food and service was MAGNIFICENT!!!!!

I loved all the vintage bone china!

The management is thinking of starting up high tea on weekends.

That will be a must for us on our next visit!

I did suggest that the mounted deer over the fireplace would need a lovely floral straw hat to create high tea ambiance lol.

Mothers day Brunch at the ritz carlton

We had a wonderful Mothers day with friends (and half the population of Jakarta...tables in the foyer!) at our favourite, The Ritz Carlton Jakarta Brunch spectacular.
The kids had a wow of a time at the themed kids club. They decorated muffins for a special treat.

The kids all had chefs uniforms to get in the mood and had craft areas to make cards as well as a gazillion other activities..
The chef presented all the mothers with a wonderful cake and red roses.

After lunch we had a Mother and Child fancy dress fashion parade.

The kids had the exclusive use of the grand foyer room.....and loved it.


The Ritz really know how to put on a party...and we really know how to enjoy it! We left at a civilized time this weekend...we didn't have to have the lights turned out on us.

I have to make a special mention of the entertainer on the day. A man (TBA) strolled around singing in five different languages, Wonderful! He was nice too.....especially when my kids nearly trampled him down to get to the kids club.

Brunch at the Ritz Carlton Jakarta

We had yet another wonderful brunch at the Ritz on Sunday.
I can not see any reason to go any where but the best (we did try here and it was a shocker!!!!!).
I think we might of outstayed our welcome...they turned the lights out on us (it was 5pm and they did close at 3.30pm.......). We are trying to fit in lots of functions with Shannon and Dave before they head off on their next overseas posting.
In every single photo, EVERY single person had a smile on their face!
(oh well except Prince Benny...see below)


As usual the kids loved the kids club......They even got to keep the balloons once it closed!

I had to put this collage of Prince Ben in.
We call him Prince because that is what he thinks he is....King of the world, aged four! I do so tire of his royal behaviour and love it when GJ catches it and swiftly brings him into line. This would have to be a major drawback of being an expat in Indonesia. Most people here are so nice to the kids that they can easily take it for granted and forget common courtesy.

Look at those choppy little cheeks!!!!!!! My bloggy friend, Heidi from Irish triplets was uncannily spot on with her comment on this post......He is the spitting image of GJ and he does like sneaking GJ's scotch LOL.

It was sorting out these photos that made me realise I had forgotten about the ball photos from the previous post.

I do have a little note to self....next time champagne finishes.....don't get just one more round.....not if you want to stay awake after 7pm and go to school the next day and be a responsible educator.

St Patricks Day Ball 15th March 2008, Jakarta

I can't believe I never got around to posting about the Ball........
It seems so long ago. LOL.
In summary; it was a wonderful, fun night!
We arranged to meet up with a lovely blogger, Shannon from Cyberbones and her equally nice husband David. What a lovely couple!!!!!!!
We have already managed to get together again!

16th wedding anniversary

Oh my goodness, we look so young!


We spent a lovely day cruising a mall on Saturday, just the two of us.......GJ bought more boogie boards for two upcoming trips to Sambolo and I found a new salon at the mall whose chairs vibrate at every point of contact.......(after a hard day of shopping, a bottom cheek massage is bliss).
Lunch was at my favourite, Pho, a Vietnamese outlet.
By the time the sun set the old man got grumpy and decided to watch sport on TV instead of going out , but my new glitzy cocktail dress changed his mind....well the fact that I managed to get it on super clearance for less than $20 in Australia did the trick!
GJ had his first visit to the Face bar followed by a scrumptious dinner at Lan Na Thai.
It was a wonderful evening!

Jakarta Java Kini club launch, aka a BiiiiiiiiiG weekend in Jakarta

We had another wonderful social weekend in Jakarta.

Friday night was the annual school parents BBQ, which was great fun. After it ended we (some of the teachers and partners) moved on to a local club/pub place called the Star Deli.
The music was too loud and the wine horrible but we still had a great time.
I vaguely remember sending a text message stating that I need white, patent leather knee high boots to really fit in!

It was really hard to wake up early for our massage...yes you heard right, we had a masseuse come to the house for one hour body massages !

We tried something new on Saturday night. We live in an exciting place, we have the opportunity to try new things, so we are exploring new places hence Saturday nights outing.

I subscribe to a great magazine called Jakarta Java Kini.

It is a life style magazine written in English published monthly. You can buy it at the shops or subscribe and have it delivered (I did mention to the owner how difficult it is to subscribe and he is so aware of this and is working on making it easier). They also publish Hello Bali which I want to subscribe to as well.

Jakarta Java Kini is starting up a club for Jakartan residents. ( I will explain more later about why I have no details......LOL).
There was a day of fun at Club Azur

One of the main reasons we went was out of curiosity for seeing the inside of Club Azur. I drive past it at least 3 times a day and had no idea what was inside. I have since found out it is a private club for paying members and their guests.

We also thought we would mingle and meet some new people. We all have such a great time with our circle of friends that we never get around to chatting to others.
Unfortunately Sat night was no exception, J had spent a very interesting week in China, T was excited about her new job and I always have lots to talk about as does GJ.

