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

MonViet

It's a tough thing to find a good decent Vietnamese restaurant here in Jakarta. Well maybe it's due to the lack of 'marketing' I suppose? Japanese, Korean and Thai restaurant has been flooding our go to destination shopping malls all over Jakarta and not so much for Vietnamese food. I'm not quite sure why, but maybe it resembles Thai cuisine? Nevertheless, I was in Kemang Village and decided on this for dinner. As it turn out, I left the place deciding on being a return customer! I believe just base on the 2 dishes I tasted below, the other menu were worth my second trip later in the near future.

Menu : Fresh Spring Roll with Prawns
Price : Rp 32,000 ++
Score : 6.0 / 10

>> The appetizer was a so - so but maybe it was because I opted for fresh raw vegetables instead of the fried one. Anything fried would taste way better, all the time. But anyways, the vegetable were really fresh, with a strong smell of 'Kemangi leaf'. With the additional brown sauce they provide, it's just the right condiments to go with the menu. Prawns were steam and sliced and arranged in such a way that it is visible through the almost see through thin rice skin. A good appetizer to begin, but I'll order the fried one next time !

Menu : Spicy Beef Noodle Soup
Price : Rp 43,000 ++
Score : 7.75 / 10

>> YUMMM ! The soup is goooood. With additional chili given on the side, I poured everything into this, swirl it around for a good mixing and slurp away I go. The broth was splendid with beef goodness and the right amount of seasoning. The vermicelli was spectacular too!! It's difficult to describe the texture of the noodle but it's nothing I had tasted before. It's not too spring, but enough strength for slurping without breaking down too easily. The mouth feel it gave was to my liking. The only thing that I might want more is the beef slices. It's too little in comparison to the amount of vermicelli. It's a meal that is full with carbohydrate and lacking in protein. But hey! I love carbs and would come back for this again.


MonViet
Lippo Kemang Village Mall 
(Outdoor Section; Food Junction)
Phone : 0815 8455 2945