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.

Edogin

Review for all you can eat menu:

Edogin is located in one of the most posh hotels in Jakarta. At a price point of $40 per person, it should be one of the most expensive dinner experiences in Indonesia. However, if you look at what they have to offer, that price is ridiculously cheap compared to other ‘big name’ restaurants with really crappy dishes and overly jacked up price.

So, what do they have to offer?

Quality All You Can Eat

I have been to Edogin twice now and I have yet to find any dishes that are below my standards. Some of them actually exceeded my expectations for non-Indonesian food served in Indonesia. They were as authentic as you could probably ask for!

They have several sections that serve different kind of Japanese cuisines. Without further ado, let me introduce you to the wonderful food from Edogin.

Fresh Sashimi

The obvious first spot to check for quality is its Sashimi range. They have a diverse selection of fresh fishes, octopus, fish roe, and fresh oysters – specifically I think it’s the big pacific oysters!

Rumour has it that they were one of the select few restaurants in Jakarta that received premium grade sashimi straight from the dock.

But seriously, their sashimi is the best I have ever tasted in Indonesia. They are on par with great sashimi place in Sydney.

Teppanyaki

I think their Teppanyaki has the biggest selection of meat and vegetables. They have assortments of fishes, different cuts of meat including beef ribs, poultry, and mushrooms to name a few.

What I like most about its teppanyaki section is its tiger prawns. Gigantic prawns and sometimes with eggs are there (and unlimited) for you to enjoy.

Robatayaki

If I told you above that Edogin’s sashimi was fresh. One of the creatures in their Robatayaki range is still alive! Better yet, they are live baby lobsters! They can even cut your finger if you are not careful in picking them up. You can see a video of the lobster walking off the plate here.

They also have ikan malas (Marble Goby), salmon, tuna, lamb chop, sausages and fish head ready to be grilled.

Noodles

I didn’t get a chance to taste the noodles (even my tummy has its limit!), but just to let you know that they have made-to-order noodles counter.

Assorted Japanese

There were quite a few fried stuffs in this section, including assortments of tempura. In this occasion, I tried their okonomiyaki, takoyaki, and fried salmon skin. I also tried its curious looking prawn and glass noodles in a short glass.

Assorted Desserts

By this point, I think you already got my point that there are lots and lots of options in every section. They seemingly have millions of mini bites, fruits, bread and butter pudding, and some things in shot glasses.

Assorted Ice Cream

And…. If your tummy can still handle it (or you can skip straight to this section), they have no less than 10 selection of ice creams with various toppings to enhance their flavours.

You can choose to have the ‘standard’ scoops and toppings scenario or they can mash them up on a bed of cold rock to create your personalised ice cream.

For this occasion, I ordered Pandan and Malaga ice creams with dragon fruit and lychee. You can also opt for the heavy options like chocolate ice cream with choco chip, cookies, and stuff.

The final verdict for Edogin

Edogin might be a bit pricey to some Indonesians, but this all you can eat restaurant has the best value of any high-end restaurants in Jakarta!

Did you know?

This is the first restaurant in Indonesia that was given a score of 9.0. It is also possibly the only 9.0+ restaurant that I would come back to without severely damaging my pocket!

It is also nice to have the waiters and waitresses address you by your name when the food is delivered to your table.

Rating for Edogin:

9.0 / 10

Taste: 9.0 / 10

Price: $40 for all you can eat

Place: 9.5 / 10

Details:

Hotel Mulia Senayan

Jalan Asia Afrika, Senayan, Jakarta 10270

+62 21 5753274, 5747777

http://www.hotelmulia.com/index.php/dining.html

Aug 27, 2014
Ninety-nine Restaurant

Rating:

7 / 10

Taste: 7/10

Price: $15++ per person

Place: 8/10

Review:

This week’s restaurant is located in the most posh mall in Jakarta Indonesia, Grand Indonesia. Ninety-nine restaurant promised a casual-yet-exclusive place with a rustic feel of European setting. Expectedly, it was nice-looking but I couldn’t shake out the feeling of being in a food court, a pricey food court. The menu was designed to capture all (too many!) interests: from European to Seafood to steak, they also have Indonesian and Chinese food.

