Jackrabbit

After having dinner at Lan Na Thai, Mr. Foo and I decided to go Jackrabbit for lounging around. It was a Tuesday night, and the place was crowded. We arrived at about 10 p.m., so people were leaving the restaurant side, yet the lounge was full. Therefore, we were seated at the restaurant.

I was kind of like the place. The lighting created warm feeling; it wasn't too dimmed (like most bars were), yet it wasn't too bright. It would be better if we were seated at the lounge area since it would be more relaxing yet lively. However, since there weren't that many people in the restaurant side, it felt a bit more intimate, which wasn't a bad thing either.

It has high-ceilings with floor-to-ceiling windows in the restaurant part. The whole interior was a mixed of smooth clean wood and concrete. The bar, especially, has vintage bistro vibe to it. The most outstanding part was the private dining room in the mezzanine that was like hanging above us. It was so cool...

Bailey's and Kahlua Tiramisu - Rp 70k

Now let's move on the the food. I was torn between Vanilla Panna Cotta and tiramisu but since I was feeling chocolatey that night, I picked the tiramisu. And who can resist baileys? The tiramisu looked super pretty and seducing, but when I gave in to the temptation .... I was disappointed. I couldn't taste the baileys. The kahlua was strong, though. It wasn't too sweet but I'm such a big sweet tooth. It also lacked of the anticipated dusting cocoa powder. The best part of it was actually the pretty chocolate ornaments; it tasted good. For such a premium price, I expected more :(

Chocolate Martini - Rp 90k

Mr. Foo ordered Corona (not pictured) for Rp 60k and I ordered Chocolate Martini since, again, I felt like eating chocolate :p When the drink arrived, it caught me by surprise. I expect it to be chocolate, yet the drink mixture was clear and the only chocolate about the drink was the one on the glass rim. I reluctantly tasted it, and I was surprisingly kind of like it. It was a bit stronger than the usual chocolate martini and not as sweet, but it was good if I drank it while sipping the chocolate on the glass rim.

I would still the benefit of doubt for Jackrabbit. It has a lot of potentials. Maybe I should come back and try its food and different desserts.

Jackrabbit

Cyber 2 Tower

Ground Floor

Jl. H.R. Rasuna Said Blok X-5 No. 13

Jakarta Selatan

Ph: (021) 2902 1357

www.jackrabbitjakarta.com

Lan Na Thai

Lan Na Thai was my favorite Thai restaurant in Jakarta, so far. I loved its strategic location, its theme, and the food was to die for! However, parking was a b*tch there. But, they provided free valet parking service, you just needed to tip them well. Another downside was the super dark lighting, combined with the big statues and every candles, it gave spooky feeling. However, the food made me forget (or at least compromise) about anything else.

Lan Na Thai was located on the second-story in the restaurant building. On the first-floor, there was Hazara, which served Indian food. I hadn't tried it yet, but I heard good reviews. There were a lot of expats spotted in both restaurant.

Garlic Beef

This was my favorite dish in Lan Na Thai! Unfortunately, I forgot the Thai name for it :( but I usually just said garlic beef when ordering. You definitely can taste the garlic, but it was not so overpowering. The beef itself was tasty. Love love it.

Gai Hor Bai Toey (Pandan Chicken)

It was basically a handful piece of chicken wrapped in a pandan leaf and lightly fried. They were four of them. They were served with sweet sauce. I love it.

Lan Na Gaeng Phed Ped Yang (Duck Curry)

This was the whole table's favorite (except for Mr. Foo and I who liked the garlic beef better). It came in a small bowl as it was supposed to be for one person only. We usually just ordered one and shared among the table. It was red curry with roasted duck, pineapple, and cherry tomato. And, it was spicy, even though we ordered it mild, it was still a bit too spicy for me (as I do not eat spicy food).

Khow Phad Supparod (Pineapple Fried Rice)

We also ordered the Pineapple Fried Rice to share. The Thai fried rice came with shrimp and topped with cashew and fried onion. it was served in a half-cut pineapple. It was just ok.

Mr. Foo ordered the vegetable dish; he loved veggies! I found it weird. Anyway, the sauteed water spinach tasted so-so to me, nothing's special.

I am so sorry for (again!) forgetting to take notes on the menu details and price :(

I always enjoy my visit to Lan Na Thai, even though I found the super dimmed light quite disturbing. My must-order dishes were the garlic beef, duck curry, and Thai ice tea!