We arrived at 6.30 for some pre-dinner wine tasting. The wines were very nice, served in large glasses which were constantly refreshed.......
The staff from the magazine had been at the club all day for the variety of tastings, demonstrations and talks. Some had helped the long day pass by tasting some of the wines and were hilariously hammered.

We met Alister the Owner and editor in chief, although I doubt he will remember us.
We listened to a wonderful recital from classical guitarist , John Paul.
We drooled over Melanie Wood's posture, she would put a yoga master to shame!
We marveled over Andrew Whitmarsh's bravery, he just wrote a great story on free train travel...on the roof of the carriages (this means your head is REALLY close to power cables which kill instantly on contact). We also quizzed him on his private life and asked for some kid orientated travel/adventure features.
John Aglionby gave a great talk, he talked about measuring the 14m snake in this link. I would love to hear more of his stories....
A gentleman in a black shirt with a nice wife gave a great tipsy talk on Feng Shui , it was hysterically funny. I might add that every one was tipsy by this time too.

We literally stumbled out of the club at I have no idea of the time. I deliberately did not wear my watch so I would not notice my usual 8pm bedtime come and go. Truly.....I go to bed early...
I left behind my information pack with all the details on the new club.....so sorry no details.

GJ and I managed to sleep in to 7am (a huge feat in our house) poor old T and J were up at 5.45am for a family mini marathon.....and yes they all finished!

We started the next round of fun at midday on Sunday, yes a great lunch with a group of friends. An old bloggy friend (although un-met in the flesh) couldn't make it; an always starving Ace took this lunch home in a bag.
We met C's fiancée, an American doing aid work in Ache and washed away tiredness with a glass of bubbles or two. GJ was in heaven as B was a scotch lover and he even opened his best bottle of scotchy goodness for a quick tipple.

I think it would be obvious that we did not make our Sunday night dancing lesson............

Blog posts I am too busy to write...

Another great night at Amigos (note the gorgeous Miss K asleep where she landed on edge of the dance floor)

Another WONDERFUL brunch at the Ritz (well except for this horrific moment)
The FREE kids club is a huge hit with all the kids!
I met another nice manager on this visit, I love how everyone remembers us and looks after us. Pak Irwan (our favourite waiter) makes a beeline for Ben as soon as we arrive and looks after him. I have a favourite table now...as soon as I book and say it is Mrs Jenny (our surname, whilst simple, is not phonetic and is hard to spell) the lovely ladies ask if I want my usual table!



Our car is the DVD car, it is the most popular. So I was lucky enough to be the adult supervisor on the way home from the Ritz and got to watch (for the 1000th time) the highly unsuitable and stupid Avatar show.


The girls were promised a Princess package during the Christmas holidays...we finally got a round to taking them. A princess package is a manicure and pedicure with x2 nail art for little girls.... oh my goodness they were in heaven!

The most disgusting thing I have ever eaten

I feel sick even just thinking and typing about this..........

Sea cucumber!

We had another wonderful brunch with friends this weekend ( I can't put my favourite place in all of Jakarta's name in the same post of this vomit inducing stuff).

Since I am on my herbal supplement program/detox thing I tried to steer clear of all meat, dairy and wheat products. This was easy to do with the variety of things available.

I saw a pot of bok choy and the dreaded sea cucumber that looked delicious. For some very foolish reason I thought that this was just a type of tofu........

Five minutes later a huge mouthful entered my mouth. It is a credit to my mother for instilling decorous manners that I did not projectile vomit it all over the table and our friends. I managed to keep it down and hide my heaving.

You know that smell of a dirty fish tank?

You know the slimy, rubbery feeling of a jelly fish?

Combine these two things and you get a sea cucumber.

Summary: Sea cucumbers are bottom feeding slugs not tofu.

unfaithful

Got you with that title LOL


GJ and I have been on a lucky prize streak, which is just as well considering the unlucky health streak we have been going through.

Our friends T and J started it off when they won 2 flights to Germany at the Anza ball last year. GJ then won our Bali holiday (for 2) at the Scottish Ball, I won a years membership at JICC at a bazaar and then at the Anza Christmas carols we won 7 out of the 12 or so prizes.

Other friends now want me to buy their tickets and to sit next to me at the upcoming St Patrick's Ball.

Four of the raffle prizes were for gift vouchers to be used at Sailendra restaurant at the Marriott.

I was unfaithful to my favourite, the Ritz...
Don't worry it will never happen again.......
it was very disappointing at the Marriott.

I called on my wonderful, snotty, private school education and smiled sweetly and kept my cool...which meant that I got upgraded to a much better table and got great service all night...but still had to pay through the nose.

I am sure we were just there on a bad night and we were very disappointed that a very slight ambiguity in the wording of the vouchers made it possible for the staff to deny them for dinner and insist on them being used for cakes????????

insert swearing, just a little.

I am sure the manager who signed off on the vouchers with the words "dine in only, not for Christmas Day , New Years Eve or Sunday brunch" did not mean that you could only buy a friggin cake!

