IO, Jakarta – You can find cuisine from anywhere in the world in Jakarta, and if you are a lover of Asian cuisine, you might want to visit Toast Box. Toast Box is a coffee shop from Singapore offering authentic Nanyang coffee. Not only Coffee, Toast Box also provides a variety of toast and Asian food. Toast Box opened its first Jakarta outlet in Kasablanka Mall at the end of January and opened its second outlet in Gandaria City. Toast Box is well-known to Indonesians who have visited Singapore as there are 70 outlets spread across the country and more than 100 outlets located in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Taiwan.
In Indonesia, Toast Box is managed by PT BTG – Pura Indah Berkat Venture, a joint company by PT Pura Indah Berkat (PIB) and BreadTalk International Pte Ltd (BTI), subsidiaries wholly owned by BreadTalk Group Limited (BTG). Toast Box’s first Indonesian outlet was opened in 2017 in Soekarno-Hatta International Airport Terminal 3 for Departures. The café has a contemporary style and was created to conserve Nanyang’s coffee and toast culture of the 1960-70s, where customers would be greeted by the aroma of Nanyang coffee mixed with freshly toasted bread. Toast Box uses a unique blend of Robusta, arabica, and liberica coffee in an attempt to recreate the coffee familiar to Hainan immigrants at the time.
Toast Box is also the first to implement the “ground as you brew” method that ensures new coffee is ground and brewed to order resulting in fresh coffee.
“Toast Box comes to Indonesia to serve the enjoyment of Nanyang’s coffee, toast rich with half boiled egg which is a breakfast menu typical of Singapore, in a modern and comfortable restaurant atmosphere available every day to visiting customers. Not only that, we have also expanded our menu by serving various main courses typical of Asia such as Singaporean Laksa, Curry Chicken, Mee Siam, and Mee Rebus which is very popular with our customers,” said Vincent Lim, President Director of PT BTG – Pura Indah Berkat Venture.
When I first visited Toast Box in Gandaria City, I tried a menu item that caught my attention, the Mee Rebus. Why did I pick the Mee Rebus? Because it was very different from the boiled noodles usually eaten in Indonesia. Usually, boiled noodles in Indonesia do not use coconut milk and have a different texture.
If you are interested in trying Singaporean food, don’t hesitate to try some at Toast Box for breakfast or lunch. (Aldo)