A few months ago I challenged myself to find the restaurant that offered the most authentic American breakfast in Jakarta.

It was a "mom and pop" approach to breakfast I was after and I knew I wouldn't find it any hotel coffee shop.

Then, just recently, Koi Kafe and Galeri in Kemang, South Jakarta, invited me to brunch. Oh boy! My quest was over.

"I guess you could call them classic American breakfasts, or even European breakfasts. But we fuse Indonesian products into our food," said Cynthia Wirjono, the manager of Koi and sister of Amalia Wirjono, Koi's owner.

Cynthia lived in San Francisco, California, for a number of years when she was studying art and design. During the busiest hours of the brunch, she played host together with her husband Chris Kerrigan.

We started with one of the most commonly served food-related cocktails: The Bloody Mary. It came with a little wooden tray bearing spices and other flavorings. If this doesn't put enough fire in your belly, you could try the Chili-Infused Bloody Mary, which is made with home-infused chili vodka.

The Mojito, which fuses mint, lime and rum, is a must try. Koi also has Mimosa, but it has to be ordered by the bottle.

The most popular brunch dish at Koi is its Eggs Florentine, which consists of poached eggs and sauteed spinach on multi-grain toast with hollandaise sauce. A novel side to this item is the smoked salmon.

The Eggs Benedict consists of poached eggs, smoked beef and hollandaise sauce on multi-grain toast with roasted tomatoes. Prices are extremely reasonable at Rp 30,000 to 35,000 for the Eggs Florentine and Eggs Benedict respectively.

New on the menu is Steak and Eggs: 200 grams of tenderloin with vigneron butter sauce, two eggs and a grilled tomato. The grilled tomato is especially tasty. And their scrambled eggs is excellent.

Other brunch treats include salmon served with a bagel, the cheese souffle and the mushroom breakfast wrap.

The Koi Breakfast Special is made up of scrambled eggs with sliced camembert, leek and smoked beef, served with a bunch of home fries.

Items such as balsamic mushrooms, sauteed spinach and bagels are also available as side orders.

On the sweeter side of things, also on the Koi brunch table are jam and toast, natural yogurt, homemade granola, ricotta pancakes, blueberry pancakes and roti sobek French toast. Both the homemade granola and the roti sobek French toast are out of this world.

"Roti sobek is a type of Indonesian sweet bread," said Cynthia.

"We are trying to mix as many local products or homemade ingredients into the menu as we can. So they are not totally made from imported ingredients. For example, our fruit cocktail is made from tropical fruit."

Local fare is available in the form of corn fries, nasi lemak and fried rice. Although I had no room left to try any of these, I imagine they are of a similar high quality.

The Koi venue in Kemang itself has a cozy and laid-back atmosphere. There's even a play area with an array of colorful toys for children. The brunch is available Saturday and Sunday from 10 A.M. to 4 P.M.

I don't want to be controversial, granted there's a lot of good competition, but Koi in Kemang is one of the best places to "do brunch" in Jakarta.

Koi Kafe & Galeri at Kemang

Saberro House

Jl. Kemang Raya no. 10A

(021) 719-5707

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