OLIVIER GRAND INDONESIA JAKARTA

Hello! 

I know I haven't been writing much but it still shocks me to learn that my last post was more than two weeks ago. Things are just crazy at the moment. My hands and brain are both tight up that writing just seems to be least on my mind now. 

Okiro Bar Grand Indonesia Jakarta

For you, Okonomiyaki fan, Okiro Box has take it up to another level with their newest Japanese edgy bar, Okiro Bar located at Grand Indonesia. 

Caffe Milano Grand Indonesia Jakarta

I wonder, how many is too many. If I over eat, will food eventually bores me? Can I still notice the difference on great food with only decent ones? Just how many is consider too many?. The thoughts came to me after my early dinner yesterday. I had a pleasant one, but somehow my taste bud wasn't that entertained.  

ITACHO SUSHI INDONESIA

Okay so the thing is, I love Japanese food. I'm such a sushi slut that I'd practically okay to the idea of having them everyday, but let's face it, Japanese food isn't entirely cheap. If you ask me, my loves would be Sushi Masa and Tatemukai, but both aren't exactly the type of places to eat on daily basis, so most of the time, I often go to Sushi Tei for an affordable but still pretty good sushi. 

Publik Markette Grand Indonesia Jakarta

If you are Ivy's Life long time reader (thank you!), you would remember how much I love Ismaya group and all the restaurants under them, well except for Tokyo Belly. Ismaya has been one of the strongest front runners in F&B world, and I have always excited to try any of their creations, just like their newest one, Publik Markette.

BENEDICT GRAND INDONESIA JAKARTA

I feel like this past one month I have been coming to Grand Indonesia so many times, particularly because of the so many new restaurants are popping up here. The West side used to be the only side taking control on the F&B, but now it's time for the East starts with Union Deli, NOMZ, Publik Markette and the newest one, Benedict.

Omakase at TATEMUKAI Grand Indonesia

When it comes to fine dining, I always find myself willing to spend it more over Japanese food rather than other cuisines. Aside from how much I love them, I know how expensive a good quality of Japanese food can be. I always am a true believer in "you get what you pay for", and this Japanese fine dining really is a good example of it. 

NOMZ Kitchen & Pastry Grand Indonesia

I'll start the post by complimenting on the creative brand's name. NOMZ. I love how catchy the sound of it, just like the sound we make when we're having good food. Nom nom nomz!

This month particularly is an exciting month for foodies with so many new restaurants popping up. For Jakarta residents who are not traveling abroad this holiday, make cafe hopping your to do list!

UNION DELI Grand Indonesia

To me, Union is like a bestfriend, you don't see them everyday, but you know you can always count on them to make you happy. That's how Union makes me feel. I could always count on them for great food, good ambiance and hands down, the best cakes in town, to date! If there's one cafe I keep coming back, it's definitely them because Union made is well made.

TOM TOM

My love for Thai food begins around 3 years ago when I was in the period of travel back and forth to Bangkok for buying trip. Those buying trips for Lemon were tiring and super exhausted, but boy I loveeeee those times. The city is definitely one of my favorite in Asia. If you are a foodie and haven't stepped foot in Bangkok, I strongly suggest you to. The city is heaven for foodie. Everything is so delicious and cheap! 

Coco Ichibanya Jakarta

I never like curry, until the day I met with Coco. 

 

Coco Ichibanya is the largest curry house originating from Japan, they have more than 1300 stores in Japan, China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, USA, Taiwan and now, Indonesia. Not even sure what took them so long to finally open their first store here in Jakarta, at Grand Indonesia shopping town to be exact.

Ismaya Catering Cafe

Hello! Can you believe it's another new month already? I swear time wasn't flying this fast when I was a kid. Now, it's like a while ago we were waiting for New year, and bam... It's May already. Anyway, last week, I was meeting up one of my closest ex-colleague for a lunch date. We were supposed to have lunch at Salt Grill, but then the traffic and rain forced us to cancel the reservation, so we went to Ismaya Catering Cafe instead. A recent new diner by the great Ismaya. Have I mentioned that I love all Ismaya's diner? Well, except Mr. Curry (closed) and Sushi Groove, perhaps.