How is their food? Our first two dishes of the day were the entrees: Breaded Onion Rings with Mayonaise and Tomato Ketchup and Mushroom Fritto Misto with fried garlic and chilli salt. We were really blown away by them. The onion rings were very crunchy and perfectly matched with the condiments. The assorted mushrooms were even better! I liked how they combined different mushrooms to create an interesting assortment of textures.

The next two were from the seafood section of the menu. There was an interesting combination for the Grilled Norwegian Salmon. It was served with tomato and mushroom butter rice and lemon sauce. The other one was Dory fillet with almond thyme crust, leaf spinach, whipped potatoes and lemon caper butter.

My father decided to go with Indonesian’s traditional Sop buntut goreng. It was a clear vegetable soup with fried oxtail and emping (crackers from gnetum gnemon). There was also the Hainan poached chicken – I must say it looked pretty standard when compared to Singaporean ones.

The last dish of the day was the one I actually ordered. It was Croque monsieur. The sandwich was pretty big by Indonesian standard and it was grilled beef ham with swizz cheese and mornay sauce. This is one of the dishes that I could only eat in Indonesia, because the real croquet monsieur was typically served with ham. The sandwich was delectable! It was crunchy, tasty and add an extra tomato sauce if you want to enhance it a bit more.

The final verdict for Ninety-nine Restaurant

There are some issues that restricted me in giving a higher score to Ninety-nine restaurant. The obvious one was its price! It was seriously expensive for the food court setting. The food was generally nice with a decent serving.

Details:

Grand Indonesia LG Floor East Mall

Jl. MH Thamrin No 1, Jakarta 10210

+6221 23581196

http://www.ninetynine.co.id/

Jul 24, 2013
Steak Hotel by Holycow

Rating:

8 / 10

Taste: 8/10

Price: $10 per person

Place: 8/10

Review:

For regulars who like to skim-read: Okay… before I started the review, go back and have a look at the price above. That is NOT a typo, $10 for a 400gr steak! Unless you are a profesionnal Steak griller, I don’t think you can get any better deals than this!

The other amazing thing about Steak Hotel by Holycow (I went to the one in Sabang) is the fact that they have a children playground! It’s incredibly rare for a restaurant in Indonesia to have a children playground (except that golden arch brand 🙁 )!

So, thumbs up for the couples @Dimas_Subagio and @sophia_hage who recommended this @Holycow_Radal. The biggest question then arises: How can their steak stack up against other steakhouse or even an Australian steakhouse?

Let’s see what they have to offer, starting from (of course) the 400gr steak, (strangely named) The Holy! Steak Authentic PART2. ‘Be ready for a big portion of a steak’, that’s their promise on the menu. Whilst it’s true for most Indonesians, they’re certainly not big for Australians – considering we can find a 1kg slab of meat in many restaurants in Australia. Personally, the size should be good enough. They didn’t offer rarity of the steak as they said it should be ‘perfectly cooked’. When the steak arrived, it was more on the medium-rare to medium region.

I should have ordered that, but instead I ordered the much smaller Wagyu Sirloin (medium-rare). It wasn’t that much more expensive and had a bit more taste to it, but (again) only half the size. Both steaks were served with a side of chips and trivial green veggies and a tomato. They also have three kinds of sauces that I suggest you to try them all.

After you are finished with your main meal, if you tweet to the twitter handle (@Holycow_Radal), you will get a free dessert! They are famous for the Tiramisu, but when we were there, they didn’t have it and had a mini cupcake instead.

The final verdict for Steak Hotel by Holycow

Steak Hotel by Holycow surprised me in many ways, but the facts that they served decent-sized steak on a local price and had a playground on the premise really did it for me.

Did you know?

Once upon a time, Steak Hotel by Holycow had a twin sibling Holycow! Steakhouse, however they were no longer related.

If you are interested in learning more about it, Rayns Raymond drew an interesting comparison between the two in his blog.

Details:

Lt 5, Gedung Seremanis

Jl KH Agus Salim No 16, Jakarta, Indonesia

+6221 31906420

@holycow_radal

http://www.hellocarnivores.com/

Jul 11, 2013
Restoran Sederhana – Masakan Padang

Rating:

7 / 10 Taste: 7/10
Price: Rp 10k – Rp 35k per plate
Place: 7/10

Review:

Let’s kick off our holiday reviews with this uniquely Indonesian restaurant, Restoran Sederhana. This restaurant is now a well-known franchise throughout Indonesia and each restaurant has a pretty similar dishes. They serve ‘Masakan Padang’ (Padang-style) which originates from Sumatera and is known for its distinct spices that are almost curry-like (they called it ‘gulai’). I should probably tell you how the restaurant works first.

