All About Food

Category: American

When we think about American food, it would be something extravagant and over the top. We hear the tripling size of a burger or a bun-less burger.

  • Kafe Halaman

    Kafe Halaman

    Rating:
    7 / 10
    Taste: 7 /10
    Price: Rp. 15,000 – Rp. 55,000 per dish = $2 – $6
    Place: 7/10
    Review:

    For my first review in my home country, I will take you to one of the only few good things in Bandung, Kafe Halaman (translated into ‘backyard café’). This café gave you the feeling of having a meal in a patio on our backyard.

     

    Before you start, you might want to familiarise yourself with the menu, since there are literally 100s of things to choose from. Feel free to explore the variety of menu in the restaurant, as I will only list a fraction of it that we actually ordered.

     

    Our first starter was this funny looking dish called Rambutan Prawn. Derived from the Rambutan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambutan) image, the noodle-coated prawns were deep fried till they’re golden brown. Enjoyed with condiments of Chilli and Tomato sauce, it was really crunchy. The other starter was Lumpia (Spring Rolls). Another deep-fried menu, but this time was too similar with the regular spring rolls, with the exception of their tiny bite-size.

    We also ordered some share plates of Siomay (Chinese Shumai) and Ceker (Chicken Feet). I will pass on the description of the second one since its admirers are so little. The first one is an Indonesian adaptation of Chinese Shumai. They were slightly more sturdy and solid in appearance and usually more flour than meat.

    We had two main courses to try with and both of them had the same seasoning. One was Buntut Bakar (Grilled Oxtail). It came with the unique Melinjo crackers and vegetable soup. Again, not anyone will enjoy this kind of treat. The second one was a bit ‘neutral’, Iga Bakar BBQ (BBQ Ribs). Unfortunately, these are not those gigantic Sydney’s Hurricane’s ribs. Quite the opposite, they were pretty tiny. I think it’s fair enough, considering the very low price of it. They did come in a nice old-fashioned hot plate, with sides of fries and veggies + additional yummy BBQ sauce.

    Kafe Halaman

    The final verdict for Kafe Halaman:

    The best thing about Kafe Halaman is its variety. You can choose from Chinese, Western, to traditional Indonesian food and they’re all decent (except maybe the exotic ones – for preference / distaste). It is also one of the few restaurants that open past midnight.

     

    Did you know?

    There are at least two Kafe Halaman restaurants I know of. This spot is definitely not better than the main one. In terms of taste, it’s not really different. Getting to the mall, on the other hand, is a mammoth task. Paris Van Java is one of the hottest spot in Bandung and considering traffic generally is already pretty bad in Bandung, it is worse at this spot.

     

    Location:

    Paris Van Java, Bandung, West Java

  • American Grill

    American Grill

    Rating:

    7 / 10

     

    		 Taste: 7/10

    Price Range: Rp. 120,000++ » $15

    Place: 8/10

    Review:

    After so long tinkering on what would have been my first review on Restaurants in Surabaya, the choice fell to American Grill. There are some candidates to the review that I decided to shelve until sometimes in the future. I personally think that American Grill was a nationalised version of US’s steak giant Sizzler since I don’t have any evidence on the correlation between the two. However, the restaurant’s logo and concept are strikingly similar to Sizzler.

    American Grill

    Why American Grill? Simply because I love everything BBQ or steak. There was a steak place that we love to eat, called Pro Steak. We reckon that was the best steak place in Surabaya. Unfortunately, the place was closed down. This restaurant turned out to be one of the contenders to win our hearts in the meat department.

    In American Grill, you get to eat as much as you can for its salad bar, ice cream, and other light meals on the bar for every main course you order. My choice of main course fell to the three racks of American BBQ Beef Ribs.Three gigantic beef ribs (according to Indonesian standards) were stacked on a hot plate on top of a bigger serving plate – yep, that’s a lot of plate on the table. It’s accompanied by your choice of fries and an odd complement of two slices of watermelon. I don’t understand why watermelon since it’s free to pick from the fruit bar anyway.The ribs themselves were fabulous. They were grilled up to the non-burnt limit. They could be cut off the bone really smoothly. The BBQ sauce was a little bit of a let down since they tasted like those supermarket brands.

    They have quite a bit of variation with the ribs that include Steak and ribs or Boneless Ribs and Sirloin Steak. The steak was pretty bland and was not fresh. You would have to take the optional condiments for the steak to taste better.

    On with the salad bar! Since I had a ‘green veggies only’ restriction, I could only show you the pic of green beans, broccoli and potato skins in white sauce. They had a full range of salad bar with four different sauces. They also served three kinds of soups.

    On the fruit and desert department, they had sweet basil seed jelly, various fruits and puddings that I couldn’t take and/or finish. The night was ended with a cup of Lychee Yoghurt in Raspberry sauce. The yoghurt had a good balance of sweet and sour. Optionally, you could also have a chocolate ice cream with different kinds of lollies, peanuts and chocolates.

    Did you know?

    IMHO, Most of the tastiest food in Surabaya came from a small restaurant that provides a single menu. For example, Bebek (Duck) Palupi of Rungkut, Lamb Satay in Pucang or Soto (some kind of soup) Ambengan. Thus it creates a different atmosphere to a big chain restaurant. It is also pretty difficult to describe the singular food experience to be written in my blog.

    My aim is to get the next two weeks of review on restaurants in Surabaya, or possibly one in Bali. We’ll see how it goes…

    Location:

    Tunjungan Plaza 3 Lower Ground Floor, Basuki Rahmat 8 – 12, Surabaya, Indonesia