If you’re a South Jakarta lounge lizard such as myself, then there’s no longer any need to trek all the way up to the Hotel Borobudur’s Bogor Café for a taste of its legendary sop buntut (Indonesian oxtail soup) as Sop Buntut Bogor Café is now open for business up on the fi fth fl oor of the über-hip Pacifi c Place.

We arrived at the new BC during a Ramadan lunchtime, which we erroneously assumed would be a quiet time for a discreet visit. On the contrary however, the joint was jumping and the restaurant was packed with diners all looking for a taste of that mouthwatering oxtail. Business is apparently booming and this experiment with moving BC off the Hotel Borobudur premises seems to be reaping huge dividends.

Inside, the café offers huge panoramic views of the SCBD area and has been lovingly decorated in a style refl ecting the name of its original hotel home. There’s a huge painting of the iconic Borobudur monument itself, an amazing carved stone frieze which covers the rear wall with fi gures from antiquity, and also some striking backlit Borobudur style stupas behind the main counter. The restaurant can seat 122, and apparently often does!

Naturally, I ordered up a portion of Bogor Café’s celebrated oxtail soup. Bogor Café’s sop buntut comes in regular, grilled or fried varieties, complete with crackers, pickles, some delicious chilli sauce, a slice of lime and, naturally, steamed rice. I opted for my favourite variety (as I’m something of a connoisseur in all matters Indonesian and oxtail), namely the fried version of the dish, which I ordered in the café’s largest ‘Legendary’ size (Rp.98,000).

All of the oxtail on offer at Sop Buntut Bogor Café has been imported from Australia and our portion was extremely tender. Mention also has to go to the accompanying soup and it’s devilishly bewitching blend of herbs and spices. Fantastic. If you’re feeling adventurous then you may also wish to opt for the Sop Buntut Rica Rica or even try a Sop Buntut Teriyaki (Rp.58,000 each).

We fi nished off with the café’s best-selling desert, namely a portion of Grilled Banana Sate (Rp.32,000). This proved to be almost as good as the buntut itself and consists of grilled bananas skewered on traditional tusuk sate, a scoop of tasty coconut ice-cream and a slathering of brown sugar sauce.

As for the rest of the menu, well it isn’t large however there are some traditional Indonesian dishes to try, salads, and even a rather good seafood fettuccine. The Bogor Mixed Grill (Rp.98,000) is also well worth a go if you’re feeling especially ravenous. There’s also a cake counter and the sop buntut itself is available to take away in handsome Hotel Borobudur hampers, which hold two portions a piece.