Singaporean Coffee Shop: Lau's Kopitiam

LAU'S KOPITIAM

Giant Building G11, CBD Bintaro

Bintaro Jaya IX, Tangerang

Phone: 021-7451793

GI Review

GI definitely think that you guys already heard about “kopitiam” or maybe just hear people talking about it. Recently, kopitiam has already become popular in Indonesia especially Jakarta. The kopitiam itself was originally from Singapore, while hundreds of kopitiam are found throughout Singapore. Kopitiam in Singapore are commonly found in almost all residential areas as well as some industrial and business district, numbering about 2000 in total (Wikipedia 2010).

 
Based on Wikipedia (2010), a kopitiam or kopi tiam is a traditional breakfast and coffee shop found in Southeast Asia. The word “kopi” is from the Malay (or Indonesian?) word for coffee and the Hokkien dialect word for shop (店; POJ: tiàm). The menus typically feature simple offerings: a variety of foods based on egg, toast, and kaya (a local version of jam made from coconut milk and eggs), plus coffee, tea, and Milo, a malted chocolate drink which is extremely popular in Southeast Asia, particularly Singapore, Malaysia and now it is popular in Indonesia.

There are two different kopitiam that GI know so far. They are Lau’s Kopitiam (located in Giant Building, Bintaro and Teraskota, BSD) and Eastern Kopitiam (located in Flavor Bliss, Alam Sutera). Unfortunately, GI only had a chance to try the famous Lau's Kopitiam (don’t worry! next time GI also want to try Eastern Kopitiam).

Lau's Kopitiam itself already has several branches in Jakarta and Tangerang located in Benton Junction, Lippo Supermal, Gading Serpong, Emporium Pluit Mall, Teraskota BSD City, Giant Bintaro Building, Citraland (Mal Ciputra).

Finally, last week GI had a chance to try Lau’s Kopitiam at Giant Bintaro Building. The place is not too big but quite clean and comfortable. The tables is almost full (maybe because it was near lunch time) but the waiter/waitress always ready to serve you whenever you need them.

Like the other kopitiam in town, they served appetizer, sandwich/toast, drinks, dessert, and main course. For the appetizer they served half boiled egg and lumpia (in GI’s opinion, the lumpia is looking more like ngo-hiang). They also served two kinds of sandwich/toast: sandwich manis (kaya, chocolate cheese, butter, strawberry jam, etc) and sandwich daging (smoked beef, tuna mayonnaise, black pepper beef, etc). For you who prefer to have “big” breakfast (or lunch?) more than just light breakfast, GI suggest you to order nasi lemak, laksa, or nasi hainan. 

hot teh tarik (milk tea)

The price also very reasonable. for 1 portion tuna mayonaise sandwich (18,000 IDR), nasi lemak (18,000 IDR), nasi hainan (23,000 IDR), kaya toast (15,000 IDR), iced tea (10,000 IDR), and teh tarik - hot milk tea (10,000IDR) you just have to pay around 100,000 IDR (tax and service charge are included).

Nasi Hainan

Hainan chicken rice (23,000 IDR)

hainan chiken rice, egg, plain chicken soup, lumpia, special chilli sauce, roasted chiken (the sauce tastes very delicious!)

Nasi Lemak

Nasi Lemak (18,000 IDR)

nasi lemak (rice cooked with coconut milk), chiken, egg, salty fish (teri), friend peanut, chilli (sambal), fried wonton

nasi lemak and nasi hainan were taste so delicious! GI are looking forward to having breakfast here again soon. :)

for the food in Lau's Kopitiam, GI gives 3 stars.