Magnum M Cafe

Back then, when Magnum Cafe was opened only for temporary period during their launching campaign, I had one visit only. Despite I used to work in the building connected to Grand Indonesia, still the queuing turn me off. However, the only 1 time visit was memorable for me. I love their prawn aglio olio and the ice cream waffle creation. So, when Magnum is back with a new concept & location under Ismaya group, I eagerly went for another try out.

Kado ++

Even that I had resigned for quite some time, I am still coming to my work place once a month to assist on a regular event they had. Last week was my second time coming there as an ex-employee and the feeling was mutual with the first time. Cranky having to get up from bed so early, even crankier having to drove on that stupid traffic which I swear was getting worse and worse, but... having a blast catching up with old colleagues and distributors. 

After the event ended, me and couple of colleagues went for a dinner at Kado which recently just opened at Grand Indonesia. The feeling I had when I first saw and walked in was that the ambiance and how they decorated the place more like an Italian rather than Japanese. They designed it with light wood and brick to make it feel spacious and minimalistic with an open kitchen in the center. 

Their earlier outlet was at Intercontinental Mid Plaza and I heard one of their specialty was Kushiyaki. In some restaurants they called it Yakitori. To my knowledge, the term of Yakitori can be used to refer to any skewer food in general, while the term of Kushiyaki encompasses more on both poultry or non poultry items. Both mean the same actually, so the terms are use interchangeably in the Japanese society. 

The 3 of us decided to order 3 cups of Chawan Musi (22k) and shared a plate of Mix Moriawase (95k) 7pcs of Kushyiyaki, Original takoyaki (32k), and Yaki Onigiri (22k). Onigiri or known as rice ball was made from white japanese rice formed into triangular shapes filled with mostly salty or sour ingredients. It was a very popular food in Japan. We chose the one filled with salmon and dried bonito (fish flakes).

Chawan Musi

Original takoyaki

Mix Moriawase

Yaki Onigiri

The chawan musi came first and in my opinion, it was one of the unpleasant chawan musi I ever had. It was too small to start to, the egg was not soft like it was supposed to be and the condiments inside were cheap. The takoyaki was nice, the fish flake was generous and I like it how the filling just burst out when I chewed it and wasn't floury. Our yaki onigiri came, they actually have 2 kinds of Onigiri, original or yaki (grilled), we chose yaki one. The onigiri wasn't nice, the rice was too stern, I was not sure was it because it was grilled too long or it was supposed to be that stern, bottom line it was not good and same like the chawan musi, they were cheap on the filling. 

The kushiyaki came last in 7 pcs consisted of: 

Momo: leg meat

Tebasaki: wing

Gyu Karubi: beef belly

Gyutan: beef tongue

Salmon

Ikada: green onion

Ninniku: garlic

The beef tongue and wings were nice, but the rest were very standard. 

Overall, to me the dinner was enjoyable only because of the nice chat I have with my colleagues, not so much on the food.

Kado++

Grand Indonesia Shopping Town 

West mall level 3A

Jl. MH Thamrin No. 1A

Jakarta

Ph. +6221 23581871

Ismaya Catering Co.

This was a late post. When I still work at Menara BCA,  my office hours ended at 6pm and every working days I will always stayed at office until 6.50pm before I went to parking lot due to the 3in1 policy. One day, I was not feeling on waiting at office and as my office building is linking to Grand Indonesia shopping town, I decided to kill my time at Ismaya Catering while waiting 3in1 ended. 

Ismaya Catering Co. was one of restaurant under Ismaya group. I wasn't sure why it called Ismaya catering since they only serve light snacks and pastry. The place was quite crowded when I got there. The non smoking section was outside along the alley of Level 1, too bad they put the tables right in front of a stage where there was some performers singing, so the music was too loud that like it or not I had to sit inside where the smoking was allowed. 

I went to the pastry display and there were only few options which didn't really bring appetite when I saw them, but I go ahead and ordered Pistachio cake (30k). I am a fan of Baskin & Robins' pistachio ice cream, so I figured the cake should be alright. It was pandan chiffon layer cake covered with crunches of pistachio. It was not bad but too sweet for my taste.

*image of Ismaya Catering was downloaded from Google.

Ismaya Catering Co.

