Naka Nakaya

Shame on me :( It's been quite a while since my last post. I was completely drowned in my work and personal life, too busy to write, too ignorant to make time. Apologies... But that doesn't mean I stopped eating. Well, I think I recently lost a little bit of weight due to those excuses I gave above but nevertheless my taste buds are still very much in tune.

Recently I went to Naka Nakaya and within the same week, I came back twice! Naka Nakaya is still under the same management with Sumiya and thus their standard is pretty much above there. The food served are more casual, with more variety of yakitori, a good selection of ramen & soba (which Sumiya doesn't offer) present in a more casual manner. The place is apparently popular among Japanese themselves and thus I assume the taste agrees with the origins.

I gotta love the front entrance. It has that hidden alley / entrance without a real door. Dark wooden fixings combined with dark cold panel slab gave a rather warm ambiance. It isn't as 'dark and dim' as Sumiya, but certainly a little more life and opened space.

Menu : Tan Tan Ramen
Price : Rp 55,000 ++
Score : 8.5 / 10

>> I love this upon the first sip. The broth has a strong resemblance to our local traditional food 'Soto Ayam' and thus it felt strangely familiar on the tongue. I was kind of confused, I don't know whether the cook over fusion the dish to adjust to the Indonesian people but however, the Japanese ordered this dish the most. This is one of the popular ramen dish in the restaurant. The noodles itself is on point, they didn't overcooked it nor raw tasting. Portion was good, the fillings inside were simple though; slices of chicken and beansprouts. But the star of the dish will have to be the broth! It's like a super good soto ayam that has additional magic ingredients inside. Definitely much stronger in the spice department. A superbly yummy bowl of goodness.

Menu : Chicken Negima
Price : Rp 26,000 ++
Score : 7.0 / 10

>> It's what I do all the time when I come for Japanese dining. I always order a few sticks of yakitori. It's pretty much like our local satay (but without the peanut sauce), you can have a choice of parts of the chicken; whether it's the meat, skin, gizzard, liver or even intestines -__-. Well, I don't eat organs so I always stick to the boring part; meat itself. 

I had 5 sticks of Chicken Negima for Rp 26,000 and I thought it was a super good deal because even 'Old Chang Kee' is selling at a higher price for one stick hahahaha. But price aside, I quite enjoyed it. It wasn't over the top good but chicken was cooked well, and the leek gave it a crunchy side to the bite. The teriyaki sauce smeared all over combined everything and sealed it together.

Menu : Gyoza
Price : Rp 38,000 ++
Score : 7.75 / 10

>> Dumplings! I lovee dumplings, who don't? It is easy to eat with no hassle; just pop them into your mouth. But what makes a good dumpling? Are you thinking the obvious answer...well what about besides the taste of the fillings inside? My thoughts would be 'the ratio of the skin to the filling'. I hateee those thick doughy tasteless plain skin with teeny meeny amount of fillings. And I don't like an 'ugly' dumpling, too much fillings that burst out of the skin. I had a lot of bad ones and of course a handful of good ones but Naka Nakaya would fall under the 'good ones' Hurrrayy !! The skin is neither too thick nor it's too thin, just the perfect thickness and the amount of fillings compliments it. A good sear on the bottom makes it a little bit crunchy but not dry and a vinegar sauce on the side makes it all better.

Menu : Chicken Namban

Price : Rp 53,000 ++
Score : 6.0 / 10

>> Sadly, I am not a fan of this dish. The portion is enough for 2 to 3 adults to share and I only took a small piece from the plate. The fried chicken itself is tasty, crisp and not overcooked. The mayonnaise with onion sauce is also tasty. But when they poured the entire sauce onto the fried chicken, I didn't quite agree with it. It turns the chicken a little bit soggy and there was too much mayonnaise all over. Basically, you can't control on how much mayo cream that you wanna have. If you guys are gonna order this dish, I recommend you all to get the kitchen to separate the chicken from the sauce. I bet it will be much better.

