From Yogyakarta, Sop Sapi Minarwati Lands in Cipete

by Runi Cholid
5th June 2025
Hailing from Pasar Kranggan in Yogyakarta, Sop Sapi Minarwati makes its anticipated Jakarta debut in Cipete, delighting urbanites with its playful persona and signature beef soups.

A dragon perched upon a wooden bench, picking up a lady in orange onto its back. They flew out of shot and over the MRT rail, finally making a landing in front of the Cipete station—a victorious moment backed by a grand soundtrack. This cheeky, badly edited (deliberately so) clip on Instagram signalled the arrival of Sop Sapi Minarwati’s new Jakarta branch in Cipete, bringing over its playful personality and signature beef soups that have been making waves at Pasar Kranggan in Yogyakarta since 2021. 

The lady in the video is founder Bonufatius Ferry’s mother, Minarwati, the very figure who gave the eatery its name. It was also from her that Ferry acquired the basis of his sop sapi or beef soup recipe, with it being the simple, go-to dish that his mother often made for him growing up.

“[Not just in my household], in Yogyakarta, we’re very familiar with soup. It’s something we always fall back on whenever we’re fresh out of ideas on what to eat,” shared Ferry. “My intention from the get-go was to develop a menu of no-fuss, daily dishes, which everybody can feel connected to and eat three times a week if they want to.”

Partnering up with Fransis Magastowo of Yogyakarta’s house-based pizza joint, Fransis Pizza, and drawing on his own extensive experience in the F&B field, the 37-year-old set out to refine his mother’s homestyle recipe and take it to the next level. The beef is slow-cooked for a whopping 12 hours to reach its succulent yet chewy consistency—served with thick slices of carrots and potatoes inside a semi-clear broth richly seasoned with cinnamon, cloves, star anise and a secret ingredient that gives the soup a subtly creamy flavour.

One can opt for the default Sop Daging or take it up a notch with Sop Komplit, adding three extra options of meat: from fatty rib slices to silky bone marrow and even brains. But when you’re not in the mood for soup, there’s also the Jakarta-special Ayam Goreng, where the fried chicken is ‘blanketed’ with egg and accompanied by a sweet and spicy sambal. Top off the meal with a glass of the Teh Kampul, a layered blend of four different Javanese teas, further brightened by slices of calamansi.

Branching out from Yogyakarta to the highly competitive landscape of South Jakarta, Ferry understands that Sop Sapi Minarwati needed to come in with a stronger identity. Beyond the humorous social media posts, he has also collaborated with local artists such as Mahaputra Vito and Ink Madya to create designs and illustrations that capture Minarwati’s playfulness. They adorn the eatery’s merchandise and shoebox space, giving the warung-like enclosure a pop of colour and a youthful appeal. 

But branding alone wouldn’t have been enough to keep people coming back—it’s the quality of the food that matters. And judging by the steady stream of neighbourhood regulars just a few months in—from mothers and children grabbing an after-school bite, French expats curious about Javanese food, to elderly locals warming up with bowls of beef soup as they wait out the rain—Sop Sapi Minarwati clearly has that covered too. “I’m still very hands-on in the kitchen. I have to be, to keep the flavours consistent. Because I’m not just selling a brand—I’m selling something I’d want to eat myself.”