Grand Indonesia Shopping Town, East Mall Level 1

Jl. MH Thamrin No. 1

Jakarta

Social House

Last Sunday was one of my colleague's birthday. As it was fell on Sunday, one of the girls planning to surprise her and I went along with the idea. The plan was the birthday girl's boyfriend took her to Social House for a birthday breakfast and we went there to surprise her. The plan worked out successfully. We were all not a morning person type, but seeing our friend's surprise and happy face surely worth the lesser sleeping time. =)

I always enjoy coming to Social House as I like the ambiance and their food. I've been here couple times but it was my first time trying their breakfast. They were not as packed as usual during morning time. It was a good feeling to actually can dine here without buzzing crowd for a change.

When we reached there, the birthday girl had ordered a plate of The "old time" favorites overhauled (75k) for shared with her boyfriend. It looked so tempting so we decided to ordered the same one and one plate of the hangover (65k). The orders didn't took long to be served. In the old time favorites were two choice of eggs, baked beans, bacon, sausage and social bacon hash. We could chose the bacon between pork or turkey. While the hangover came in slightly smaller portion consisted of jumbo sausage with creamy polenta and truffle scrambled eggs. We can chose pork or beef sausage, we chose pork and it was delicious. Both dishes were. After that the boyfriend ordered one Ricotta hotcakes (65k) to shared. A pancakes with mixed wild berry, fresh banana, maple syrup honey and roasted almond butter. It was a typical pancake until we added up the maple syrup. It really did bring out the flavor balance.

The "Old Time" Favorites

The Hangover 

Ricotta Hotcakes

Homemade Ice Lemon Tea

It was one of my most pleasant Sunday morning. Having fun with friends accompanied with good nice breakfast. What's more to ask?

Social House 

Grand Indonesia Shopping Town Level 1, East mall

Jl. MH Thamrin No.1 

Jakarta 

Ph.+6221 23581818

Churreria

This place had been one of my favorite place for dessert. I am not a fan of something sweet but I like churros. The crunchiness paired with caramel sauce for the dipping. They have 4 kinds of dipped sauce. Caramel, dark chocolate, white chocolate and milk chocolate. My favorite is the caramel one. Milk one was also nice, dark one was too bitter, and as for the white one, I never try it as it sounded too white and dairy.

Last Tuesday, we have a heavy breakfast and as we will be dining at Smokey Ribs in the evening, we decided to took something light for our lunch, so we headed to Churreria for their churros. The 3 of us ordered Churros fiesta (65k) to share. Churros fiesta came in 12 pcs and 4 dipping sauce, while you can choose whether you want cinnamon or sugar icing as the topping. We ordered Ice black currant tea (25k) and their Ice lemon tea (25k) was enough to be shared into 2 small glasses.

I have the most craving of the month for apple crumble pie. I never tasted the one in Churreria but since I saw MasterChef, I had been wanting to try one. Too bad the waiter told us that their pastry and cake selections had been removed from the menu. I guess I have to endure my craving for a while. Anyone who knows a good place to eat apple crumble pie, your comments will be greatly appreciated. ;)

Churreria 

Grand Indonesia Shopping Town, West mall level 3A

Jl. MH Thamrin No.1 

Jakarta 

Ph. +6221 23581805
Other outlets: Central Park, Summarecon Mall Serpong 2
 

Kiyadon

This was a late post. I was on leave from work and the internet connection at home was so lousy that I wanted to scream at the operator for all the non sense about fast connection.

Anyway, one of my colleagues was leaving us and on her last day we gathered for lunch at Kiyadon. We sat in the private room with tatami seating. Here's what we ordered: 

Nabeyaki Udon (78k). Udon noodle with sweet sliced beef, vegetables, egg and served w/ prawn tempura. Nabeyoki Udon had always be one of my favorite dish at Kiyadon. It seasoned well with generous topping. 

Una Don (78k). Rice bowl topped with grilled fresh water eel.

Spicy Salmon Pasta (78k).

Wantan Ramen (65k). Ramen with chicken dumpling & miso soup.

Tori Katsu Don (50k). Rice bowl topped w/ deep fried breaded chicken cutlets and onion on eggs. This was a dish that just never could go wrong.

Tom & Jerry (88k). Grilled eel, cucumber, salmon, cheese, tobiko.

D.I.G (88k). Kani stick, cucumber, salmon, chicken floss, tobiko.