Menu : Fried Garlic Clove

Price : Rp 35,000 ++
Score : 7.0 / 10

>> Wondering what is this? The title of the menu explains it all. It is literally fried garlic clove. Even though I love garlic, I was a little hesitated to order this in the first place. The waitress assured me that it's pleasant without the over strong bitter taste. I did have it and I quite like it. It's healthy because it's garlic clove but at the same time it's fried. Hahahaha so it's a little bit of cheating. It wasn't bitter and wasn't pungent at all. And surprisingly, it didn't leave a nasty breath. A good simple, healthy and slightly oily appetizer (does it make sense?) hahahaha.

Menu : Black Sesame Mousse

Price : Complimentary

Score : 7.8 / 10

>> I like this thing!! Besides the obvious 'free of charge' reason, it's delish ! It is more lighter than your usual chocolate mousse. It is super airy and light. The black sesame as the main ingredient gave it a more authentic Japanese dessert kind of feeling. The airy mousse is not sweet but the little dollop of sweet cream on the top was perfect ! I liked this so much that I asked for a second serving. Beware : this free beauty comes in small portion.

Naka Nakaya

Senayan Trade Centre, Ground Floor.

Phone : +6221 - 57931751

Coco Curry

 

If us Indonesians have our rendang then the Japanese promote their distinctive curry sauce. Thick consistency with the great fragrant is a factor, sweet with a touch of heat is another trait. A franchisee came into the action at Grand Indonesia, goes with the name of 'Coco Curry'. If I am not mistaken, the original store was obviously in Japan and made it's way down to Singapore and then here Jakarta.

Do I like it? Umm...not so much actually. I am quite a big fan of Japanese curry but this was pretty ordinary. Nothing out of box; taste wise. I wouldn't say don't try it but it didn't made me crave for a second helping. I might come back here maybe in another 6 months time though...hehehe...

Coco Curry

Grand Indonesia, West Mall

( Across Fook Yew )

Ikuze

It's sad to go to one of those places that I went and felt cheated upon the first bite. It was a weekday night and two of us was in Kemang Village to grab a quick bite after a long day of work. We browse through some restaurants and decided to give Ikuze a try. It was a big disappointment. I'd rather have a piece of cheese in between two slices of white bread than having what I ate. I don't like having to write a bad review but certainly write a honest one. I don't mean to be a smart ass, criticized and act as if I know a lot about cooking, but look at it as more to sharing a story about my experience.

Ikuze covers quite a pretty big space area and the decor has a Japanese Bazaar theme. Open kitchen setting was also implied in the theme. The place on overall ambiance was pretty much alright, however a totally different case with their food. Let's chat about it ...

Menu : Ikuze Hambagu
Price : Rp 110,000 ++
Score : 2.0 / 10

>> See that two pointer? Yes you didn't see it wrong. It was simply bad food. The only thing that is done right was the white rice and maybe the fried egg on top. I gave one point for the white rice and one more for the fried egg. The beef patty meat was tough as my rubber sole. I'm sure it wasn't freshly made on the day, definitely bought frozen or made like one week ago where they just re heat it again and again. No flavor whatsoever, just tough and tasteless. Then the bottom sauce was also a disaster! I couldn't figure out what is the taste that they are going after. It seems like pieces of chunky mushroom with some alien looking pieces inside. It has a weird smell and tasted way too salty. A good hamburger rice I had was in Kitchenette and when compared to this, it's like heaven and hell. I'm sorry myself to even eat this.

Menu : Crazy Tempura

Price : Rp 126,000 ++
Score : 1.5 / 10

>> I wanted to cry when I bite into this. One of the worst tempura I had ever eaten in my entire live. And trust me as a foodie, I had my share of bad food. But this certainly qualify as a bad food example. This was simply a variety of vegetables and one single piece of sick looking prawn battered in a bad flour batter and fried. Then arrange together and served with a bad tasting mayonnaise base sauce and has the nerve to wear a price tag of Rp 126,000 ++. The 'gorengan' I had along the street side cooks a better product than this, and only charges me Rp 500 for a piece of fritter.

Look, the batter was tasteless, it was as if eating crunchy paper. Then the raw ingredients being fried wasn't fresh at all. So some veges were even undercooked. The sauce on the side which was suppose to help didn't do anything to boost the taste. Bottom line it was bad, and the ironic thing is that Ikuze Hamburg (above) and Crazy Tempura is what the waitress pushes us to order, saying it's their most loved dishes in the menu. One of the priciest, yes but tasty?? Not at all.