Lan Na Thai
Jl. Dr. Kusuma Atmaja 85
Jakarta Pusat
Telp: (021) 3192-5037

Bebe Summer 2011 Fashion Show, Jakarta

I was invited to Bebe Summer 2011 Collection Fashion Show which was held on May 5th, 2011 in Senayan City. The stage was built right in front of Bebe store in Senayan City. The invitation said that the event started at 6 p.m. for cocktail and chitchatting and the fashion show started at 7 p.m.

My friends and I arrived just right about 7 p.m. Most of the chairs provided were seated so we didn't have much choices. We didn't get the best seats, so pardon me for the not-so-great pictures. We also missed out the hor d'oeuvres :(

They also gave out a compact mirror with bebe logo as party favors.

Bebe Summer 2011 Collection

The clothes to me screamed "beach parteeehh." I felt the collection lacked of a real strong theme. They basically were sexy. some of them were super sexy and tight, just what one would expect from Bebe. I also noticed there were a lot of bright colors such as hot pink or fuschia and red.

The first four pictures on the top were my favorites. They were wearable, sexy but not in-your-face kind of sexy, and they did not show too much cleavage, if any XD

The fashion show lasted for less that 30 minutes I believe. It wasn't long; or to be honest, it felt too short. I am still thinking to buy one of the four dresses that I like.

Bakmi Bintang Gading

Bakmi Bintang Gading is one of my favorite place to grab a bowl of tasty noodle, other than Bakmi GM, of course! The most famous dish here is Ujung Pandang Wonton Noodle. Ujung Pandang Noodle is different from the ordinary noodle you usually get just anywhere. It was thicker yet chewy. 

Pangsit Mie (small portion) - Rp 19.5k

It was my fave dish there, Mie Pangsit (Wonton Noodle). There are 2 options for the type of noodle, thin noodle, which is ordinary noodle, and Ujung Pandang thick noodle, which is its specialty. It came with BBQ pork and/or steamed chicken, depended on your choice. I loved to mix them both since I can taste the sweet BBQ pork and the salty chicken. yummmy... It also came with one fried wonton and one wonton in the soup, again you could pick either you want to have one each or two pieces a kind.

Bakso Goreng - Rp 3k each

I love this type of bakso goreng and I always eat it with the sweet and sour sauce. However, the one there was a bit tough to chew. Even though I did not like it that way, I always order one :p

Nasi Goreng Ujung Pandang Special - Rp 26k

My friend loved its fried rice. The Ujung Pandang Style Fried Rice was different that you ordinary fried rice. I think instead of using sweet soy sauce or soy sauce, they use tomato ketchup (?) Correct me here, since I'm just guessing. I tried a spoonful of it, and I thought there was nothing special about it.

I went to Ujung Pandang a year ago, there I tried the best Ujung Pandang Style Noodle and Fried Rice. They were superb! However, the one in Bintang Gading was the best I could find around Jakarta. The taste of the wonton noodle was close to the one I had in Ujung Pandang.

Bakmi Bintang Gading

Jl Boulevard Raya Blok QA 5 No 20-21

Jakarta Utara

Ph: (021) 4585 7082

Loewy

After craving for its melted triple chocolate cake for weeks! (I craved for it after dinner in Riva, but unfortunately, Loewy was full )I finally made it. yay..I had to make a reservation on Monday for dinner on Saturday (Friday was fully booked already). After years, Loewy hadn't lost its charm. I remember back then when it was first opened, even though I called a week early, I was the 40th on the waiting list! It was crazy.

Loewy was crowded as expected, and there were a lot of expats when we were there.

Platter of Escargots - Rp 40k

My friends and I ordered platter of Escargots for appetizer. It was served with sliced baguette. It was good but nothing special, really.

Chicken Confit - Rp80k

I shared the chicken confit with my friend, since we (*cough cough*) were on diet. The chicken was slowly sauteed with green beans and smoked beef. It was really gooddd...the chicken was tender and perfectly seasoned. I could finish the whole meal!

clockwise: Mille Feuille - Rp 35k, Melted Triple Chocolate Cake - Rp 35k,
 Classic Creme Brulee - Rp 35ish

You can choose the filling of the Mille Feuille to be vanilla, chocolate, or hazelnut. We picked hazulnut even though the waiter recommend chocolate filling. It was served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Mille Feuille was good, but nothing special. 

anddd here is the reason why I went to Loewy that night: THE melted triple chocolate cake! There were 3 different pieces: white, milk, and dark chocolate cake with those 3 different chocolate fillings, respectively. My favorite was the dark chocolate. I usually ordered mine to be consisted of 2 dark chocolate and 1 milk chocolate. I tend to brush off the white chocolate, since I do not like white chocolate in general. It's too milky to my liking. The cakes were moist with warm chocolate sauce filling inside. It was perfecto!

