The name sets the tone – ‘Antipodean’ is what the British sometimes call the inhabitants of Australia and New Zealand – and for anyone who has spent a little quality café time in either country, the first step into the Bangsar coffee hub should trigger a déjà vu moment. It has a very contemporary, laidback feel – simple dark furniture, warm burnt red walls, blackboard menu. That smell of freshly-roasted coffee is authentic – some of the beans are really roasted in-house.

Co-owners Alun and Arlini Evans founded Merdeka Coffee, the Indonesian-sourced brand of Arabica beans that is served at Antipodean; there are five Antipodean outlets in Jakarta and they’ve also got Merdeka Coffee outlets in Australia and New Zealand. They’ve got their sights on Abu Dhabi and Bangkok as well. All the cafes are started with local partners.

At Antipodean, the fragrant brew in your cup is also good for the soul – it’s sourced with an eye for social responsibility. Alun and Arlini get their coffee straight from the growers, cutting out the middleman so that the growers get paid more.

An espresso blend is used for the espresso-based drinks like the cappuccino and latte; it combines different character aspects of various beans to create a versatile coffee that can work well in several styles. There’s the standard blend, but something to look out for is the special espresso blend that Alun creates every six months or so – the chocolaty Summer Espresso Blend 2011 was so popular that it hung around for way more than six months.

You can also opt for a single origin coffee, from a particular growing area, like the Ngobo Estate Plunger from Central Java.

While the range of coffee served is impressive, some of the baristas have yet to nail the perfect cuppa, sometimes serving a brew which is rather bitter and burnt-tasting. So ordering a cup of coffee here can be a gamble; when they do it well though, it’s heavenly – smooth, rich and round in the mouth.

On the food front, Antipodean is noted as one of the best places in Bangsar for an all-day breakfast, featuring the beloved fry-up – scrambled eggs, hash browns, mushrooms, toast and sausages or real bacon. The eclectic café menu is typical of Aussie/ NZ cafes, with lots of sandwiches and salads, and some dishes showing strong Asian influence, such as the Cambodian chicken salad. Recommended: pumpkin and sweetcorn fritter with bacon, a salad of chickpeas and feta with fresh coriander and the Kiwi lamb burger, with mint and feta mayo.

Lyra Deanna
2012-02-03