Eight Treasures Plaza Indonesia Jakarta

Hello 2017!

Marking my first post in 2017 is this currently trending steamboat in Plaza Indonesia. Now, when I went there for our Saturday date last week, I uploaded them on Insta story and some of you leave me messages confusing on the location.

AMKC ATELIER - PLAZA INDONESIA JAKARTA

When it comes to listing a good let alone consistent cafe in Jakarta, I am positive that anyone who had been to Union would agree that they are in the top list. Since its opening till date, I am impressed on how consistent they are on keeping the food quality and taste, many arguably find hard to achieve. The success of Union can't be separated from the genius behind, Chef Adhika Maxi and Chef Karen Carlotta.

Yo' Panino: My Personal Choice for Great Subs'

I could never give an exact answer when someone asked me what is my favorite food, simply because there are too many. But I always know I cannot live without bread and veggies. Give me fresh breads with green caesar salad, and I'm happy as a kid.

Salt Grill, Altitude

Among all three restaurants at Altitude, Salt Grill might stands out to be the most popular one. With the name as big as Luke Mangan, the famous Australian Chef, I suppose it is reasonable for public to be curious more on Salt compare to the other two.

I was there with my bestie last Monday for a lunch date. There were only few tables occupied by the time we arrived, a rare scene seeing how on normal days they are always fully booked. We were seated in a purple suede U-shape couch facing the breathtaking views of Jakarta's landmark. Imagine this, a good convo with your best friend while enjoying sky high dining with scrumptious food and fabulous view. Can Monday get any better?  

Enmaru, Altitude

 
For most Jakarta's residents who are not going on vacation on Lebaran holiday means only one thing to do, hopping from one mall to another. As for me, a foodie stays in Jakarta who happen to not having a vacation, it means time to clear up all the pending diners "to go" list on my smart phone's note pad.

Personally, the only thing get in the way of me trying out on new diners is mostly the hideous traffic. The road, and oh my... the so called free way is just getting worse each day, making me had to just satisfied with adding the names of new diners to my "to go" list without having the actual action to try. So, with Idul Fitri holiday comin' and I'm stuck with not going anywhere this year, what's more fun to do then hitting on the so free, so good, no traffic road, day by day, trying one by one new diners, scratch off each by each from my "to go" list.

[CLOSED] Le Jardin Moovina

It has been almost two months since my first try out at Mezzanine. Incase you don't know yet, Moovina is a newly established French Vietnam cuisine under the same management with Ocha & Bella. What's exciting about Moovina is there are two cafes under the same restaurant connected with an inside staircase where each of them shares different types of cuisine and design concept.

[CLOSED] Moovina (Mezzanine)

Moovina is a new dining concept recently open at Plaza Indonesia under the same management of the Italian bistro, Ocha & Bella. The place divided into two levels with the one at the lower floor, Le Jardin, serving a lighter type of food and the one at the upper floor, Mezzanine, serving heavier food selections. Each of the sections have their own entrance but there's a stair inside the restaurant to connect both levels. They really put a big effort on the concept. The place is beautiful! The first one is a chic garden theme with comfy grey couches, white rattan chairs and artificial trees, there's even a beautiful flower shop inside. The whole concept is so pretty. While the latter one is more modernly designed with open kitchen and glass window viewing Thamrin's main road. There's also a bar section with long couches and dimmer lights on the parts of the room. 

Madame Lily

Thursday 5pm normally is not a time I will choose to go to Plaza Indonesia. The traffic to Thamrin - Sudirman area during that time on a weekday is famous for its capability in turning someone's happy mood to extremely fussy mood. No? Only me? Well...

Anyway, last Thursday was the first time I was willingly to do that and the only reason was because I'm meeting up with my girlfriends, one of my most favorite comfort moment. :)

B-Side Wakai Cafe

Last week, I went to Plaza Indonesia by my self. A menswear which my hubby likes was having a 50% off and that was my visit's purpose until I spotted a new cafe connected with a Japanese fashion's brand, I remember a fellow blogger, Cindy, reviewed it a while ago on her blog so I decided to stop by for a quick bites. 

