TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Picture of Alice from the Wonderland drinking coffee with her two best friends Mad Hatter and White Rabbit is displayed on the wall of Ninotchka Coffee Shop and Bakery. The picture seems to indicate that Ninotchka is designed to be a place for casual coffee break with friends. The coffee shop targets students returning from school and families as their visitors.
Roy Leonard, Ninotchka Coffee Shop General Manager agreed that the shop is mostly crowded during the after-school hours. The shop is open from 13:00 to 22:00.
Ninotchka seems to be specialized in sweets treats (desserts) than heavy meals. However, they claim to serve home-made pasta on their tag line. Despite of its remote location from the down town, Ninotchka becomes the first in Jakarta that serve coffee with latte art or decorating coffee foam into three-dimensional pattern.
“We are the first who serve coffee with three-dimensional latter art,” said Roy proudly.
Indeed, Ninotchka’s latte art is popular and has gone viral through social media since many guests are satisfied with the shop’s creation. The 3D pattern preserves long enough and taste just right when paired with variety of coffee.
Beside the coffee, dessert in Ninotchka is something should not be missed. There is sweets called Sea Salt Caramel Cake. It is a champion for its soft texture with caramel cream coating plus ginger powder sprinkle. The chocolate in the center of the cake is very sweet with some rum flavor. The cake is so soft that it would stick to the fork when the Sea Salt Caramel Cake is sliced.
Sea Salt Caramel Cake is served cold, making it best to be eaten with warm coffee.
That day, we tried out the Vanilla Latte with pattern of a cat face peeking from behind the glass. There was a bit of sad feeling when we had to drink the coffee and ruined the cat’s ear.
The bitterness and acidity level of the coffee in Ninotchka are not too extreme. There is not much sugar to maintain the acid and bitter taste with a bit of vanilla flavor. The 3D pattern is made stiff with high speed mixer and it has plain taste.
After the sweet treats, we tried the pasta, which is called the Aglio Lio that was unbearably hot. Probably with a creative idea, Ninotchka sprinkled slices of dried chili on the pasta. Aglio Lio a la Ninotchka will surely make your tongue dance.
Another main course worth trying is the lasagna. The pasta sauce and meat duet were not too acidic and did not overcome the savory from cheddar cheese inside it. The meat was tender and the pasta was not too creamy. There still pieces for the teeth to bite.
CHETA NILAWATY
