Filosofi Kopi: From A Book To Real World

If you are looking for a new hottest hangout place in Jakarta, Filosofi Kopi could be the one you are looking for. Filosofi Kopi is a coffee shop adapted from a movie with same title. That is one of reasons that makes people come to this place. 

And if you are lucky, you can meet the stars from the movie, Rio Dewanto and Chicco Jericho. 

This place is located in a busy market place of Blok M, not far from the Blok M Square Mall. The location is at the edge of Jalan Melawai VI, an interesting street full of quirky Japanese restaurants and bars. 

It is actually a nicely designed small space from an unused old building. Entering the place, you will feel the industrial design right away.  Rustic metal wall, exposed brick, and shabby furnitures are balanced with beautiful paintings and playful properties. 

Coming here on Saturday afternoon, you may find the café overcrowded with reverent patrons waiting for their coffee. It’s also full of the local youngsters who enjoy good conversation with friends and take picture here and there.

Steamers, espresso machine, and the bars layout is positioned in the middle front of the rectangle shaped coffee shop. Yes, you can enjoy watching the eight baristas doing their magic on your coffee. But I think less amount of helpful and friendly baristas are more than enough.

The menu is very limited. It only has Aceh Gayo, Sidikalang, Java, Mandailing, and Flores Arabica for local coffee varieties and standard coffee serve such as espresso, cappuccino, and latte. They also have french fries and churros for finger snacks. The coffee prices range from Rp 25.000,- to Rp 48.000,-. The cappuccino and latte we ordered cost us Rp 30.000,-.

Since there were three of us going there, we also ordered for one non-coffee beverages. It was little annoying when we asked for it and the baristas threw an impolite stares with strange facial expression. We were a bit uncomfortable, they might find it strange when people ask for non-coffee at a coffee shop. But, we got a cup of iced tea with Rp 18.000,-

Moreover, when we asked about available seats around, the five unoccupied baristas just pointed from their standing position and suggest, “Oh there and there”. Like mentioned above, less amount of helpful and friendly baristas are more than enough. 

We would like to say that the place is overcrowded and very busy. More people coming as it gets darker outside. If you have empty glass, they will stand next to your table waiting for you to leave the table. And for us, it was really uncomfortable. 

Taste-wise, we could say the coffee is just average. There is nothing special to talk about the coffee. But, hey... it is not the coffee that they really 'sell'. It is the place where Filosofi Kopi are filmed. That is why this cafe is full of people taking photographs and uploading it to social media to stay 'current'.

Though, I would be curious to taste the blended affogato coffee with durian and vanilla ice cream.