Paradise Inn Jakarta

Couple months ago, I received an invitation from Paradise Inn for their soft opening blogger gathering. Unfortunately, I can't go due to other appointment. When I read all the positive comments reviewed by several fellow bloggers, I was very much intrigued to try yet only until last month during Indonesia's independence day that I finally went there for a family dinner.

(Relocated) The Goods Cafe

About a week ago, on the same day we went to Santouka, my bestie and I went to The Goods Cafe right after we finished our lunch there. In my defense, it was a very short lunch since the place was crowded and bunch of people were lining up outside, so we didn't have time to talk. And since it's been a while from our last meeting, we have a lot to catch up so that's the main reason we ended at The Goods. Wow, quite long explanation just to be not called as piggy eater. LOL.

At first, we thought we will just share a slice of rainbow cake, but it was sold out and somehow we ended with three kinds of order. Portobella fries (35k), Everything bagels (10k) and Chocolate bread pudding (forgot how much). What can I say... everything on the menu just seem so good. So, portobella fries turns out to be not fries, but mushroom. It was not as good as expected because the skin was not crunchy, it was flabby and oily. The mayo which came with it was good though. The everything bagel was decent, it called everything because it had almost everything from cheese to black sesame. Highlight of the day was the absolute delicious chocolate bread pudding, served warm with cold vanilla ice cream and fresh strawberries, it was to die for. The sweetness was fairly so it didn't leave any guilty feeling, I supposed.

Santouka Hokkaido Ramen

 

Since the day I had my first bowl of Santouka's ramen in Spore, I have been waiting impatiently for it to be opened at Plaza Indonesia. To be honest, it might sound silly but my impatience waiting was driven more on my curiosity on how much the ramen will cost here. I paid $20 (around 140k in Rupiah) for a bowl of Tokusen toroniku ramen. I don't know about you guys, but paying 140k for a bowl of ramen was unpleasant for me. As I like the ramen quite much, I was hoping that the 140k was only due to the high exchange rate. 

Anyway, this afternoon I went there with my bestie. Bless her for always in the mood to accompany me during my silly food hunting. :) As today is the first opening day, we drove there early to avoid the queue. Stupid traffic get in the way though, calling it self highway, more like jammed way to me. So instead of arriving at 11am as planned, we reached there at almost 12. Queuing line was there already, but luckily not too long. In shorts, we were seated. The place was small and tables were limited, most of the space was taken for the kitchen. 

Soup Restaurant Jakarta

It's a habit of mine to write down dining I wanted to try on my Blackberry, therefore when I don't have a clue on where to eat, I can just open my note for some idea. Soup restaurant had been on my note since I can remember. I know it is not something new, this place had open at Plaza Indonesia for God knows how long, but never once I step in no matter how many times I wanted to. However, I had been to one of their branch in Spore, I remember my friend and I were just landing at Changi and she took me for lunch at Soup on Terminal 2. Once I tried their Samsui chicken, I just knew that I had to take my parents here, as they are big fans of Samsui chicken. 

It was 2 years ago. I completely forgot about the place until couple weeks ago I was scrolling down my note pad and there it was written at the end of my note. My weekend mostly spent with my family but weekend also was the busiest and crankiest day to find a parking spot at Plaza Indonesia, so I had been really... I mean realllyyy reluctant on going there at weekend until last Sunday, I finally managed to force my self to go there. I went with my parents around 1pm and spent almost 30 minutes to find a parking spot, I was hungry and super cranky when finally the guy in orange uniform found me a spot to park. 

Opus Cafe

A casual hang out with my ex colleagues led us to a new place named Opus Cafe. Opus was this small chic cafe taking Dome's old position at Plaza Indonesia. I thought that the place only served coffee and light meals, turns out they have quite many selections of main courses. That day, they were having 50% off on their steak selections using a certain credit card. 

Taste Paradise (Jakarta)

About a month ago, I heard that a popular Chinese dining from Singapore, Taste Paradise opened their first branch at Plaza Indonesia. Taste Paradise is one of restaurant under the famous Paradise group in Singapore and rank second as the priciest among the groups. I once had a dimsum at Taste Paradise Ion and the place was decorated nice. I was very excited to try them when I heard they opened here. So last Sunday I went there with my family.