And that US$80 would get you two small 7" cheesecakes........After GJ haggled we got 4 small cheesecakes......while I sat smiling sweetly on a lounge...planing a scathing blog post...

The dinner buffet was nice, just nice.
The wine was exorbitant in price.
The room was really noisy.
The room needs some major exhaust fans, oil was smoking most of the second half of the night and it was very hazy. My hair now stinks...petty and trivial but true.
The staff were very polite, attentive and friendly but refused to even consider that they misinterpreted the voucher. (It was all written in English)



It was lovely to go out just the two of us, we got all dressed up and had fun in spite of the aggravation. Although if had planed on spending so much money on dinner this is definitely not the place I would of chosen.

Face bar, Jakarta

On my second venture out at night in Jakarta I started at the Face bar.
A lady that has been a very active volunteer at the Anza club was having a birthday and a Bon Voyage party as she is leaving Indonesia.
At least 50 women, all in their compulsory tiaras filled this place. We had a great time mixing, mingling and eating yummy snacks.

By 10pm I was feeling the effects of first week back at school.....and we decided to leave.
Which is how we ended up at the second spot of the night.
GJ was having a late night snack with a friend at Citos, Cilandak town square. We swung by to pick him up and just ended up staying for another bottle of champagne..as you do LOL

GJ loves going to D'place and meeting up with Ace where they can solve the problems of the world.
D'Place has a great jazz playing every night. On Mon, Tue and Wed nights you get the best bands as they are not booked for the big city night spots.
So there you have it, 3 nights spots in 3 days. Probably another six months before I go to another one LOL.
This is why I like the Ritz...you can go for brunch and still be in bed by 8pm.

My new best friend, The Ritz Carlton Jakarta

I might of mentioned before how much we like to meet our friends for brunch at the Ritz Carlton in Jakarta.
We had another lovely brunch about a week ago and guess what, the Ritz Carlton likes me too!
I met some lovely managers and received a lovely bottle of French champagne to have with Brunch.

What a lovely way to celebrate the first Sunday of 2008!

I hope there will be many more Sunday brunches this year!

Anatolia Turkish restaurant, Jakarta

We had a great night out at Anatolia Turkish restaurant last Friday night. It was the first time we had been on a weekend night and we caught the belly dancing show (8.30 & 9.30pm). The food here is divine, no wonder it wins so many awards!
It is not cheap at all..very similar in prices to top Sydney restaurants BUT oh so wonderful food and decor!

Mom had a ball, she got up and danced with the beautiful belly dancer (Tan and T were both too shy!) The dancer was gorgeous, a really pretty sweet face and she danced wonderfully. The music was unusual; more Bollywood than Turkish.

The Ritz Carlton Jakarta, Sunday Brunch

We have been kicking up our heels again at the Sunday brunch at the Ritz Carlton. It truly is a great place for meeting up with friends and VERY kid friendly.

There is always a free kids club for the kids, which they love.

Over Christmas, the kids club had a special theme of "Lunch with Mrs Claus". For a slightly exorbitant fee the kids got to play with Mrs Claus, decorate HUGE ginger bread cookies, receive photos and a goodie bag. As well as music, fun activities and story time. The kids participated on our first visit and just did the free stuff the next week.

These are the photos from the lunch with Mrs Claus, Tan loved how the kids lunch was served on a bain marie at kids height!
Here is some other photos of around the Ritz. We take K, our sweet junior maid with us (1st picture with my Mom)She makes sure Ben doesn't get into mischief. The kids club is through the foyer and across the hotel from brunch...I don't think that management would approve Ben running through to check on me LOL. I am pretty sure that K likes the food at the Ritz as much as we do.

All these photos are from two separate brunches we went to in December.

Ben is treated like royalty here....after drinking melted chocolate from a bowl (scooped from the chocolate fountain) a lovely waiter brought over linen napkins and gently wiped his grotty face!


The best thing about writing this is that I have already booked the next visit!

This Cinderella didn't make it to the Scottish ball

I had the dress, I had a ticket, I really wanted to go BUT I did not have the stamina to go to the Scottish ball. This was to be my first ever ball I could walk into (My first ever ball I went in a wheel chair).


This is GJ and his blind date........an empty ball gown LOLI spent the afternoon ringing around trying to find GJ a date (it seemed a shame to waste my ticket). How strange does that sound, a wife trying to find her husband a nice date! As it is the end of year, festive season most people had prior arrangements. My friends husband was stuck in transit somewhere in Asia so GJ was able to escort T. T's husband and GJ's "date" arrived at dessert in time to catch all the fun.

I would love to see all the photos GJ took, but he left the camera in J's handbag!

Apparently all had a great time, GJ made it home before daylight...just! They skipped the breakfast part of the ball, yes the Scottish know how to do a ball......Dinner, midnight supper, early morning snack and then breakfast!

But the highlight for me was that GJ won a raffle prize
2 business class tickets to Bali and 3 nights accommodation in a villa!
We won't have to be the only Australians in Jakarta that have NEVER, EVER been to Bali!

When I get the camera back I will share some more Ball photos.