Everything Random

ASA Menteng: The Best Bebek Goreng Ever

April 19, 2026

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This is my final Jakarta dinner table round-up. And this deserves a special mention because Bebek Goreng from this place called ASA is just phenomenal.

When I started writing this post, I would have wanted to say “The Best Fried Duck Ever”, but it sounds very offensive to vegetarians and to all ducks out there. So I just translated it into Indonesian so it does not sound very offensive to the English-speaking world.

Bebek goreng is a classic Indonesian dish, with duck meat marinated with spices, and fried to perfection. Again, my friend Dinita, whose impeccable taste I always trust, recommended this place, so even when it was raining hard on a Wednesday night, I made a point to go.

And here comes the highlight:

The flavours of ASA Menteng’s fried druck is just out of this world. It is quite apparent that the meat has been seasoned, spiced, and marinated well that it lands very softly on your mouth but with all the fireworks. They serve it with sayur kalas (long beans cooked in coconut gravy), lalapan (raw vegetable salad), and nasi goreng kecombrang (fried rice with torch ginger flower), plus three distinct sambals. The sambals made the dish more interesting and these are, in my order of preference:

Sambal bawang – a concoction of shallots and chilli soaked in oil with salt and pepper
Sambal hitam madura – a caramelized mix of shallots, garlic, chili, candlenut and others, that turns into a deep black color
Sambal matah – fresh sambal consisting of sliced shallots, lemongrass, chilli, kaffir lime leaves, and lime juice.

Here is a closer look of the three sambals:

Guess which one is the “spiciest”?

I paired it the meal with peach iced tea. And because I was not hungry that night, I did not order any starters.

The place is homey and eclectic at the same time. Loud colours are paired with the familiar bricks and a mix of tiled and wooden floors. The tables and chairs are made of wood, but there is also a photobooth at the entrance, which got me confused when I entered the place (maybe because I am old and conventional, and I can’t place a photobooth inside a restaurant).