It was located on the 4th floor above mi item, buzzing with crowds when we reached there. After being on wait list for about 15 minutes, we were seated. The place was huge and nicely decorated. Very upscale Chinese modern dining, it was 3 times more grand than the one at Ion Orchard. I was quite amazed by how they decorated the dining. They were connected directly to Hyatt, so they have two entrance, from Plaza Indonesia or from Hyatt. At Hyatt, it took place on the same floor with C's. 

When I scrolled down the menu, I noticed how the place designed was in line with the price range. Initially we were planning on having a morning dim sum, but we were late and reached there around 11am, so we decided to combine some dim sums with heavy meals. For the dim sum, we chose Steamed shrimp and chive dumpling (19,8k), Steamed shrimp and pork dumpling (20,8k) and Steamed rice roll with fresh shrimp (24,8k). As for the main course, Fried rice with tobikko fish roe (98k), Sauteed live prawns with preserved olives and spring onions (112k), Osmanthus infused crispy roasted duck - half portion (138k) and Braised edamame tofu with mushrooms in duck reduction (88k). 

I actually am the type of person who cannot have Chinese meal without any veggie, I always include minimum 1 plate of veggie when I ate Chinese, but as I looked at the price, the green veggie without any minced meat started from 78k and honestly I thought it was ridiculous to pay such price for green veggie, so I skipped it. Hihihihi

The service was polite but it took forever for our meals to be served. Anyway, we all love the food. The duck was very juicy and tender, while the skin was crisp. Lovin' the shrimp as well, it was sauteed well that we can still feel the crunchiness. However, I didn't like the edamame tofu, the duck reduction was ok not too sweet but the soft tofu felt too mushy for my taste. The fried rice was amazing! It was such a simple dish cooked with fish roe, but it was very tasty. The dimsum was nice, I especially like the steamed shrimp and chive dumpling. 

Overall, I think it was a good dining place. Nice food, nice venue, good service, not so much on the price though. :)
 

Taste Paradise
Plaza Indonesia 4th Flr
Jl. MH Thamrin Kav 28-30
Jakarta
Ph. +6221 29923939

The PlayGround

Saturday afternoon, me and my best friend went to the newest just opened restaurant at Plaza Indonesia named PlayGround. The place was located at the 4th flr extension near Ootoya. To me the design was nothing like playground, the only thing that was even close was there were several dining chairs hanging like a swing, other than that it didn't strike me as playground as the place was dark and none colorful. 

I asked the waiter for the specialty and he recommended to us from pasta selection, Katsutti (65k). It was like a donburi japanese rice topped with chicken katsu, egg and onion, but this Katsutti, instead of rice they used spaghetti. We followed the recommendation and order 1 Homemade abstract pizza (58k). The pizza topping changed daily and that day what they have was hmmm... something about cheese. I asked the waiter twice for the topping, but I still can't remember what he said. The bottom line, when the pizza came, I was dissapointed not because it was not good but it was a scary all cheese pizza and I can't eat anything dairy! Then the Katsutti came and again it has those dairy smell on the spaghetti, so I end up not touching both and my poor friend was forced to finish both, while on our way to Plaza Indonesia, she just told me that she was on diet. Hahaha

To ensure that I didn't ordering anything dairy again, I chose Good old american fried chicken (58k). It was a very standard fried chicken with rice and fries, nothing compare to my favorite junks, Colonel Sander's KFC. In my opinion, the only acceptable two things were the Bully iced tea (35k), an Iced tea with blueberry jam that very refreshing and unique. Another acceptable thing was the good service from the friendly waiter. Apart from that, I don't think the PlayGround was as enjoyable as the name. =) However, my friend who was a cheese lover said that the pizza was nice. 

Bully Iced Tea

Home Made Root Beer Float

Oh yes, I forgot to took picture of the interior. :( 

The PlayGround

Plaza Indonesia Extension 4th flr

Jl. MH Thamrin Kav. 28-30

Jakarta

Ten Ten

I have always wanted to try Ten Ten but their first branch was at Pondok Indah Mall where it was simply too far for me, so when they opened at Plaza Indonesia, I was very excited to try since PI was only steps away from my office. Luckily my colleagues were always kind enough to accompanied me on trying new places. :)

We went there on Wednesday afternoon for lunch. I was not really familiar with PI, but according to my colleagues, Ten Ten occupied the place where previously was Bakerz In. It was not big and the interior was designed more or less like Sushi Tei with light woods and yellow lights. I loved the ambiance and the cute little things they put on the table or the display cabinet. The waiter told us they were in the same management with Sushi Tei, Sushi Kiosk, Rakuzen, Pepper Lunch, Bakerz In and Paradise Dinasty. 

