August

The counter that respects silence

Eight seats behind an unmarked door in Menteng. No menu, no music, no photographs after the first course. August is the closest thing Jakarta has to a Tokyo counter, and the chef trained for it the hard way — a decade in Ginza before coming home. Come alone, sit at the far end, and let the room do the talking.

Order this

• Aged akami, soy from a single Kyoto brewer
• Sawara, binchotan, one grain of finishing salt

The judges’ table