As soon as you sit on your table, there will be people coming over to your table delivering all kinds of things, like rice, various dishes, hot tea, even desserts. Your table would end up like the picture below.

‘It’s shocking!’ might be the usual response for first-timer, because within minutes all kinds of dishes are ready in front of you. You don’t need to be afraid as you are not obliged to buy all of them. The way it works was that you eat what you want to eat and leave the ones you don’t eat untouched (except for the purpose of moving the plates around).

The two dishes I loved in this place are Gulai sotong (Curry of Whole Squid) and Gulai kikil (kikil is a meat between cow’s hoof and leg). I would never miss either of them whenever I visit a restaurant with Masakan Padang. In a decent restaurant, the squid should be easily shredded and not chewy, the same goes with the kikil.

They have quite a few vegetable selections, like the hot and spicy potato and eggplant, quite a few seafood and chicken options. I think it’s better to refer you to Wikipedia for the relatively complete list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padang_food.

If you can read Indonesians, there are literally dozens other dishes on the menu and you can order like you normally would in a restaurant. I would suggest Sate Padang (Skewers of meat with special Padang-style sauce) with rice cakes. There is also the infamous Ayam Pop (not a big fan, personally), it’s a pale-coloured chicken that is said to be boiled, then fried. If you feel a bit more adventurous, perhaps you can try its Gulai Kepala Ikan (Fish Head Curry). I really love it but it gets too expensive to my liking.

You might then be compelled to ask ‘What about hygiene and stuff?’… well, if you have ever eaten from a buffet bar, I can’t see the difference.

The final verdict for Restoran Sederhana

The best thing about Restoran Sederhana is its uniformity. It can deliver delicious Padang dishes in all of its restaurants. It also features a unique presentation in which all dishes are displayed in front of you.

Did you know?

For those of you Indonesian readers, I suggest you read this article about the founder of Rumah Makan Sederhana. I think it’s pretty inspiring in his will to continue on and say no to giving up!

Restoran Sederhana in Indonesian means a simple/humble restaurant. It might be true 30 years ago, but I think it’s more for middle (or even mid-upper) class people.

Details:

Multiple Locations

We went to the one on the highway rest area between Jakarta and Bandung.

May 31, 2013
Sate Khas Senayan

Sate Khas Senayan’s Rating:

7 / 10 Taste: 7/10

Price: $12 per person

Place: 7/10

Review:

Sate Khas Senayan has the words timeless tradition written in their menu’s front page. I think it really captures the very essence of satay. Indonesian satay is pretty unique in its own rights. What we call satay is actually skewers of meat (chicken, lamb, or beef) with thick peanut sauce and/or sweet soy sauce. With this review, I concluded my review of Indonesian restaurants during our June’s trip.

First off the bat was Sate Ayam Campur Bumbu Blora. Ten good ol’ chicken skewers on a modernised bakaran sate (griller). This particular plate was called campur because it was mixed (dicampur) with chicken skin satay. I particularly love the skin since it was tastier than the white meat part. Sate is best enjoyed with lontong (rice cake wrapped in banana leaf).

The presentation of Appetizer Sampler was so appetising. It was a combination of Tahu kipas (stuffed tofu), risoles (croquette), sosis solo (a type of sausage), and rambak petis (beef crackling with shrimp paste). It’s a nice way to explore the diversity of Indonesian entrees. I ordered Tahu Komplit (‘complete’ tofu) as well to show you that the Indonesian tofu is a bit different that the Japanese one. Instead of silky / smooth and dense, the tofu was quite airy and best served deep fried. This way, it would bring out the crunch.

Another type of sate came up next, Sate Cumi (squid satay). Unlike its predecessor, this sate was only served with sweet soy sauce. It is rather unusual to have a squid satay since it is technically grilled squid on a stick. There was a massive expectation riding at the back of Kepiting soka saus asam pedas (spicy and sour soft shell crab) as one of my favourite ingredients. It didn’t disappoint in terms of crunchiness of the crab and the balanced sauce.

