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

Chandara

I decided on a Thai night of feasting and chose the Chandara in Plaza Senayan initially. Due to booking numbers and space issue, I cancelled on that branch and switched to their second branch that just opened in Plaza Indonesia. I had so much food ordered that I couldn't keep track of everything. Unfortunately I had several dishes slipped away, not having them taken picture or tasted. So a revisit is confirmed.

I would say for a busy weekend dinner time, their service were surprisingly quick. I didn't expect food to flow out of the kitchen that fast and that everything tasted pretty awesome. I wouldn't the best of everything but on a scale of one to ten base on overall experience. A good solid 7.5. Rather pricey but a splurge every now and then is definitely a must. It makes the economy goes around.

Menu : Pomelo Salad

Price : RP 55,000 ++
Score : 6.5 / 10

>> I usually have the normal Thai Mango Salad or Papaya Salad, but Chandara serves additional different selection. 'Jeruk Bali' or known as 'Pomelo' became the base of this dish. Just imagine shredded pomelo bits mixed together with lime, chili, small dried shrimp. I think what was missing was the balance of sweetness. This dish has potential if only the pomelo fruit was ripe and sweet enough.

Menu : Gai Takrai

Price : RP 40,000 ++
Score : 5.5 /10

>> This is basically a fried chicken. Good flavorings, but the issue here is the chicken was too dry. A good fried chicken should still able to maintain the moisture and juiciness of the meat. This is a small portion and thus omit on this one if you're super hungry.

Menu : Olive Fried Rice

Price : RP 60,000 ++
Score : 7.0 / 10

>> Even though I can't taste any olive inside, I love this dish. Good portion, great seasoning, generous fillings, has a combination of texture; crunch from the nuts, well cooked rice. I like the kick of cut red and green chili, red onions and the sourness of the lime when you catch them by surprise while chewing. 

Menu : Thai Beef Basil
Price : RP 65,000 ++
Score : 7.0 / 10

>> You all might think I'm bullshi*ing but I made quite a few times of this dish back during my Melbourne Uni days and I would say mine was better than this. Not that this tasted wrong in anyway, I gave this a 7 pointer but just that mine was simply better, hahahahahaha !!!!!

Menu : Chicken Green Curry
Price : RP 65,000 ++
Score : To Be Advised

>> I am truly sorry. I took a picture of this but then realised I didn't get a bite. None of my friend said this was bad and thus I assume, an average green curry dish. Next time, I'll pay more attention and write a revisit post.

Menu : Phad Thay
Price : RP 60,000 ++
Score : 7.0 / 10

>> One of my favorite dish of the night. When this plate came, I pour the entirely small bowl of sweet and sour dipping and properly mixed it with the beansprout, chili and peanuts and gave a good squeeze of lime given at the side. I end up with a yummehhh phad thay! Good portion too ^_^ PS : Chandara serves a choice of Vermicelli Phad Thay or Rice Noodle Phad Thay.

Menu : Mad Ke Yao Pad La

Price : RP 45,000 ++
Score : 2.0 / 10

>> Okay, to begin with I don't like egg plant at all and this was specially ordered by FW. Well, I did put it into my mouth and gave a quick chew and swallow it with a gulp of tea. Bottom line, an egg plant will always taste and look like an egg plant regardless how the chef would cook it in any way. After this dish, I'm still not a fan in anyway and might not ever will. I don't like mushy texture, just yucky in all way when chewing inside my mouth.

Menu : Neua Yang

Price : RP 86,000 ++
Score : 8.0 / 10

>> My favorite beef dish in almost all Thai restaurant. A good cut of tenderized beef, perfectly grilled to well done (not chewy at all), comes with a sour and slightly smokey dipping condiment. This is not spicy at all and thus those afraid of chili will love this as they can't eat much variety in a Thai restaurant. Almost all the dish under a Thai menu involves chili in one way or another.

Menu : Poh Piah Tod

Price : RP 30,000 ++
Score : 6.5 / 10

>> Minced chicken mixed with vegetables wrapped inside a spring roll paper skin, then deep fried to absolute crisp. Like the crispiness but rather lacking in flavor on its own. The sweet and sour Thai Sweet Chili Sauce was a savior to this,  a good combination. Take out the dipping and the score would dropped to a 5.0 / 10.

18 pax and the bill comes down to RP 2,850,000. Around RP 160,000 for one person and remembering the amount of food and the free flow of drinks, I personally think the price tag rather make sense :)

Chandara
Plaza Indonesia 1st Floor # E.18
Phone : 021 - 299 23775

Vietopia

My experiences with Vietnamese cuisine are rather shallow and my best ones were certainly a few years back when I made a trip around Vietnam. I'd say the food taste like Thai. Strong in lime, lemon, vinegar and can be spicy sometimes. Definitely my kind of food!!

