Food tripping in Yogyakarta... Part 2

 

 

For our last night in Yogya, we had a wonderful dinner at theSawah. I've read nothing but good reviews about the dining place, and decided that we must give it a try.

On their website, it said that theSawah is not a restau, but a place to eat.

This is partly true. I say partly true because while it's true that the place iså not a restau, the place is also not just for eating. It is where one will experience true Javanese hospitality as Dutch-Indonesian couple Wim and Phillip welcome you into their home for you to have a delightful dinner. The atmosphere is definitely not one of a restau. It feels more like having dinner at good friend's house.

What separates theSawah from the other dining places in Yogya is that Wim & Phillip will ask you what you want for dinner. If you dun have anything in mind, leave it to them to surprise you with a feast. That's what happened to us. I emailed them for a Saturday night reservation. We left it to them to prepare the meal for us and what an awesome meal it turned out to be.

From the starters to the soup (we had soto ayam) to the mains (about eight Indonesian dishes!!!) to the dessert, each dish was prepared carefully and with much attention.

Just before we had our dessert, Wim gave us a tour of the home. There were many impressive details to be found around their home. I enjoyed it that Phillip would share a story about a particular wall panel, or a wall detail, or the flooring. Wim, a Dutch guy who has been in Indonesia for a decade now, even shared their own story.

Dinner at theSawah was definitely the perfect way to conclude our trip to Yogya.

By the way, though their place is off the beaten path, it is definitely worth a visit. If you ask the hotel or people living in Malioboro about going to theSawah, the quick answer would be, "Oh, it's very far. Very far." Nope, this is not entirely true. As long as the cab driver knows his way, you will reach theSawah in 20-30 minutes.

What we did was to ask for the help of a cab to bring us to the place and wait for us until we finished dinner. We shelled out Rp100,000 (about 14SGD) for this. Later on, we found out that you can just take the cab to the place, and Wim and Phillip will call a cab for you. How great is that?

So dun be daunted by what the townsfolk say, otherwise you are going to miss an awesome dining experience.

If we were to describe the restaus we had for the three nights, Alex and I agreed that it would be good; better; best.

So, that's it, really.

The four day trip to Yogyakarta, Indonesia was just enough to see Prambanan and Borobudur, but a bit too short to experience more of the rich culture of this city in Java island. Must come visit again one day.

On to the next trip.

Whooopppeee!!!