Unacho Plaza Senayan

It was Saturday. Went to Plaza Senayan for dinner and movie date. Have you seen Nightcrawler? It was not that good but Jake Gyllenhaal's acting as Louis Bloom deserves an A. If you have seen the movie, you would agree that it's not the finest look of Jake, but there's one scene where he tied his hair into a messy pony tail and he looks so hot!

Anyway... Food review, not movie. So, anyone been to Unacho? It's a newly opened Japanese restaurant focusing on Unagi. If you are Unagi lovers, then this is your place. The menu mostly covers all about unagi. Non Unagi person might have to skip this one. I don't really like unagi but hubs does. Everytime we dine in Japanese restaurant, there will always be unagi on the table.

Unacho's interior is pretty simple, neat and clean. The place is not big and they put partition between some of the tables. Though it makes the room seems smaller, I personally like the intimacy feeling. I never really enjoy dining in a place where the tables are too close one to another.

One of Unacho's specialty is Hitsumabushi. It's Nagoya specialty eel dish served on top of pipping hot rice. Dipped in a secret sauce and tenderly grilled over special selected charcoal, savour the sweet and fleshy eel as its melt. There are also other kinds of Unagi's menu, but since this is the specialty, we both chose to have the Unagi Hitsumabushi. They have three options, with one layer of unagi for the price of 185k, one and half layer for 275k and double layer of unagi for 350k. The double layer looks so tempting but we both opted for the single layer as we want to order other side dishes too.

The serving comes in a flat Japanese tray with the Unagi rice itself, miso soup, seasoning and a teapot with broth inside. Nice presentation. There are four ways to enjoy Unagi Hitsumabushi:

1. Divide the rice into four sections, take the first section into a smaller bowl and enjoy as is.

2. Take second section, add seasonings and spices to your taste to enjoy a new flavor.

3. Take third section, add some more seasonings and spices but this time top it off with the broth to make a soupy dish.

4. Finish off the dish in our own favorite way. 

The 4 ways above is to allow us to enjoy the meal in four different style and taste, but if you don't really like to add any more seasonings (like us), just enjoy as it is. The original taste is good enough without any added seasonings.

We also had one of the chef's specialty, Gyu Oroshi Ponzu Kake (115k). A plate of sliced grilled beef steak with grated radish and homemade ponzu sauce on top. We asked for medium grilled. The beef was crazily tender melted in mouth, but the ponzu sauce ruined it. It was a bit bitter with too strong of herbs scent, Hubs and I prefer to dip it in the good old fashioned chilli sauce. 

The Tori Namban Age (deep fried chicken) 38k, was very good as well. It was not the crunchy type of chicken, but they did the seasoning well that it was deeply marinated resulting in a just right amount of salty fried chicken. 

My favorite of the night was the Umaki (Japanese omelette with grilled eel filling) 45k, the egg was thick, so soft and fluffy with grilled eel wrapped inside them. Simply faultless. A must order if you dine here. 

Overall we had a pleasant meal here. Though I would love to see more variety in the menu beside Unagi and some salmon dishes, I think this is the right place for Unagi-ers. 

Unacho

Plaza Senayan Level 2

Jl. Asia Afrika No. 8

Senayan, South Jakarta

Price range: 38k - 350k