Admission: Club Lounge rate-paying guests
Location: FL26
Elite Check-in: No
Hours: 6am-11:30pm Daily w/ coffee/tea & cookies
Light Lunch: 12pm-2pm Daily
Afternoon Tea: 3-5pm Daily
Hors d'oeuvres and Cocktails: 6-9pm Daily
Cordials & Desserts: 8-10pm Daily
Breakfast: 6-10am Mon-Fri, 6:30-10:30am Sat-Sun & public holidays
Kids Policy: All ages from 6am-7pm Daily welcome to a designated family room. Ages 12 & under not allowed 7-11:30pm.
Dress Code: No slippers, flip-flops, bathrobes, hats and tank tops
Smoking:No

>>>>WARNING: WELL OUT-OF-SEASON CHRISTMAS IMAGERY TO FOLLOW>>>>

I've only visited two RC Club Lounges, both of them in the same city, so what follows is in no way, shape, or form any claim to knowledge of what a RC Club Lounge experience should be. This is, rather, a report of this poster's experience of a lounge that has a lot of greatness in and IMO is worth paying (not that much) extra for. The hors d'oeuvres & cocktails (basically, dinner) has improved DRASTICALLY between early and late '23 visit, showing that management is willing to listen and adjust to customer feedback.

Checked in around 3pm, assigned an FL25 room which meant I could saunter up these epic stairs at my leisure. One fellow Club guest, upon seeing me pop up the stairs, asks a lounge dragon: "What's down there?"
"Rooms," was the reply.
Go figure.

At afternoon tea, I eschewed the "Ubud Garden" (some chakra portals are means to be sealed) in favor of a Berrybiscous and was instantly transported to my boyhood in hippie-dippy California. Tasty and soothing, both.

Followed by the tower-o-stuff... the scones and cream are quite nice but wasn't a huge fan of the jam. Not my culture anyway...

It was Boxing Day and the Ring-ting-tingling was in full effect.

This was a particularly quiet time, but at a lounge this size, "packed" would be pretty hard to achieve. Especially on a stretch of week when the hotel is at uber-low occupancy, with rooms sold mostly to staycationeers without Club access.

One of the best features of this lounge is the effective segregation of guests with sprogs from the general population, thanks to the family room. It's just about the best solution/compromise for this issue.

View from the family room

So, 6pm rolls around...

The last time I dropped by, the house gin was that acrid Seagram's that seems to be the default Jakarta Bonvoy lounge replacement for Beefeater. I was, in this case, quite relieved to see instead a local craft gin: East Indies Archipelago Dry.
Espolon is a favorite of mine, and -- in the land of volcanically-projected imports tariffs on alcohol -- there was no issue amortizing the Club Lounge access cost with several heaping glasses of this excellent tequila, both straight-up and also in a quite nice, Christmas-y cocktail that tasted like spiked horchata.

Not so many Bonvoy club lounges in Jakarta serving sparkling wine. None as far as I know that you can access from elite statues, so of course, had a glass or three.

At this point, the evening spread was starting to look quite enticing, especially the main protein.

The last time I'd visited, general impression was hot food, and proteins in particular, were utterly lacking. Certainly not worthy of calling dinner.
So it was a surprise and delight to not only encounter a roast beef carving station, but to see such choices as: gindara in marinara sauce, fried duck in orange, and beef rendang. Lots of hot sides as well, like sautéed carrot and stringbean and Javanese fried rice. The best plant-based treat, however, was from the cold section of the buffet where a blitzed-to-heaven charred cauliflower was feautured alongside pumpkin and other harvest-season veggies.

Talking of vegetables, there's a toss-your-own-salad station, where you can put a you Caesar together...
One has the option of adding a particularly-crispy protein to this salad. Not pushing anyone in this direction, but the heart wants what the heart wants I'm told.

The roast beef with a glass of CabSauv was pretty epic. Way better than what I paid top Rupiah for last year at the Intercon's Christmas Day buffet dinner.

Like sister property JW Marriott, RC Mega's boozing hour extends past 9pm, giving you a whole extra hour and some to tickle the liver. Unlike JW, the booze is actually not heinous. At this point I'm stuffed beyond capacity and the signature cocktail -- a sort of icy, lychee gin-based Cosmo with aforementioned Archipelago -- sounds alright. Not my thing, but is good for what it is: a refreshing, fruity gin cocktail.

Honestly, this is one Club Lounge where even I have a hard time staying until the last drop is poured. Four-to-five hours of free flow and one might struggle with those stairs...
After the condition one may find themself in the night before, is there any better benediction for the soul than this the next morning?

By the time lunch rolls around, you probably may want to take a break from eating club lounge food, but why wouldn't you have another Caesar salad and a sandwich on the way out?


Not pictured is a plate of nachos that, while very well intentioned, tasted more like a fondue gone horribly wrong.
As I've as of late developed an obsession with how stingy medium-to-high-end Marriotts in Southeast Asia are with local, tropical fruit (except for that cursed dragonfruit which they dole out in spades) I shall close this review out with desert.
The very best of tropical and moderate temperature zones, ammirite?

In summary, RC Mega's Club Lounge is pretty swell. Among my favorite Marriott club lounges in Jakarta. They've really upped their game in the last year and it's always reassuring to see anything in the Bonvoy-verse move forward rather than backwards. And while I actually like this hotel enough to have no problem staying with no Club access, it's absolutely worth paying the extra for.