A Bandung food trip, from kupat tahu to martabak.

The place

Why Bandung.

Bandung, the capital of West Java, is the home of Sundanese food and of a café culture that goes back to the Dutch colonial era. Several of its best-loved places have been open for 50 to almost 100 years, and many are within walking distance of Jalan Braga downtown.

Dishes to know: batagor (fried tofu and fish dumplings with peanut sauce), siomay Bandung (the steamed version), mie kocok (noodle soup with beef and cow’s-foot tendon), surabi (small rice-flour pancakes) and martabak manis (a thick sweet pancake folded over chocolate, cheese or peanuts).

Nine stops

Nine Bandung stops and what to order.

Years and addresses are as given by the sources below. Legendary places can sell out early — go hungry, go early.

The route

One day, sunrise to midnight.

1. Breakfast: kupat tahuKupat Tahu Gempol is busiest from morning to midday. Get there early and order one plate each.
2. Braga: coffee and pastriesCoffee and srikaya toast at Warung Kopi Purnama, then cheese sticks and an ice cream at Sumber Hidangan, open since it was a Dutch sweet shop called Het Snoephuis.
3. Kopi Aroma for the bagA coffee factory since 1930 that ages its beans for years. Its beans are sold only at the shop on Jalan Banceuy, and people queue from the morning.
4. Lunch: noodlesMie yamin at Mie Naripan, or walk to Jalan Cibadak for mie kocok — Mang Dadeng closes in the afternoon.
5. Afternoon: batagorA plate of batagor at Batagor Kingsley to share. Crisp outside, soft inside, lots of peanut sauce.
6. Night: Cibadak and martabakCibadak’s snack stalls open in the evening. End with a martabak — order one sweet and one savoury for the group.

Oleh-oleh

What to bring home from Bandung.

Oleh-oleh are the food gifts you carry home. Bandung is famous for them.

• Coffee beans from Kopi Aroma — arabica aged about eight years, robusta about five, sold whole or ground how you like.
• Cookies from Toko You (since 1947, Jl. Hasanudin 12) — kastengel (cheese cookies) and nastar (pineapple tarts).
• Pastries from Sumber Hidangan — for the drive back.

Timing and getting there

How to do Bandung well.

• Take the Whoosh high-speed train from Jakarta. It stops at Padalarang, where a free feeder train included with your ticket runs about 20 minutes into Bandung station.
• Go on a weekday. Weekdays are more comfortable, and lines at legendary places are shorter.
• Mornings for the classics. Breakfast places and noodle shops sell out or close by mid-afternoon.
• Nights for Cibadak. The snack street runs from the evening until late.
• Carry cash. Street stalls usually prefer small notes.

Sharing math

How to eat Bandung with friends.

• Breakfast: one plate each. Kupat tahu is a meal.
• Bakeries: one of everything, cut in pieces.
• Batagor: one plate per three.
• Martabak: one sweet and one savoury per four. They are big.
• Settle up at the end with the split bill calculator.

Copy this

Your Bandung checklist.

Screenshot it and tick it off. Doing Jakarta too? Pair it with our Glodok food trip.

• ☐ Kupat tahu — peanut sauce out of 5: ___
• ☐ Srikaya toast — sweet enough? ___
• ☐ Cheese sticks eaten before leaving Braga: ___
• ☐ Coffee beans bought: ___
• ☐ Batagor or siomay? ___
• ☐ Martabak manis topping: ___
• ☐ The snack on Cibadak I can’t name: ___

Keep the trip

Nine stops, one day, one map.

A Bandung day is a lot of small plates in a lot of old buildings. Snap each table in PlateDiary: every dish is cut out on your phone into a save, each place becomes a moment, and the map pins the whole day from Gempol to Cibadak.

Give each place a stamp in Stamps, your stamp book of places you’ve eaten, so a 1929 bakery sits next to the martabak cart. PlateDiary is also available in Bahasa Indonesia.