Following their success with more than 20 outlets in Malaysia, the first Boat Noodle finally opens their first outlet in Jakarta! Opening their first outlet in Empire Damansara, Selangor in 2014, Boat Noodle offers authentic Thai noodle as their main menu with the tagline of Thai street. Previously, they just sold noodle only, but hence Boat Noodle already expanding, now they are serving a lot more about Thai street foods.

Located on the UG level of Mainstreet Dining area in Gandaria City, you can find the restaurant at the opposite of Pablo and Coco Ichibanya with the giant bright signage. The space is quite big with ambiance made so close to rustic Thai-style.

There are small wooden tables organized neatly in rows, and they also have an open kitchen concept so we can see the noodle preparation process through their open kitchen. The stacks of Mangkok Ayam (the infamous white bowls with rooster logo) added the authentic feeling of the place since that’s what you normally see in Thai’s boat noodle stall.

The Kuey Tiow Ruer, which is commonly known as boat noodle is a delicate dish which originates from the floating market of Ayutthaya. In case you wonder why the portion of boat noodles is very small, here it is a little historical info of boat noodle. In the past, a merchant who sold boat noodles would have been the only person working on a small boat and would have had to do everything by himself from paddle a boat, scald the noodles, season the soup, serve the dish, handle money, and wash the dishes. If the bowl was too big, it would be difficult to hand over to the customer on the land and might be easily spilled. So, this is the reason why the boat noodle’s bowl is small, for the convenience and safety of the merchant.

To order, you just need to write on the paper provided on each table. What you need to write however is not the name of the menu but the code. The service was excellent, the waiter will happily explain the menu to you! They also friendly, always with a smile, awesome, super fast! We’re always happy to visit the restaurant with a great service like this!

When ordering boat noodles, you have to choose your preferences of noodles (rice noodle / egg noodle), meat (chicken / beef), and soup (Pathumtani / Ayutthaya). As we mentioned above, it has a small portion so one bowl is never enough. You need to order more than one and then stack the bowl after you finish one bowl. Order it again and again until you’re full and realize that you have already made a stack of bowls.

Boat Noodles

If you’re the first-timer to trying boat noodles, we suggest you try both Pathumthani and Ayutthaya soup and choose which one you like better. The darker broth is Pathumthani style, and the brown creamy broth is Ayutthaya style.

The Ayutthaya recipe is a creamy dark broth packed with flavor. The fusion of the 10 finest herbs, various spices, and coconut milk creates thicker taste. We find the soup to taste too much of a coconut milk and to be honest, we don’t really like it while The Pathumthani recipe has been crafted to create a dark soy sauce broth that tastes both sour-ish and spicy. Made with 19 selected herbs, it also contains a generous amount of 5 spice powder. The blend of star anise and cinnamon sticks makes it even more tasteful.

Each portion of noodles is topped with meat and a meatball. The rice noodle here is like a wide noodle but made of rice while the egg noodle, the texture is definitely more familiar, though it’s not as chewy. Both noodles are pretty similar, though we prefer the egg noddle. As for the soup, we prefer to Pathumthani style.

Flame Grilled Ayam Legend

The first impression, the chicken looks like the Brickkiln Chicken that we found in Taiwan. The chicken was. tender, juicy, and grilled to perfection with flavorful spices seasoning. Don’t forget to dip in the sauce, it salty and sour to complete the grilled chicken. It’s a must order!

Sangkaya (Steamed Bread)

Trust me, all of you will gonna love this sangkaya steamed bread! It’s steamed soft fluffy bread served with green sangkaya sauce. It’s better to eat it as soon as its delivered onto your table because otherwise, the bread will get hard when it’s cold. Their kaya sauce was amazing, it’s perfectly creamy sweet and milky.

To eat this, we have to mix the sangkaya sauce before we dip our toast into it. Their kaya sauce was amazing, it’s perfectly creamy sweet and milky. It’s crazily good and definitely, a must order!

Drink of the Day (Bai Toey)

It’s actually pandan water served with lots of ice. Really love the pandan fragrant and it’s also not too sweet with a hint of pandan flavor. Simply fresh and we loved it!

Cha Manao Yen (Thai Lemon Tea)

We also tried Chill Chill, which offers authentic and famous Thai drinks such as Thai tea, Thai green tea, Thai coffee, and Thai lemon tea. Since the only drink available is the Thai lemon tea, so we decided to try it. It’s really fresh and tastes like Nestea lemon tea that we bought from Thailand. You can also bring the hard-plastic glass back home!

Overall, Boat Noodle serves authentic and delicious Thai boat noodles. But to be honest, the noodle and soup were not special for us, but their Grilled Chicken and Sangkaya do! Will we come back in the future? Maybe yes, but not in a near future and maybe not for their noodles.

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Boat Noodle

Gandaria City Mall, UG Floor (Main Street)
Jl. Sultan Iskandar Muda
South Jakarta 12240

Opening Hours: Everyday (10 AM – 10 PM)

Instagram: @boatnoodleindo

Spending per pax: IDR 100,000 – IDR 150,000

Taste: 7/10
Service: 8,5/10
Place: 7/10
Value for Money: 6,5/10

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