And so it happened that Ying, Jess, Veji and I went out for lunch in Liberica Coffee after dropping off the printer at the mall. Much to our intense annoyance, our cab driver decided that he would compete for Slow Driver of the Year and practically crawled all the way to Rajawali Village. We attempted to plead for him to go a little faster but he almost immediately sent the car through a pedestrian ( might I add, at 40km/h ) as though he was proving a point. Therefore we figured that he'd probably do better sending us safely at 20 km/h than banging his way through town with a zillion casualties.
Here I must tell you, I'm not exactly a native Palembangian (Palembanganese? Palembangan? oh, whatever ) and a trip to Rajawali Village will result in you burning through your ears as you try to (unsuccessfully) explain to the poor cab driver where it is in broken Indonesian. Especially if you're a foreigner it seems like they deliberately misunderstand you just to piss you off. I've had my fair share of idiotic cab drivers, but that's a story for another day.
To direct a lost cabbie. basically all you do is go to the Grand Zuri Hotel down Jalan Rajawali and you'll spot a building complex with a My Kopi-O cafe out front. Just pay the cab driver and bid him adieu. This building complex is actually a mall which is still under construction. Liberica Coffee is located on the ground floor. Don't worry, it's open and functioning. It might interest you to know there is a proposed Liberica Coffee branch soon to be opened in the Palembang Icon mall.
Liberica is divided into two partitions; smoking and non-smoking. Our seats in the non-smoking area were soft armchairs and were just perfect for a quiet ladies day out.
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| Hot Chocolate : Rp 38,000 |
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| Fettucine Alfredo : Rp 38,000 |
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| Spaghetti Bolognese : Rp 44,000 |
The pasta comes with a choice of either fettucine or spaghetti. I really have a thing for fettucine, so I got the alfredo whereas Ying decided on the bolognese. The alfredo was probably one of the best I've had here. The first time I visited Liberica the mushrooms in the alfredo had this odd canned preservative taste, but today the button mushrooms were pretty good (though still most probably canned), the sauce was thick and creamy, the red and green bell peppers were crunchy and there were substantial slices of rotisserie chicken. The bolognese had this great tangy tomato base with minced beef in it. Both the pastas were topped with garlic bread and a sprinkling of Parmesan. I enjoyed the garlic bread but Ying claimed hers was a little on the burnt side.
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| Cream of Mushroom : Rp 25,000 (Yes, it's half-eaten) |
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| Barbeque Chicken Wings : Rp 34,000 |
Vejitha, our resident vegetarian decided to go with cream of mushroom which came topped with garlic bread. The soup itself was thick and creamy and most satisfyingly packed with mushrooms. Jessica decided to go with the barbeque chicken wings. I do have to point out that the management didn't really get the anatomy right and there were no wings but just little chicken drumsticks - warning; in Palembang, chickens are a little diminished in size. Literally chickens here look like they went through a shrink ray. You can eat a whole thigh in just one chomp. Regardless the barbeque wings were fantastic, with the chicken melting right off the bone and the sweet smoky taste of barbeque sauce to accompany it. I'm not a fan of barbeque sauce, but those glistening drumsticks were more than I could handle.
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| French Cheesecake : Rp 32,000 |
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| Bailey's Tiramisu : Rp 35,000 |
After lunch we were itching for dessert and ordered a cheesecake and the tiramisu. The cheesecake was pretty good, baked with a perfectly even brown top, smooth-tasting with just a hint of lemon. Truly the envy of rookie bakers like me. However the tiramisu definitely won out. The layers of mascarpone and coffee sponge soaked in Irish cream and topped with a sprinkling of cocoa really made my day. In fact it makes me emotional. Or maybe that's just the liqueur talking?
I digress. I ordered a vanilla rooibos tea (Rp 21,000) after lunch and it came served in a dainty French press. The scent of vanilla in the tea was really delightful, but maybe next time I'll stick to green tea as I'm not much into scented teas in general. We also ordered a blended hazelnut (Rp 37,000) which I think is a milkshake blended with a couple of hazelnut shots. It was pretty good too, not too sweet with just the right amount of hazelnut.
I'm not much of an epicure and describing food is really not my forte, but I truly enjoyed our lunch session. The general ambience is quiet, and Liberica has a classic teashop atmosphere about it. The price of the food is reasonable and I'd definitely recommend it. However I must say that they should really improve on food presentation and general customer service as the waiters were in Dreamland most of the time.
For the more alcohol-inclined, Liberica offers a variety of beers and coffee cocktails, along with wines and other alcoholic beverages.
P/S :- Don't be shocked about the tax and service charge. You know what I mean.
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