F.W brought me to this Vietnamese restaurant in Cikini Raya. If you are unfamiliar with the area (just like me) then I assure you that 'Vietopia' will easily passes you by going unnoticed. The restaurant looked gloomy, unkempt and not inviting from the outside. I arrived there around 9 pm and there were only 3 tables occupied on a Sunday night. Maybe it was due to the fact that it is after dinner service peak hour.

Menu : Cha Gio

Price : Rp 26,000++

Score : 6.5 / 10

>> The number one rule : you can never skip spring rolls as your starter in all Vietnamese restaurants and I delightfully obeyed. This is basically a fried spring roll with minced chicken inside. The fillings inside were alright but what made this a delicious dish was the fried skin. It has this gooey slight chewy on the inner side and yet still crispy on the outside of the skin. Yumm - ooh !!!

Menu : Pho Bo

Price : Rp 45,000 ++

Score : 6.5 / 10

>> Pho is a Vietnamese renowned beef noodle soup is served with hand cut rice noodle, generous amount of sliced beef, beef brisket, Vietnamese basil, scallions, coriander, beansprout, lime and chilies to taste. I definitely seasoned my soup very well to adjust my palate. 5 wedge of lime and a few spoonful of cut green chilies. The warmth of the broth definitely warmed my heart.

Menu : Ca Mu Chien Voi Gung

Price : Rp 48,000 ++
Score : 6.5 / 10

>> Resembles 'Gurame Asam Manis' but brought up to a few notch higher. This is a one portion dish of fried grouper served with mushrooms and poured with "Noucmam" sauce. Best eaten with steam white rice. Love the sweet and sour taste!

Menu : Ca Phe Sua Da

Price : Rp 22,000 ++
Score : 6.0 / 10

>> Served in the Vietnamese traditional way of drinking coffee. The coffee potion will slowly drip from the miniature pot on top of the glass filled with sweet condensed milk at the bottom. This might take 10 minutes for all the coffee to be filtered all the way through. You can have this in both hot and iced! Order their 'Ice lemon grass tea' (Rp 15,000) instead if you are extremely thirsty and couldn't wait for 10 minutes.

Total Cost for the meal of two : Rp 180,000 (inclusive tax)

Vietopia

Jl. Cikini Raya No 33, Jakarta Selatan

Phone : 021 - 3915893

Jittlada

My friend; Caroline came by Jakarta last weekend and we had dinner together. It has been ages since I last saw her. She's getting married this March and that was a much needed get together session! I choose Jittlada for dinner because David was so crankily hungry and Thai food seems very appealing to him at that moment. 

I ate here quite often, has been repeating myself for multiples of time. To describe the decor, it was some how leaning towards 'modern traditional Thailand' and strangely enough there is an odd looking wedding cake stand / shop at the back of the restaurant floor. Even though the ambiance was alright, the service was rather annoying especially they got packed during dinner time. They forgot one of our dishes, it came out like one hour later. Overall, I like the food there on average and will come back repeatedly for future to come.

Menu : Shrimp Cake with Bread
Price : Rp 23,500++
Score : 6.25 / 10

» Slightly too oily for me but the bread was really crispy and the sweet chili dipping goes hand in hand very well. The fillings should be 'richer' Some additional vegetables should be mixed inside instead of just plain prawn fillings.

 Menu : Poh Piah Tod
Price : Rp 23,500++
Score : 5.0 / 10

>> My friend Ratna likes this very much however I don't. The rolls are stuffed with chicken, vegetable, mushrooms, onions, shrimp and glass noodle. But the taste didn't really stood out., it was just bland. Only the sweet chili, I thought it gave a very nice additional kick to the spring rolls!

Menu : Tom Yam Kung
Price : Rp 34,500++
Score : 7.25 / 10

>> Even though for the price, the size was rather miniature, the taste was a perfect balance of sour sweet and hot. I LOVE THIS SOUP. The broth was just delicious but the fillings should have been more creative, instead of 2 pieces of prawns and some mushroom slices floating on top.

Menu  : Green Curry Beef
Price : Rp 45,500++
Score : 6.5 / 10

>> I am not a big fan of dish containing coconut milk. But every time I swing by this restaurant, I'll order this soup. The soup is some how calming in a way the coconut is not too pungent and doesn't give you a feeling of uneasiness in your tummy or throat after dinner.

