LOCATION:
On Jalan Sido Mukti in the traditional village within the Keraton complex. Very close to Keraton's main entrance.

DESCRIPTION:
First, before I blabber about what you can find here, I'd recap on how on earth I got to Gadri Resto. As I mentioned previously about the unscrupulous tour guide of Siti Hinggil Pagelaran (you can read about it here), after his failed attempts for big fat commissions from the batik art store and two gift shops in the Keraton villages, he finally brought me here.

For those unfamiliar with Indonesian way of life, "resto" is actually a short form of "restoren" (yes, you guess that correct, it's a restaurant!). One thing you will notice in Indonesia is that there are a lot of short-forms and cut-out words as well as acronyms being used widely on newspapers, TV channels and signboards. A few that struck me were: JATIM (for "Jawa Timur" or East Java), JATENG (for "Jawa Tengah" or Central Java), DIY (for "Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta", not Do-It-Yourself!), etc. Just be on the look out so that you will not get confused.

So, what's in Gadri Resto? Actually, it wasn't all that bad. The establishment actually has a nice open-terraced restaurant, which, during that fairly hot weather, I could easily see myself sipping a nice cold Javanese coffee here. But with the thought of the tour guide trying to scam me by bringing me to this fairly unknown place for his own benefit, I decided not to.

Further inside the restaurant is actually a living museum of one of the Sultan's relatives, if I could remember correctly. I forgot to take note who the owner of this house-cum-museum-cum-restaurant is, what more with a security guard ushering us out, upon knowing that we were not patronising the restaurant.

Before I left, I managed to snap a photo or two of the local ladies painting batik on pieces of cloth. Then, there is a special bangsal where gamelan instruments are kept. After all, the type of gamelan instruments one keeps is the sign of wealth and status symbol.

MY VERDICT:
It was actually a good place to visit and chill if it wasn't for the dopey tour guide. Please exercise caution.