We started to order. I saw they had Takoyaki on the menu and usually if I went to a place who served Tako, I will definitely try but this time I didn't as I was still quite full from earlier breakfast. Looking at the menu, I was drooling as they were all looks tempting. It was written on the menu that we can make our own tempura. They have selections of ebi, shitake, carrot, onions, eggplant and many others with very affordable prices for us to make into our own preferable  tempura set. They have 3 options for the tempura from original, spicy and black pepper. 

As both of my colleagues chose the rice set, I wanted to try their Udon, so I chose Niku Udon (50k) and create my own tempura set with 1pcs of ebi (10k), eggplants came in 2pcs (5k) and shitake also came in 2pcs (5k). While my colleagues chose Mini tempura + Beef teriyaki set (50k) and Mini tempura + Ebi yose katsu set (50k). Both were served with miso soup and a bowl of rice. For the beverages, we ordered 2 glasses of Blueberry with jelly (18k) and Kyoho grape cooler (18k). 

Niku Udon

Mini Tempura + Beef Teriyaki set

Mini Tempura + Ebi Yose Katsu set

The waiter told us that it would take 20 minutes for our meals to be served, but I think it was more than that. However, it was worth the wait. My Udon was delicious, I loved the well seasoned broth, not too salty and the beef was generous and tender. The portion was not big but it was fulfilling. Same as my colleagues' rice sets, they came in a tray and the portions were not big but at the end was very fulfilling to each of us. The rice set came with smaller tempura (mini one) while my "make your own tempura" came in regular size. We loved the tempura. It was served hot and crunchy, along with all the vegetables and mushrooms were very yummy too. Overall, we all think it was a pleasant lunch and the value paid was worth the meals.

Ten Ten
Plaza Indonesia Level Basement unit 16-19
Jl. MH Thamrin Kav 28
Jakarta

QQ Kopitiam

Ever since I saw my friend posted a picture of Milo Dinosaur from QQ Kopitiam, I have always wanted to go there. I am a fan of Milo, and never really found a good one in town. Most of the Milo I drank was too watery and wasn't condensed, so most of the time when I was craving for one, I just make it my self. A home made condensed Milo. =)  

 

Anyway, QQ Kopitiam was located at Plaza Indonesia, just across my office building. So yesterday, I went there for lunch with my colleagues. We reached there around 12+ and the place was full house. The place was small and located in the corner across Duck King. I think they only have not more than 15 tables. We were about to find another place to eat when we spotted a table was asking for bill, so we waited for them to leave. 

Scrolling down the menu, I could see that the prices were very affordable compare to other restaurant in shopping mall. No wonder the place was full house. It served most of dishes we usually found at Kopitiam. They had selections of fried rice, kwetiau, noodles, until of course toast. The beverage selections were also variate from Kopi-O, teh tarik, Barley, Milo, Ice lychee, etc. We quickly ordered Kwetiau sapi lada hitam (28k), Mie Kangkung Terasi (28k), Barley peng (12k), Milo Dinosaur (25k) and Kopi tarik peng (17k).

The drinks came first. The milo was not the best I ever tasted but it was quite ok, not condensed but also not too watery. My colleagues said the kopi tarik and barley were ok too.

 

Kwetiau sapi lada hitam (black pepper kwetiau) and Mie kangkung terasi (noodle w/ spinach and shrimp paste) were nice, well seasoned and generous topping although the portion was quite small. I think the men will need 2 portions. :)

 

I was very satisfied with the lunch and will surely back for second visit. I do hope they will expand to bigger place, though. The place was too small that the distance between each tables were very limited, so we can heard the conversation on next table without even have to eavesdropping. =)

QQ Kopitiam 

Plaza Indonesia extension 4th fl.

Jl. MH Thamrin Kav 28-30

Jakarta

Ph. +6221 29923699