Category: Jakarta

Jakarta is the capital city of Indonesia with population of no less than 10 million. Quite possibly the food haven for food blog if not for the traffic.

Remboelan

Remboelan Review:

This week’s post is from our trip to Indonesia earlier this year. It is an Indonesian restaurant in Jakarta called Remboelan. We went to the one in Plaza Senayan. The venue is a bit tricky to reach and there are no elevators going up to its level. So, it is quite a battle if you have your grandparents or disabled person dining with you. Also, given that it is located in one of the best malls in Jakarta, you could expect hefty price tags (by Indonesian standards).

The menu is like the who’s who list of famous food around the country. They have a lot of different kinds of food. You might want to take your time browsing through them. On this occasion, we went with a gazillion of people ordering gazillion of food. So, I might not be talking about each of them individually as this post would look more like an essay.

Hors d’oeuvre
In Indonesia, the appetizers look more like desserts than savoury dishes. Remboelan can do this assortment of snacks, or locally known as ‘jajan pasar‘, served before all guests arrive.

Soup

We ordered two soups from Central Java: asem-asem iga and tongseng sapi. They were both beef soup. I wasn’t really paying attention to them.

Asem-asem iga Putri Solo – 79k – Sour Beef Ribs Soup

Tongseng Sapi Telaga Sarangan – 60k – Curry-like beef soup

Meat

The strength of Indonesian food is in the meat and fish departments. Beef Balado from Padang and Javanese Beef Steak (known as Selat) from Solo are probably two of the most prominent dishes in Indonesia.

Balado is pretty spicy, so please make sure you are well equipped to eat it!

Balado Dendeng Hijau Padang Panjang – 65k – Dried beef with spicy balado sauce

Bistik sapi Jawa (Selat Solo) – 68k – Javanese beef steak

Ayam Krispi Saus Mangga Muda Midodari – 58k – Crispy Chicken with young mango sauce

Fish

Indonesians (read: my family) love grilled fish. We are blessed with overabundance of fish in the region. On this occasion, we chose gourami and snapper. The snapper had a spicy flavour native to the Eastern part of Indonesia, Manado.

Ikan Gurami bumbu kemiri – 95k – Grilled Gourami

Kakap utuh Woku Belanga Bunaken – 225k – Spicy Snapper

Kakap utuh Woku Belanga Bunaken – 225k

Vegetables and Noodles

These two vegetables, along with eggplant, are probably three of the most ordered by us. In addition to that, we love our noodles too!

Kangkung Bumbu Terasi – 42k – Water spinach with shrimp paste

Cah Taoge Jambal – 42k – stir-fried bean sprouts

Mie Goreng Remboelan – 43k – Remboelan Noodles

Drinks

Indonesians usually drink black coffee. Drinking with condensed milk, a la Vietnamese coffee, is probably the only other way.

Kopi Tubruk – Black coffee

Es Delima Larasati – 33k

The final verdict for Remboelan

I know the price seems to be quite excessive by Indonesian standards. However, Remboelan presented a collection of wonderful dishes that you would otherwise need to travel 1,000 kms for them.

Did you know?

Similar to other well-known restaurants, Remboelan has plenty branches all over Jakarta. They are mostly located in high-end malls.

Rating for Remboelan:

8.0 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: Rp 40k – Rp 225k ~ $4 – $20

Place: 8.5 / 10

Details:

Plaza Senayan, Lantai 4, Jl. Asia Afrika No 8, Jakarta

+62 21 5725088

www.remboelan.com

Jun 20, 2017
Bebek Tepi Sawah

Bebek Tepi Sawah Review:

Our review this week came from a now-franchised restaurant in Indonesia. Bebek tepi sawah is literally translated in English to ‘edge-of-a-rice-field duck’. The first Bebek Tepi Sawah restaurant was opened in Ubud, Bali. On this occasion, we went to one of its branches in Pondok Indah Mall in Jakarta. The menu is quite similar to the one in Bali, but with more emphasise on the Indonesian dishes.

Duck restaurant in Indonesia is usually famous because of its chili sauces. In Bebek tepi sawah, you get three different chilli sauces: red chilli, fried chilli, and Balinese’s special sambal matah. Each and every one of them is above my spicy threshold.

Tepi sawah crispy duck or grilled duck – 109 – Our signature traditional duck with choices of deep fried or grilled served with Balinese vegetable, rice, and three types of sambal (merah, matah, goreng)

Their signature duck came in either grilled with soy sauce or deep fried. The grilled version is more on the sweet side and the deep fried is savoury.

Bebek Betutu – 102k – One of all-time favourite dishes in Bali, the duck is stuffed with banana leaf and traditional balinese spices, then grilled. Served together with lawar, rice, and sambal.

Betutu is the traditional steamed-version of the duck. Betutu spice is notoriously spicy. I wouldn’t recommend you touching it unless you are an avid chilli lover.

