Sanjiken at The Fairgrounds SCBD

It's amazing how social media could connect people nowadays. Like my Sanjiken lunch's story here. I started Ivy's Life with no other purpose except to have a decent platform to write, but it's nice to find how it grows to not just about it, but also to meet new friends. I was here few weeks ago with several foodie friends, Cindy, Daisy & Kato and Hans. From strangers to friends, I guess food does connect hungry bellies.

Sanjiken is a Japanese restaurant located at The Fairgrounds, just below The Goods Diner. The restaurant is not big, but I somehow love the intimacy especially seeing how it's located at the basement. Aside from the name, the restaurant doesn't really strikes out as Japanese with the modern black and white tiles, though the Japanese murals help. It's crazy how murals can easily brighten up a room huh?   

The place offers variety of Japanese cuisines from sushi, sashimi, udon, ramen, curry rice, tempura, also bento and set menu. I would say their bento and set menu selections are quite affordable. You don't normally expect below 100k price range for a restaurant inside The Fairgrounds. 

Our lunch started with Sanjiken maki (98k), a salmon sushi roll with avocado and grilled eel on top. It was a good sushi. I loved how they grilled the eel and the texture of the sushi was perfect, some sushi tend to get a bit mushy, but these weren't. If I ever do come back, I'll order this again.

The Shinjyuku set menu (95k) is very worth the money, I'll say. The chicken was soft and nicely seasoned, and the sashimi were fresh. A set of fluffy white rice with assorted sashimi and chicken teriyaki plus a miso soup for only 95k is quite a good deal for an affordable lunch set, don't you think?

We also tried two types of their ramen. The Sanjiken ramen (90k) is a type of noodle with thicker more flavorful soup base, we can feel the strong soya bean sauce with black pepper. While the Hokkaido ramen (90k) has lighter taste due to its shoyu soup base. Both comes with pork charsu, the difference is the one at Sanjiken ramen was grilled, while the other one was a regular charsu. I would say they both tasted good depends on personal likes, if you tend to like stronger bold flavor, go for Sanjiken. If you prefer lighter soup so you can sip more on the broth without feeling to heavy, go for Hokkaido.

We also had the Pork Katsu Curry (85k), but I couldn't further talk about this one as I didn't taste it. However, I would like to comment on the presentation. The katsu does look good right? And those thick curry sauce!

Thank you foodie for the fun lunch. Until we meet and get fat together again!

Sanjiken
The Fairgrounds SCBD
Jl. Jend Sudirman Kav. 52-53 Lot 14
South Jakarta
Opening hours: 11am - 11pm