Menu : House Special Claypot Prawn with Glass Noodle
Price : Rp 65,500++
Score : 2.0 / 10

» Good God! This is atrocious! The food was cold, the glass noodle were all broken into small pieces, the taste was just too plain but the most disgusting thing is the "licorice spice" they mixed all in and over the dish. I hate licorice so damn much and can't ever understand why you'd want it in your food --___--". Will the chef that made this recipe get a grip of his tongue???

Menu : Soft Shell Crab, Garlic Pepper & Salt
Score : 7 / 10

» Jittlada captured my taste for Thai food. This dish is good good good, slightly too salty actually but when ate together with steaming white rice it was party in your mouth.

Menu : Beef Nah Yang
Score : 8.25 / 10

» I love this beef, tastes like bbq beef jerky. It's sweet and tangy with a splash of sourness. The entire table agree this is the best tasting dish of the evening and all of u should try this!

Menu : Soft Shell Crab with Black Pepper
Price : Rp 75,500++
Score : 8.0 / 10

>> This is GOOD stuff! The sauce, the spice and the soft shell crab just mixed together into a dish is simply a God sent.

Menu : Minced Beef with Crispy Basil
Price : Rp 48,500++
Score : 6.5 / 10

>> This dish is quite confusing. Meaning the restaurant cook this inconsistently. Some occasion this can taste really superb and I'll give a 7.5 in a heart beat. But today...not that 'great'. The chef might be having a fight with his Thai girlfriend in Bangkok haha!

Menu : Baby Kailan with Sliced Beef
Price : Rp 37,500++
Score : 6.25 / 10

>> The oyster sauce is good. I don't like sauce that are too thick and they are of the right consistency here. One of the downside here is the portion. It is too small or am I just too greedy ?

Menu : Man Cham
Price : Rp 17,500++
Score : 3.5 / 10

>> Not good. Do not bother to order. They have this watery slime at the bottom of the sweet tapioca. Maybe the food is turning bad? Well I do not think it was that extreme. But definitely not good, however better than the horrifying glass noodle (above) ;p

JITTLADA THAI RESTAURANT

GRAND INDONESIA, EAST MALL FLOOR 3A

Yummy Sydney Part 2

This is the second part of the blog. During my trip to Sydney, I remembered I ate a lot of Korean and Thai food. Not sure why I stumble upon that kind of food but nevertheless I was satisfied eating them. Desserts; cakes, tim tams, ice creams and gelatos was never missing from my 'what to eat today' lists. I try to consume as much ice creams and cakes as much as possible as I learn from my Melbourne days that Australia has one of the best dairy and confectionery products!

YUMMY FUSION BBQ

 

This restaurant is situated in "Castle Tower" in the Baulkham Hills area. It is about 40 minutes drive from the city area. We did some shopping therapy in this mall and had lunch here. I ordered the "Chili Pork" AUD 10.90 and DH ordered "Grilled Pork Belly" AUD 12.50. The food was quite tasty and the big portion sufficiently powered me to walk and shop even further.

WATERS EDGE

The main reason why I came to Sydney was to attend DH sister's wedding. It was a beautiful setting and venue. The Waters Edge was situated at the quay of Darling Harbor and thus the view was surely splendid to the eye. Everyone dressed up to the occasion and the food was simply mouth watering. The day begins with everyone busy preparing getting ready and the night ends with people partying on the dance floor!!!

 

IN CHAN

This is the Thai Restaurant that I bragged about in the previous post (part 1). "In Chan" is situated on the Kingsford Street, just along Kingsford Chinese Restaurant. One of the most things that amazed me was that the cook in the kitchen were very young. Probably in the late 20's. I also assume that this is a family run restaurant, because almost all of the worker there looked alike. The next time I come back to Sydney, I'll definitely pop myself back in here again and order more dishes for sure!

> Tom Yum Goong AUD 7.00

> Yum Ped yang AUD 16.90

> BBQ Beef Crying Tiger AUD 15.90

THAI FOON
That day, a few of us went to the Star City Casino and try out our luck and as it turns out, we had good luck on our side! I won AUD 1200 and DH's dad won even much much more. Thus as for dinner, we decided to splurge more because in a way it was complimentary from Star City. We had exotic Kangaroo's meat, duck salad, tom yum soup, curry seafood soup (turns out to be the star of the meal) and many others.

PHO PASTEUR

I wanted to eat at "CHAT THAI" in the city but the queue was just crazy to be true. Instead we went for Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup at "PHO PASTEUR". The restaurant was pretty busy when we were there during the peak dinner hour. I had a "Grilled Pork With Vermicelli AUD 9.00" and DH had "Special Beef Rice Noodle Soup AUD 11.00" and as for our starter, we choose to have fried spring rolls to share.