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Chef Vallian Gunawan may have gained a following in Bali for opening and leading Canggu’s wildly popular <a href="https://www.projectblack.co/skoolkitchen?DestinAsian">Skool Kitchen</a>, but his latest venture more closely matches his training at some of Asia’s top Michelin-starred French restaurants—including Odette, Saint Pierre, and the now-defunct L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon in Singapore. These days, he’s chef-owner of <a href="https://biko-group.com/kindling?DestinAsian">Kindling,</a> a tie-up with the locally born Biko Group that occupies a restored 1900s bungalow in the central Jakarta neighborhood of Cikini. This is an intimate fine-dining restaurant with polished, naturally warm service, sans chandeliers and white tablecloths. Expect Asian flavors featuring strong Chinese, Japanese, and Indonesian influences, but executed with French culinary techniques. Tasting menus constantly change in line with the availability of seasonal produce from Indonesia and abroad.
A dinner at <a href="https://biko-group.com/kindling?DestinAsian">Kindling</a> isn’t a static experience. It begins at the Living Room, where guests nibble on amuse-bouches like a turnip cake reimagined as a tartlet with XO sauce, shiitake mushroom, and fried sakura shrimp. Dishes served in the main dining room might include kombu-cured Japanese hamachi in a ginger flower–clam broth with kaffir lime oil, and a nostalgic pao fan (soupy rice) that mixes Japanese and Thai jasmine rice with braised fish maw, sea cucumber, bamboo pith mushroom, and black truffle shavings. Petit fours and post-prandial cocktails are enjoyed in the Library, a moodily lit den that’s made for lingering. —James Louie
<a href="https://biko-group.com/kindling?DestinAsian" target="_blank" rel="noopener">biko-group.com/kindling</a> 
+62 21 314 0213 
<a href="https://maps.app.goo.gl/M5YwkWyJFCjvD5yS7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jl. Cikini Raya No.20, Cikini, Menteng, Jakarta, Indonesia</a>

Inside the cozy dining hall at Kindling, a fine-dining restaurant in central Jakarta.

Kindling: Polished Asian Dining

Jakarta Dining