I didn’t try Sop buntut (ox tail soup) since it was ordered for my friend’s son. It is a clear vegetable soup with oxtail and melinjo crackers. Despite the presence of highly fattening oxtail, the soup was actually quite refreshing. Tumis kangkung terasi (stir-fry spinach with shrimp paste) had an extra shrimp paste added to the dish that created a nice dimension to the otherwise spicy vegetable dish. Tahu telur (tofu in fried egg) was our last dish of the day but unfortunately I’ve enjoyed a much better one during our visit to Indonesia this time.

Deciding what to drink was the hardest challenge that we had to take in Sate Khas Senayan. Out of the four in the first picture, I would choose Es Cincau Hijau (pandan-flavoured grass jelly ice), which was the horizontal one in the picture. There was also a nice and refreshing Cendol. This is a rice-flour and palm sugar dessert that is normally served as a drink. My eventual choice went to Teh Poci, a traditional hot tea in a clay pot with rock/lump sugar.

The final verdict for Sate Khas Senayan

As the name suggested, Sate Khas Senayan is all about satay. They have a whole range of satays and they made really good ones. I wouldn’t suggest you to try the other dishes apart from the entrees and drinks.

Did you know?

If you are looking for a place to stay in Jakarta, make sure you book any hotels in this area. Jakarta people wouldn’t mind meeting you in the malls surrounding this area and you don’t need to care about traffic jam since everything is here!

Details:

Resto FX Lifestyle X’nter

Jalan Jend Sudirman Unit F1 22-23 Jakarta Selatan

+62 21 2555 4150

Aug 12, 2012
Phloey – Authentic Thai Cuisine

Rating:

8 / 10 Taste: 8/10

Price: $15 per person

Place: 8.5/10

Review:

We are back from our fantastic journey to Indonesia and ready to deliver you All About Food. This week, I am going to take you to one of the fine food in Jakarta. Phloey, self-titled Authentic Thai Cuisine was located in the lower level of Jakarta’s main street. It doesn’t cost hundreds of dollars to enjoy food in Jakarta!

Our evening started with a bang! The Sampler Platter looked simply stunning. Three of Thai food’s most common entrees arranged beautifully with a generous serving of sauce, presented in a cocktail glass. Our second entrée was the all-time favourite, Tom Yum Kung. Although the soup was designed for one, it was slightly too generous if you were to share other plates. The soup was refreshingly sweet and sour. Lastly, we ordered Som Tum Kung Pao. This was the traditional green pawpaw salad with a million of tastes in between. There was too much chilli to my liking on this one but that was how it was supposed to be. Nevertheless, three flawless entrees got me really excited about the restaurant.

Our first staple food was Pad See Yu. Some of you might recollect this as Fried Kwetiau, but this one was cooked Thai style. We also enjoyed Kai Ho Bai Teay – Fried chicken in pandan leaf. This chicken was a killer; One of the must order in the restaurant! I loved the texture and the rich chicken flavour infused with pandan. Keng Phed Ped Yang – Roasted duck in red curry with tomato and pineapple came next. There was really little to compare to the previous dish, in addition it was a bit sour for the duck (I like my duck tasty or sweet).

We ordered two fishes in this occasion. The first one was Pla Kao Sam Rot – Fried grouper with three-flavour sauce. Fabulous sweet and spicy fish filleted for your enjoyment. The next one was Pla Bu Pek Sa – steamed ‘lazy’ fish a la Thai. It was a different kind of steamed fish since Thai food was meant to be sour. The fish was extra soft and perfectly steamed! If only they toned down the sourness, I would devour this as quickly as I could.

Since we were really happy with the food, we decided to order desserts. The first one was Durian Sticky Rice. For some people, durian can be repulsive, but for me that was a nice dessert. The next one was mixed ice of pomegranate, young coconut, avocado and jackfruit. Es Delima is what it was called. The surprise came in last, what I had expected to be a simple Cassava turned out to be a masterpiece. They reinvented simple cassava to be jelly-like and reduced the rough texture of the dish.

The final verdict for Phloey

Phloey presented me with a unique opportunity to taste authentic food in a city where non-Indonesian food was hard to come by. They also managed to bring out real Thai taste to the table!

Did you know?

I couldn’t find the meaning of Phloey, if you know what it is, please let me know and I’ll update this part 🙂

Details:

Gedung Panin Center, Jl. Jend Sudirman Kav 11

+62 21 739 4018

Jul 4, 2012