We also got creme brulee, and it was sooo bad that we couldn't finish it. The taste was too thick, too sweet, and too milky. 'nuff said.

Hot Creme Caramel Tea - Rp 25k, Cotton Candy Cosmopolitan (before) - Rp 75ish,
 Cotton Candy Cosmopolitan (after), Liquid Tiramisu - Rp 80ish

My friend ordered Cotton Candy Cosmopolitan and it was so cute! Basically, they put cotton candy on top of an empty glass I supposed, and then they pour the drink which consisted of vodka, cointreau, fresh lime juice, and cranberry juice on top of it. Right after it, the cotton candy would get flattened.You could see from the "after" picture that the cotton candy just made a sheer coating on top of the drink. The drink itself tasted perfectly mixed of sweet and sour. I loved the taste, and of course the presentation.

However, my favorite drink was Liquid Tiramisu. To me, the alcohol felt stronger in this drink, and it was really sweet at the same time. You could taste the kahlua and there were chocolate bits. 

I love hanging out at Loewy. The food, drink, and dessert are super good; and the place is rather comfie. However, weekend can be overly crowded. Furthermore, the traffic on the way to get in and out of there sucks big time, since there is road work along Casablanca.

Make sure, you make a reservation a few days in advance.

Loewy

Oakwood Premier Cozmo
Jl. Lingkar Mega Kuningan E 4.2 No. 1

Jakarta Selatan

Phone: (021) 2554-2378

Mad for Garlic

I went there on a weekday evening. I heard the restaurant was super crowded so I made a reservation. Turned out, it wasn't busy at all, maybe because it was a weekday night. 

The front of the restaurant was small. It actually reminded me of an Italian pizza stove, dont you think so? Mad for Garlic served Italian food with Korean twist, since the chain restaurant was originated from Korea. The main ingredient was...Garlic!bingo! However, you don't need to be a garlic biggest fan to try it out. All of the dishes essentially contained garlic, but in most of them you could barely taste it. And again, garlic is good for your health. 

They take garlic to another level, Garlic Chandeliers! who would have thought of it. I just had to post a picture of it.

Dracula Killer - Rp 45k

We got the Dracula Killer for appetizer. It was soft garlic bread served with garlic cooked in olive oil and anchovie. They always offer to put cheese on top of every dish. The garlics were served as if they were escargots, which my friends and I joked that the dish was fake escargot.

The way to eat it was to put the garlic in the middle of the sliced garlic bread, and they told us that it's better to eat this while it's still hot. For the taste, we did not really like it. You could barely taste the garlic, which was good, but you knew it was there. The garlic was soft and a bit gooey. The sauce lacked of its flavor compare to the usual escargot sauce.

Garlic Snowing Pizza - Rp 115k

We got the Garlic Snowing Pizza to share as the waiter said it was one of their favorite menus. It was basically sweet garlic pizza topped with shrimp and pineapple, but we ordered one without pineapple. It was my favorite menu there!I love it. The pizza crust was thin. It has sweet creamy sauce, which I found it to be different than any other pizza, and I loved it! There were garlic sprout and fried sliced garlic. Again, you could barely taste it, but I prefer the fried sliced one tho'.

Garlicpeno Pasta - Rp60k

It was described as Mad for Garlic special pasta with full of garlic and Mexican pepper. It has three chili sign, meaning it's super spicy. For you who didn't know, I could not stand any spicy food. Thus, I just had one bite and it was spicy, but my friends said it was not -.-' It was my friends' favorite dish there that night.

Triple Garlic Pasta - Rp 110k

Another friend ordered triple garlic pasta, which was spicy seafood pasta served with fresh mussel, shrimp, cuttle fish, and garlic sprout. This one just had one chili sign, and I could take it. There was a lot of seafood in the plate. However, my friends said that they love garlicpeno pasta better.

Anyway, it did not end here. Throughout the rest of the night until the next day noon, I could still feel the garlic! and I'm not talking about garlic breath, it's more like garlic taste in my saliva or something, I had spent more time brushing my time, it didn't work. One of my friends who dined together also felt the same way, but others did not. I had to drink a cup of coffee to eliminate this feeling -.-' geez it was a bit frustrating.lol

Mad for Garlic

Grand Indonesia Shopping Town
West Mall, Ground Floor, 20A
Jl. M.H. Thamrin No. 1
Jakarta Pusat
Ph (62-21) 2358-1076