Overpriced Doesn't Mean Expensive

Hello Asean Hive Community

Today I am sharing you guys one of my dining experience from a couple months ago. This is well kept on my draft regarding that time it was the Ramadhan month, a fasting period which I held myself not to share some foodie posts.

I came to this place exactly at 23 February 2026. Actually I had come here several times, and I had three drafts about them that I had decided not to post them because I had not figured out how to complaint and rant about them without pushing them too far low...

My order was 1/4 chicken with Mandhi rice and an Ice tea. They put the price at 43.500 Rupiah or around 2.6 USD. Not an expensive price but definitely it is not cheap at all. They put the same price with Kentucky Fried Chicken, but KFC would give me two cut of chicken, not just one... So it was not a cheap one.

The place was empty when I got there. They had always been empty recently, I came there several times and this one was a better one. At least there was another customer there and the Air conditioners was running well.

There were times in the past, maybe 4-5 years ago when they were really full of customers. There were times that they were some rising stars in Food and Beverages Industry. They were famous for serving Middle East Fast Food at affordable price. But that was a history now.

So this was the set menu I ordered. In general that did not taste bad at all, not great, not very good, but quite decent. I could not say it was bad, however... For 2.6 USD I believed I had the right to complain a lot.

I would not complain about their Mandhi Rice, It was decent but a bit below par. The best Mandhi rice I had in Jakarta costed me around 8 USD, so if their Mandhi rice could not compete, I would not complain. Why would I complain something that costs less than a third from my Favorite dish?

However this dish was sold about $1.4 a year ago. So that gave me a big question... Why would they rise the price twice, but they did not give something more to compensate the price up? In the past it was not a chicken and a vegetable pickle only, they gave a side dish too from Panada, Smash potato or some fritters. Right now, the side dish gone and the price doubled...

How could they expect everyone would accept that gladly and let it go? The fact that many of their tables were empty was already a direct respond from their customer...

However allow me to give some credit to them too. Their pickle there tasted very well, I liked it. However I did not come solely for the pickle and I did not pay that amount to have a good pickle.

I doubt they could rebound back, because once a restaurant or food outlet rose their price and gave less in hope of getting more margin... Their doom was determined there. Sadly I believed they would not even manage to figure out their mistake there and soon, maybe in one or two years... they might be put out of business...

Well, It's life anyway. Sometime we need to watch something that was great become deteriorated and put out of business. We could only hope that we do not follow or trapped in that path.

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Thank you for coming and reading my post. I live in Jakarta, Ex-Capital City of Indonesia. I used to live by making money online, that's why I like being here, on HIVE, and in #PIMP - (Paper In My Pocket) community. Feel Free to leave any comment below