No! Wouldn't come back here at all and urge you all to reconsider too. Cheers!

Ikuze

Lippo Kemang Village Mall, Outdoor Food Area

Phone : +62 21 29528356

Marugame Udon

Marugame Udon, a new entry hitting the Japanese food cuisine dance floor and this actually resembles 'Yoshinoya' in some way. 'Yoshinoya' gives you beef bowl done in a fast food manner. While Marugame Udon serves you Udon done in a fast food manner.

You start the queue with a choice from the menu (8 udon dishes and 4 rice dishes), then choose your additional hot food and then move on to the fried food station. The hot food consist of kakedashi soup, beef sukiyaki, tori ball, mentaiko and tamago while the fried food ranges from inari sushi, fried prawn and vegetables tempura, to beef potato croquette.

I would say the concept is pretty original, even though as mentioned above that it resembles the franchised Yoshinoya food retail chain from Japan. Marugame has an open kitchen which makes the entire floor plan bigger. You'll be able to see all the action happening behind the scene. From the udon making, tempura frying to the selection of extra side dishes that are available for your preference. The main course consist of udon and rice dishes, fried food ranges from prawn tempura to sweet potato fritter, while the hot food includes tori balls, beef sukiyaki, etc. The pricing are reasonable. I would say Rp 150,000 (include tax) for 2 person should be enough. Well, unless you've been fasting for 2 days and this is the first meal you ate after that hahaha!

Menu : Mentai Kamatama Udon
Price : Rp 50,000 ++
Score : 6.0 / 10

>> The udon itself is well done but I think I choose the wrong udon dish. I knew myself isn't a big fan of raw egg but the topping consist of very very very soft boiled egg. The minute you gently mix and stir the bowl, you'll break the egg yolk and it'll oozes all over. Mentaiko and the egg is what all of this dish is about. Very pretty color I must say but I'll opt for the 'beef curry udon, niku udon or the tori baitang udon' next time. But if you like raw egg, then by all means I think you'll enjoy this menu!

Menu : Beef Sukiyaki
Price : Rp 30,000 ++
Score : 7.25 / 10

>> I will hands down say it is better than what Yoshinoya has to provide. First, the portion is much much bigger than what you'll get for Rp 30,000 compare to Yoshinoya. Second, because it is an open kitchen, you'll be able to ask for extra onions!! Which I loveee, a big sauteed sweet onion eater here ^_^. The beef is well cooked, wasn't chewy nor overcooked at all. The sauce was well balanced, with the sweet and salty soy sauce kicking into action upon landing on your palate. Overall, something that I'll re order again and again from time to time.

Menu : Tori Ball
Price : Rp 11,000 ++
Score : 7.5 / 10

>> Texture of the chicken tori balls were little bit on the soft side. Definitely not mushy nor stone hard but the right word to describe would be 'easy to chew, friendly for the elderly too'. Hahahaha...well regardless how I may seem to describe, the texture was well to my liking. What I like more was the soup. It has a strong salty taste but still pleasant on the tongue and definitely not overpowering the whole dish. Remember the 'tori baitang udon' dish that I mention above, that menu has this beautiful babies as the topping! So, that choice of the udon is definitely on my 're visit' meal list.

Menu : Inari Sushi (top) & Beef Potato Croquette (below)
Price : Inari Sushi RP 6,400 ++ & Beef Croquette Rp 10,900 ++
Score : Inari Sushi 6.0 / 10 & Beef Croquette 7.0 / 10

>> What can go wrong with fried food? Well, almost nothing. Let's talk about their inari sushi first. I'd say it's mediocre. Nothing special, nothing fancy, nothing out of the box. Just a simple tofu skin wrap over sushi rice. Done well for the reasonable price tag.

>> Beef croquette; crispy outer layer checked, generous fillings checked, tasty tempura sauce checked, too much potato instead of beef checked too. Well, many good points about this piece but except the proportion combination of the croquette is not right. Too much potato and can't taste the beef at all. But overall, I'll come and order this.

Overall a good solid addition into the so called 'Japanese fast food' in Jakarta. And I'm sure to be seeing this in more and more big malls in and around Jakarta. Itada kimas !!


Marugame Udon
Gandaria City Mall, Upper Ground Floor  #16 - 17
Mall Taman Anggrek, 3rd Floor