Built inside what looks to be the old garage of a Dutch colonial house, Contou oozes a certain gritty charm that only old buildings can produce.
The walls aren’t freshly painted and rely on a look created over years of painting, scraping and repainting. It’s a great look.
The coffee here is fantastic. Silky smooth milk, double ristretto as standard and a perfect ratio of milk making for a great tasting coffee. Susan really enjoyed her mocha as well.
It’s worth noting that this is one of the cheaper cappuccinos in Bandung using a proper espresso machine. And for the price, I think it’s fantastic value.
Sadly, this is one of the few coffee shops in Bandung not offering wifi, so it’s not a place you’ll want to work in.
But with a charming fitout and some of the best coffee in Bandung, we think it’s a coffee shop you should come to anyway. It’s fantastic.
PS Don’t forget to pat the cute calico!
Contou
Jalan Sunda 61, Bandung
Instagram: @contoucoffee
Opening Hours: 08:00 – 22:00
WiFi: not available
Cappuccino: Rp22.000
Mocha: Rp23.000
* No tax!
The coffee here is very good and my magic was strong, smooth and with well-textured milk. It was also perfectly hot, something of a rarity in Bandung. Susan’s iced coffee was great as well. What’s more, prices here are quite good with milky coffees just over Rp20.000 and no added tax.
They also do food here. Small bites and larger meals are all on the menu. I haven’t tried them yet, but they look quite standard for a Bandung cafe.
The tables here all have international electricity sockets and they are comfortable to work at. But what was really surprising was the speed of the internet. 82mbps down and 18mbps up which is one of the fast download speeds I’ve seen anywhere.
I really love this place and can’t wait to come back and work here.
What they do serve they do very well. I had an iced coffee and Susan had an iced chocolate. Both were excellent. I particularly liked how my iced coffee wasn’t too sweet. Sometimes coffee shops like to go over the top with the sugar, but here they don’t.
There is no WiFi at Havana Coffee, so don’t come here to work. That said, the interior is really funky and photogenic and you should definitely come here for your instagram shots.
If you come here looking for the exact location of the coffee shop, enter the car park of Bangunan Mart and look up the side of the building — the coffee shop is tucked along the side.
I want to talk about the coffee. It’s fantastic. They serve their cappuccinos in a tiny cup, but as we know with coffee, it’s not quantity that matters, it’s quality. And what makes a good milky coffee so often depends on the coffee to milk ratio. At Kinokimi they get it spot on. And the good stuff continues with silky milk and…… AWESOME CUPS.
They use cups Kaloka which are worth about Rp250.000 each. They feel good to drink out of and I’m happy to pay extra for a coffee in a good cup.
Susan had a Gingerbread latte which was creative. It wasn’t just another menu item to keep the non-serious coffee drinkers happy – it was a good menu item on its own.
I ate a smoothie bowl which I enjoyed a lot and Susan had the beef stroganoff with quality pieces of meat – tender! We’re actually curious to know what the other menu items are like because we think the food here is a winner!
When I arrived, the WiFi wasn’t working and I found that to be really disappointing. If you need to work, you need WiFi. But as I was leaving, I asked about the WiFi again and they said it was kind of working and dropping out. So I tested it and it was super fast at 43mbps down and 59mbps up. If they can make sure that this wifi is stable, it will be a great place to get work done, upload youtube videos and other data-intensive work.
WiFi issue aside, this is one of our favourite new cafes in Bandung. Fantastic fitout, top notch coffee rivalling anything else in Bandung and good food. Come here!
Coffee here is made without an espresso machine. For their espresso based drinks they used a manual method of extracting shots and a small milk steamer which is heated on a stove. The coffees I’ve had in the past made using this method are usually unable to reach the standards that a machine can produce. And 2 Grams is no different. The cappuccino here is quite good, but you can tell that it’s not made on a big expensive machine. Because of that, the coffee is cheaper than at the most popular Bandung coffee shops.
The menu of food seems pretty good with a selection of katsu and noodle dishes as well as snacks such as crispy mushrooms and banana nuggets.
This is the type of place in Bandung that is usually quite successful because it’s not trying to appeal to the elites. It’s trying to appeal to the common man by allowing smoking inside, serving up manual coffee and not trying to be too pretentious. The prices are also good. A fantastic middle of the road nongkrong spot for those trying to avoid Bandung elites.
There are a few snacks on the menu such as cheese puffs, but I didn’t try these.
The wifi was broken when I was there so I can confirm whether it’s a good place to work or not. But the tables are good enough to set up a laptop on and there plenty of electricity sockets should you need them. If you’ve tested the wifi here, let me know in the comments!
One last point. It was extremely quiet when I was there and without more customers, I’m not sure how they are going to survive. It’s the same in so many Bandung coffee shops and we just hope they can make some minor adjustments to attract more customers. Semangat!
Overall, this is a place you come to for good coffee, friendly staff and perhaps to work if the wifi is operational. With some minor interior adjustments, this will be a mainstay on the Bandung scene.
The fitout is bright and airy and out the back there is a garden area where most people choose to sit.
Let’s talk about the food. We ordered salmon penne and shirataki bakmi Jawa and both were fantastic.
The salmon penne was honestly just as you’d expect. A hunk of salmon on top of a bed of pesto covered penne, a few mushrooms and cherry tomatoes and a tiny amount of cheese. I thought it was excellent.
It’s possible to open a laptop here and work as many tables have electricity outlets and the wifi is quite fast at 27mbps down and 4mbps up.
But there are problems. When I was there, staff were having problems with the steam coming out of the machine, but they served me up a coffee anyway and the milk was awful. Thin, watery and unpleasant. The flavour of the coffee was nice, but it was ruined by the milk. Sorry, not good enough.
Susan’s iced coffee was excellent and the pisang aroma we had was quite good too. But that cappuccino… no no no.
The inside area has plenty of tables and chairs with electricity sockets, so you could easily spend a few hours here working.
This is a cafe with plenty of potential. Great fitout in a great location. I believe they know how to serve good coffee and that I was served a bad one because they had some sort of technical problem. Next time I visit, I hope to get a good one.
A couple of the sitting areas here are boiling hot due to the plastic canopy above them. These areas aren’t really habitable at this time due to the intense heat and reminded me a bit of a greenhouse. The friendly manager told me they were working on a solution for the heat and I’m sure they’ll have that under control by the time that you arrive.
Susan’s green drink was pleasant and both of our meals were enjoyable. A special mention to the fried chicken on my nasi goreng — it was excellent.
WiFi here is fast. I clocked 25mbps down and 49mbps up, so this place is definitely a potential work spot for you. Particular if you choose one of the indoor air conditioned areas where the air is cool, electricity plentiful and tables large. If not, the outside areas also have plenty of electricity sockets.
This place has loads of potential and I can see this place becoming a hit after they iron out a few of the issues that exist at this point in time.
The coffee shop itself is to the side of the main house and has two main sections. One large section outdoors for those who smoke and one large one indoors for those who don’t and who prefer air conditioning.
I tried the cappuccino here which apparently is stronger than their magic. That’s new for me, but I can attest to the fact that the cappuccino is super strong. I loved it.
WiFi here is fast at 39mbps down and 7mbps up and there are plenty of places to sit and work as well as plug in. A good place to work.
After visiting more than 80 coffee shops in Bandung over the past few years, this is now one of our favourites. Love it.