Iga bakar tepi sawah – 109k – A set of grilled beef short ribs marinated with soy sauce, served with lawar and rice

This was the dish that I ordered. The ribs portion was quite small when compared to the ones in Sydney.

Sup Iga Garang Asam – 99k – Braised short ribs beef soup with special sour herbs and served with our special chili

Sate Bangli – 65k – Marinated chicken skewers with soy sauce, grilled, and served with sambal pelalah

The final verdict for Bebek Tepi Sawah

When your restaurant is called ‘edge-of-a-rice-field duck’, eating in a giant mall in Jakarta somewhat diminished its value. The duck itself did not manage to beat my favourite duck restaurant in Indonesia. I quite enjoyed the beef ribs I ordered.

Did you know?

Bebek Tepi Sawah has four outlets in Jakarta – the same number of outlets they have in Bali!

Rating for Bebek Tepi Sawah:

7.0 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: Rp. 100k+ per main dish

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

Pondok Indah Mall 2, Lantai 3, Jl Metro Pondok Indah, Jakarta Selatan

+62 21 7592 0667

http://www.bebektepisawahrestaurant.com/

Mar 29, 2017
The Holy Crab

The Holy Crab Review:

Seafood in Indonesia is in abundance and is usually quite reasonably-priced. That’s why for this week’s review we went to a nice seafood place in Jakarta called The Holy Crab. The Holy Crab borrowed its seafood concept from Louisiana seafood boil.

However, we actually did not pay close attention to the price in the menu and missed the ‘little’ detail of price per 100 gr for the first 8 items (not just the top 4) in the menu. As a consequence, those 2 mud crabs were costing us more than half of the total bill!

Their menu can be divided into two: fried or boiled. Obviously their main attraction was the boiled one. You can select from the two sauces: Original Cajun or Garlic Pepper. There are four different hotness levels: Mild, Medium, Spicy, and Holy Moly!

Cajun Fries – 28k

Cajun fries is the staples that you need to order. You would get corn in some of the dishes below, but it’s not chips!

Onion Rings – 35k

Onion rings is one of my favourite dishes and I will always try to order them whenever I see one.

Mud Crab – 48k / 100gr

I love a good mud crab. However at $48 / kg, their price is almost on par with Sydney’s Mud Crab.

Shrimps – 40k / 100gr

We ordered the shrimps, that’s how the Americans said it, in garlic pepper sauce. It also came with corn cobs.

Crawfish – 48k / 100gr

I like crawfish, or what we call yabbies here in Australia, a lot more than lobster.

Hooks Telescope – 30k

The Hooks Telescope is the name they gave for a hot dog. It is part of the kids menu. The hot dog was quite plain and you had to put in the sauce separately. This is a big no-no for kids (my son especially). It wasn’t as exciting as the rest of the dishes.

The final verdict for The Holy Crab

Outside the little pricing ‘surprise’, we actually quite enjoyed our dinner at The Holy Crab.

Did you know?

The Holy Crab group has a few different restaurants in its group, Ersons Group. One of the more notable restaurants is the Holy Smokes.

Rating for The Holy Crab:

6.5 / 10

Taste: 7.0 / 10

Price: ~ $200 for 3 adults + 1 kid

Place: 7.0 / 10

Details:

Jl Gunawarman no. 55, Jakarta Selatan 12110

+62 21 2923 6155

http://theholycrab.co.id/

Mar 21, 2017
Medan Baru

Medan Baru Review:

The restaurant I am reviewing this week (I believe) is a restaurant that has achieved the legendary status in the capital city of Indonesia, Jakarta. When you ask someone from Jakarta about Rumah Makan Medan Baru, they would most likely have heard about the place. We went to the original place in Pasar Baru, Jakarta.

You can feel the old-fashioned air as soon as you entered the restaurant. There was no menu being handed out in Medan Baru. Instead you are given plates of pre-selected dishes. The number of plates were not as massive as other similar restaurants in Indonesia.

Please be mindful that you do not need to finish them all. You are only charged for the number of plates you take the food out from.

Medan Baru is famous mainly for their following three dishes. You have to order it separately as they don’t come in that pre-set menu laid out above.

The first on the list is Sambal Ganja. Unfortunately (or fortunately and strangely, I might add), they ran out of it when we were there. Sambal ganja is a chili sauce that was native to Medan area. Ganja is actually an Indonesian word for cannabis leaf. Whether or not they actually put ganja in the ingredient, you would never know.

I was happy that I did not have to try chili sauce. It did leave a sour note to the whole experience.

Burung Punai

Burung punai is the local name for pink-necked green pigeons. So (yeah!), you are basically eating a whole pigeon. To make things more interesting, they actually left the frame intact. You got everything minus the head and feet.

There was not that much else to talk about.

Gulai Kepala Ikan

This is the bit that made me consider to revisit Medan Baru. Basically, it was fish head curry… A really big fish head. They have quite thick curry sauce and very fragrance dish.

