Cafe Deco

Dear fellow tasters,

Back to my Hong Kong trip, on the evening after intense shopping at Ladies’ market and H&M, my friend and I decided to go up the Victoria Peak or more known as the Peak, one of Hong Kong’s popular tourist attractions.  It involved an hour queuing for the Peak Tram, the iconic 120 years-old tram ride across slanted railways to reach the top.  The ride itself took only less than 10 minutes and upon alighting, the first thing we did was to look for a restaurant because we already felt famished and we needed some place to rest our poor feet from all the walking around.

The Marmalade Pantry

Dear fellow tasters,

This is one extremely belated post.  It was a Friday evening after a grueling working week and I just felt I should at least have a decent dinner to celebrate Free-day.  I ended up in Plaza Indonesia, already a regularly-visited shopping mall for me but there are still many places I haven’t got a chance to try there.  My feet took me to The Marmalade Pantry, a Singapore franchised Western bistro located on Level One of the plaza extension.  50% off food credit card promo and happy hour pay 1 for 2 for cocktails seemed like a good deal to me.

Luna Negra

Dear fellow tasters,

It is always exciting to write a post about a new hip, fancy restaurant and Luna Negra is one of them.  Because of all the built up excitement, I decided to move this review to the top of my to-write list.  I had heard and read rave reviews about the ‘black moon’ (translated from Spanish… or is it Italian?) restaurant-slash-bar, so I was quite excited when my friends finally agreed to go there.  This was after much rescheduling and long BBM contemplation.  Fortunately, another friend who couldn’t go with us that evening (you were missed) reminded us about making a reservation beforehand. Without this we probably would have ended up on the waiting list!

White Hunter

Dear fellow tasters,

Once upon a time, not long long ago but in the near past, not in a far far away kingdom but in the moderately-distanced South Jakartan Gandaria City shopping mall which I rarely visit,  my favorite couple and I were looking for a lunch place and we happened to decide on White Hunter.  Taglined ‘Ribs Grill Bar’, this restaurant is apparently managed by the same group from Han Gang and it features ribs, steak, pasta, and other selection of western menu.  Our orders that day: hubby – tenderloin steak, wifey – fajitas d’mezcla, me – sausage and dry chili spaghetti but eventually I got a great share of the fajitas.

Capital Grille

Dear fellow tasters,

Credit card promo is always a good excuse to eat out.  This time, my friends and their beloved cc were the ones who asked me out for a 50% off dinner at Capital Grille, a steakhouse located in Senopati area.  The discount was for non-wagyu main course items only, thus at first we ordered the angus prime tenderloin steak, montecristo sandwich, and king prawns with a side choice of parmesan baked potato.  

Steak Hotel by Holycow!

Dear fellow tasters,

Last Friday, I finally got a chance to try out Steak Hotel by Holycow!, a steakhouse that recently has gotten quite a buzz because of the relatively low price for wagyu steak and supposedly delicious taste.  My friends and I arrived around noon at the Senopati branch and expected to see a packed crowd and long waiting list, but fortunately the place looked a bit quiet probably because of the long weekend.  

The Cafe, Hotel Mulia

Dear fellow tasters,

It’s been ages since the last post, so I tried to write something short (I hope) about The Cafe at Hotel Mulia Senayan. It’s one of the dining area at the 5-star hotel which offered all-you-can-eat international food ranging from sushi/sashimi to dim sum, from Indian curries to assortments of mouth-watering desserts.

Abuba Steak

Dear fellow tasters,

It’s so good to finally meet you all again.  It was quite a long time ago the last time that I went to this place with my faithful couple friends.  Nevertheless, Abuba Steak is always a favorite place to look for a decent cheap meal ever since I knew about it during my college years when it used to take a long time to get to Cipete Raya in the Southern part of Jakarta just to have a big slab of sirloin, or tenderloin, or T-bone steak on your plate to munch and chew and fill your hungry stomach with.

Y&Y

Dear fellow tasters,

It was Thursday noon, lunch time, and a colleague of mine from Malaysia was in town.  He already asked me the day before to join him and another colleague for lunch.  When he called, I suggested that we should go to Grand Indonesia shopping mall which has become a budding good food paradise in the center of the city.  So there we were, faced with so many options of where to grab something to eat.  With no specific destination in mind, after a quick wandering and due to limited lunch time, we decided to raid the first place we laid our eyes on, the Y&Y restaurant.

Helen’s Fine Foods & Patisserie

Dear fellow tasters,

This would be my premier post for this blog.  It was 2nd of October, second day of ‘Lebaran’ holiday 2008 in Jakarta and my friends and I decided to visit a new place that they’ve been dying to go to.  The place is called Helen’s Fine Foods and Patisserie and it’s located on Jalan Wolter Monginsidi, South Jakarta.  We reached the place just in time for lunch, thanks to the light traffic in Jakarta during ‘Lebaran’ week and apparently they’ve just opened up after the holiday and we’re their only customers.  The restaurant located at the upper floor was not ready yet, so we settled for the lounge table at the ground floor near the bakery.