Convivium Cafe Deli

Strategically located at Panglima Polim there lies an authentic Italian deli with homey concept and atmosphere strengthened by its warm lighting to lighten up those gloomy hearts. Stand under the name Convivium which means a banquet , dining-party , entertainment in Latin. In a nutshell, Convivium is a place for eat & drink , it's a place for gathering and having good times. It's an ordinary house which decorated extraordinarily, upon the entering, i saw well-furnished with wooden touches including their wooden shelves and wood panelling around the place, while the floors covered with cheerful wallpapers. For some peoples it's the type of place which binds you and make you want to come here again & again , but i don't know if it's apply to me. We'll see.

TO BE READ OR NOT TO BE READ :
It was another tempting invitation came from OpenRice ( CLICK for further informations ). Firstly, i want to say thank you for OpenRice who often and openly gave me the chances to know better restaurants around Jakarta. Basically, if you go dine , having lunch and maybe in between for fattening or either just bored, you just sit there ,enjoy the foods, and had good times with companions. But, OpenRice just take it to another level of culinary to know each of restaurants history , behind the processes of the foods making, get in touch with ( at least ) the manager or the person concerned, and maybe with its owner. That's a hell of experiences i wouldn't got when i was independent. Precisely, when i wasn't a food blogger and a lazy openricer, well after those times given by OpenRice i submitted my review there just a mere 17. As an amateur food blogger who just started his blog about 2-3months ago , i am truly grateful for those delicious invitations and got 2 new friends : Dita & Usni. Please, i know you will boast it when you guys read this.

This lamp is beautifully decorated , couldn't resist myself to admire this

Then the convive opened by Mr Steven. He's a manager of this cute, pretty deli. He explained to us a little bit history of this place, their pasta and pizza dough which they made it from scratch to keep the Italian authenticity and flavors. Last but not least he explained about our menus which served on the table.

This is the best complementary snack among all those restaurants which provided it too . Tasted crunchy and savory, yes. It's Convivium Cheese Stick. Inadvertently i almost finished them up.

Tagliere De Crostini 50k

Came with sort of rock style presented, there are 3types of crostinis. It similar to bruschetta / garlic bread which you often meets in an Italian restaurant or maybe pizza huts. It's a small crunchy ciabatta bread. Ciabatta is an Italian bread which made from flour and yeast. We got the cherry tomato crostini which topped with fresh cherry tomato and basil, the quite elusive chicken liver crostini and the one topped with fresh and salty anchovies and cheese ( Anchovies is a salted fish ).

I love their crostini which topped with cheese and anchovies. It was fresh and a wake up call at one blow. You'll know they use a good quality of anchovies and the cheese? got nothing to complained about. But as for me , their chicken liver flavor is too much for my liking, maybe it was too hipster so i couldn't handle it. Cherry tomatoes were refreshing. Nonetheless, it was a good appetizer before the entrees.

Cream Ai Fungi 35k , or famously known as mushroom soup.

It's a big bowl of tasty mushroom cream soup which rich of flavors and came in a thick texture of soup, Some people will love this very much and some of them will left the bowl untouched. I finished it up, it was good, well-balanced and they were brave enough for seasonings. Maybe, one of the best mushroom soups in town.

Spaghetti Chitarra al Nero si Seppia 80k

It's a pitch black linguine which was quite scary to be eaten. To be honest,it didn't strike my appetite. Luckily the cherry tomatoes made it equilibrium a little bit. With an apathetic gesture i put a forkful of it in my mouth. It wasn't biting, it lacks of something , it missed something good but i don't know what it was. I don't know,its too wet and quite strong to made me nauseated. I was having a squid ink pasta like this somewhere, and it tasted satisfying. Don't know,this was out of my list.

Fungi Pizza 70k ( Mushroom Pizza , no meat attached )

It was fragrantly served on the table that made my appetite out, it was huge. They also put a generous amount of mozzarella cheese everywhere. I love their cheese and again it used cherry tomatoes as a complement. Seriously,is it just me or this restaurant is fond with cherry tomatoes? After gobbled those non-meats foods, i wanted at least a pizza full of sinfully fattening meats.

From the texture the dough is thin enough unfortunately the pizza was too wet. It even didn't solid enough took by my hands to the plate. The toppings were slippery. But apart from that,this is a good pizza dish. If only their pizza was crunch enough, not too wet, and solid enough, this would be a perfect pizza. From the toppings i really loved and enjoyed it. They have high quality of cheese too.

Roast Beef 90k

After besieged by mushrooms attacks, here came the beef , it was available on 3 stages of maturity cooked level : well done , medium and rare. I just want the meat came with it best flavor, so like Mr Steven recommended, i chose the medium one with those fresh pinkies meat. It was delicious! The meat was not too thick so i didn't use much energies to munched it. Perfectly thin sliced and seasoned. What made me kinda scared to ate it was the grease! It looked so FATTY and oily. I even separated the grease from the meat. it deserved an A- from me.

Assaggio di Gelati e Sorbett ( gellato & sorbet sampler ) 70k

I was like, uh,wow? when i knew one of the gellatos made from bacon , yes bacon , yes pig. So basically,the gellatos were made consisting 2 important elements , it was milk and cream. While the sorbetto was freshly made with more fragile texture ( can i use fragile for foods? ) more like shaved ice with flavors.

PS : Actually their bacon gellatos were made through some complex processes like infused the flavors between the bacon and cream and it took 6hours for created an unique flavor like that.

So, it was ten cute tiny desserts with Risotto Mascarpone, Squid ink, Orange Basil, Red Velvet, Vanilla Balsamic, Lime Rosemary, Earl Grey, Lychee, Bacon, and Strawberry Chili flavors. Putted in a petite glass used a long wooden stick which has the same function as a tray. It took quite a time for me to took a pic of it.  What was intriguing was their Strawberry Chili , Squid Ink , and Bacon. I seriously doubt it was a bacon, by the smell it was bacon decorated with a lapciong meat ( it was a Chinese type of cooked pig ).

I couldn't handle the bacon, tasted grotesque for me. It was too slang for me or you could use the word "funky" on it. Strawberry Chili was quite decent type of sorbetto. It left that hot spicy sensation afterward. And the squid ink was edible and a little bit salty in a proper way. What turned out to be my favorite was their Red Velvet which was so good! I could ate 10 glasses of it , Their Vanilla Balsamic turned out to be a good gellato as well, followed up by the fresh orange basil. Sick of "Rainbow Trend?" then you should go with this.

Torta Passione (Red Velvet Cake) 38k

I tasted it before and i gave 80 for the taste and hoping for its consistency. Yes, it's still GOOD! So, they didn't use peanuts / sprinkled crushed almonds all over the cake instead they used coconuts shavings. As for the red color from the their Torta Passione ,they used chocolates, so basically it was a chocolate based cake mixed with vinegar but i didn't tasted the acidity from the vinegar. It was good. Contained of 2 types of cheeses : cream cheese and mascarpone. It was softly melted in mouth and the creams were satisfying my sweet-tooth cravings.

they also sells variant types of cheeses and pork meats

their cute cashier and equipments

Thanks Convivium and OpenRice, i had great times being this comfy and warm Italian deli. There were some other menus that strikes my curiosity as well. Kinda curious with its well-known carrot cake and their blue velvet. For take away i had another slice of their chocolate cake for 44k after tax.

See you again anytime soon , Dear Convivium :)

Convivium Cafe Deli
Jl. Panglima Polim IX no.1, South Jakarta
Phone: 021-7269963
Twitter: @ConviviumDeli
Facebook: Convivium Deli