The final verdict for Medan Baru

Personally, I was not too impressed with the quality of food at Rumah Makan Medan Baru. I believe my brother has oversold it a tad too much.

Did you know?

Rumah Makan Medan Baru has two more branches in Jakarta: Sunter and Puri Indah.

Rating for Medan Baru:

6.5 / 10

Taste: 6.5 / 10

Price: Rp 20k onwards per plate

Place: 6.5 / 10

Details:

Jl Krekot Bunder Raya No 65, Pasar Baru, Jakarta

+62 21 384 4273

Medan Baru on Zomato

Mar 2, 2017
Mottomoo – House of Hamburg

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Mottomoo has advised that they have changed their concept and menu. We will be updating the content of this blog post accordingly.

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Mottomoo Review:

I actually wasn’t planning on reviewing this restaurant. I was at Mottomoo because I tried to have a quick lunch for the little one before meeting a friend. Unexpectedly, I was quite impressed with their quality. Hence here we are talking about it!

The restaurant is located in one of the high end malls in Jakarta, called Pacific Place. The little one was craving for a Japanese restaurant. More specifically, the craving was for Japanese salmon teriyaki. It’s really hard to find even a decent salmon teriyaki in Indonesia.

Salmon Teriyaki Don – 63k – Japanese rice bowl with Norwegian Salmon fillet brushed in special house made teriyaki sauce

It was probably one of the more elaborate teriyaki don I have ever seen. In addition to the usual suspects, they also added mushroom, corn and seaweed.

Nicely done salmon teriyaki = happy kid.

Cheese Tater Tots – 45k

I thought I could use some snack before the main dish. I chose deep fried cheese sticks with some sort bolognaise dipping sauce.

Mushroom pepper Hamburg with Truffle – 89k.

This is what I love the most about Mottomoo. Japanese Hamburg is a fusion of Japanese and Western-style cooking. I love how Mottomoo grilled its Hamburg. It was still juicy and mixed really well with the mushroom pepper and truffle. Have that with a bowl of rice, and you have one nice meal!

The final verdict for Mottomoo – House of Hamburg

I did not expect their food could be good. But, I was wrong. I enjoyed the meal we had at Mottomoo.

Did you know?

Pacific Place has a real-sized sail boat (floating on a miniature lake) inside the mall!

Rating for Mottomoo:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: Rp 50k – Rp 80k for main

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

Pacific Place Mall, 5^th floor

Jl Jenderal Sudirman, SCBD, Jakarta

+62 21 5797 3026

Mottomoo on Facebook

Feb 17, 2017
Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ Restaurant

Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ Restaurant Review:

When I get back to Indonesia, I always ask my friends and families to recommend me a new restaurant to try. This year, my brother recommended me to go to this week’s restaurant, Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ. There are quite a few of them in Indonesia already and we tried the one in Tunjungan Plaza 4, Surabaya.

They have three types of menu: a la carte, standard, and premium all you can eat. The premium all you can eat costs almost twice as much as the standard one. However, it does come with wagyu beef, prawn and soft shell crab. On this occasion, we chose the standard one because almost all of their main dishes are included in the standard version, at around $23++ (tax and services).

Meat

The standard version came with three types of beef cuts, two types of chicken and assortments of sausages. The more important thing to order here is the condiments that accompany these cuts. They have spicy miso, garlic and butter, and cheese sauces. They really enhance the flavour of the meat.

Staples

We usually stay away from rice and the likes in an all-you-can-eat restaurant. However, if you really must order, they have four different kinds of rice, a ramen, and a few soups. We tried the Gyu-Kaku rice because the menu mentioned it should go well with karubi beef.

Cooked for you

They have a few deep fried stuff, vegetables, and quite a lot of salad.

Seafood

The seafood section is almost non-existent in this restaurant. The standard menu only has squid and the premium one has soft shell crabs, prawns, and fish cakes.

Desserts

Milk pudding and vanilla ice cream are the desserts for the standard version. There is only an extra sweet potato for the premium version.

The final verdict for Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ Restaurant

Their standard buffet menu is a great value for money. The quality of their meat was pretty good and the condiments made it even better!

Did you know?

Gyu-Kaku is apparently an American restaurant chain. Looking at the American website, their menu is significantly different than the ones offered in Indonesia.

In Jakarta there are two types of Gyu-Kaku restaurants, the normal one and Gyu-Kaku prime.

Gyu-Kaku’s interesting feature is its grill that sucks up smoke and pushing it downwards. So, less smoke sticking on your shirt!

Rating for Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ Restaurant:

8.5 / 10

Taste: 8.5 / 10

Price: $23++ / $40++ all-you-can-eat

Place: 9.0 / 10

Details:

Tunjungan Plaza 4 Level 5

Jalan Basuk Rachmat 8 – 12, Surabaya 60261

+62 31 546 8349

Indonesian Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ Restaurant’s facebook page

Jan 31, 2017