 

Kiyadon seldom failed my taste, and this time I was also very much satisfied. Farewell was never easy but a nice lunch with friends surely help. =) 

See you Yunica! *hugs*

Kiyadon Sushi

Grand Indonesia Shopping Town

Garden District 3A #10 - 16

Jakarta

Ph. +6221 23580523

Mad for Garlic

Last month, there's a new Italian restaurant open in Grand Indonesia. Mad for Garlic. They say it is the most famous wine & italian restaurant in Korea. I opened their website and learned that they have 11 branches in Korea, one in Singapore and recently new one in Jakarta. I figure, a restaurant with 11 branches in one country should be a good reason to try.

Today, I decided to go there for my friday lunch. The restaurant looks small from outside but turns out it was quite big inside. The ambience is nice, when we enter the restaurant it was quite dark as they use dim lights, but walk further they have sections with brighter light, separated with wall glasses with wine selections, more or less like Decanter. 

The menu selections are varied enough. They have several types of pasta, rice, pizza and steaks. I am craving for  pasta and my favorite type of pasta is actually aglio olio but their aglio olio is plain, only pasta covered with garlic, without any chicken chunks or at least some mushrooms . Yucks! So, I decided to order Triple Garlic Pasta (110k). It was spaghetti with shrimps, mussels, squids and of course garlic covered in tomato sauce. The spaghetti was mixed with shredded leek. It was ok, they are generous enough on the shrimps, mussels and squids. But I don't really like the sauce, it's too much so kinda wet. I prefer my pasta dry. On the other hand, I like my colleague's aglio olio, Garlicpeno pasta (60k). Even though it's only spaghetti and garlic, but the pasta is good. We asked the waiter if we can add shrimps or bacon into it, and they said can't at the moment as they just open and need to follow the menu as instructions. My other two colleagues order Garlic Sizzling Rice (110k), it was fried rice with bacon and fish roe on a hot plate. It was good. Another one is Arrabiata pasta (80k), spaghetti with bacon in tomato sauce. My colleague said it was quite ok, but I didn't try it as to me the presentation was too wet and red, too much tomato sauce. 

                                                                                                                                    

Arrabiata Pasta

Garlicpeno Pasta

Garlic Sizzling Rice

Triple Garlic Pasta

Overall, it was a good lunch. Turns out they are in the same management with Tony Roma's, so if we have Tony Roma's member, we can show them and get 10% discount. 

Mad for Garlic
Grand Indonesia, West Mall Ground Floor
Jl. MH Thamrin No.1
Jakarta
ph: +6221 23581076
http://www.madforgarlic.co.id/index.htm

Katsusei

One week ago, me and my colleagues purchased a voucher to dine at Katsusei from a website who specialized in selling coupon with certain discount. The voucher was sold at 45k for 1 set of katsu bento. We decided to use our vouchers today for lunch. Btw, I am working at Menara BCA, that's why I often have lunch at Grand Indonesia as the building is linking with the mall. Anyway, back to our lunch... Today was my second time dine at Katsusei. The place is empty when we got there, only 1 table besides ours. Same thing during my previous visit, also only 1 table besides mine. I'm not sure because it is weekdays or because the menu is quite pricey. Although they often have 50% promo by certain credit card. The interior is nice, before we enter the restaurant we will be walking through a short alley. The dining place is not spacious and designed with dim lights. 

Beef katsu Set

Tonkatsu sauce

This time, as we can only use our vouchers to redeem with bento set, I didn't bother to look at the menu. But I remember the Katsu set (original not bento) is around 200k. Coming back to the bento set, we can opt between Chicken Katsu Bento (65k), Beef Katsu Bento (80k) and Salmon Katsu Bento (95k). There are four of us, and we chose 2 sets of Beef & 2 sets of Salmon. We were jokingly said that because this one is paid using voucher, the portion will be small. We were wrong. Even though it was different and smaller from the original Katsu set, but it was fulfilling. My beef katsu was delicious and so was the salmon. They have this Tonkatsu sauce mixed with sesame to be dipped into the Katsu. Yumm! 

After the meal, we were given a small glass of hot tea. I don't really know what kind of tea is that, but according to the waiter it helps to cleanse out the oil from our body.

Payment time: we were not charged at all for the Katsu bento set, the vouchers had inclusive tax also. So we only pay for our beverages. I think it is totally worth it as we purchased the voucher at 45k to be redeemed with meal worth 80k - 95k. Good deal! 

Katsusei 

Grand Indonesia East Mall Garden District 2, Level 5

Jl. MH Thamrin No.1

ph: +6221 23580060

Other outlet: Plaza Indonesia