Chili's Grill & Bar

I went to Chili's after work with my friends. Chili's is a US based chain restaurant. It's funny we had never dined at Chili's while we were studying in the US.

Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip - Rp 77k

We ordered the Spinach and Artichoke Dip since we are such huge fans of California Pizza Kitchen's Spinach and Artichoke Dip. The portion was humongous! I think Chili's is best for group dining where you share food with everyone since all the food come in super bige size. The spinach and artichoke dip looked freshly baked, served in a pan with creamy cheese sauce and salsa. The chips looked more authentic than the one in CPK. We were so eager to get some of it. However, sadly the dip lacked of taste :( We had to add a bunch of salt. It also happened to the chips.

Texas Cheese Fries - Rp 73k

We also ordered Texas Cheese Fries. The fries was served with chili, melted cheese, jalapeno, and beef bacon over it. They also gave ranch dressing sauce on the side. Again, it looked yummy and all but it lacked of taste. The fries was a bit gooey, but it was still okay.

Chicken Mushroom Jack - Rp 120k

For the entree we gt Mushroom Jack with Chicken. It was basically grilled marinated chicken smothered with Jack cheese, bacon, and sauted mushroom, served with onion, bell peppers, and salsa on the side. The portion was again huge, and lacked of taste :(

Ice Lemon Tea - Rp 26k

I believed the Ice Lemon Tea was refillable.

Chili's has been around for quite some time in Jakarta. The interior actually looked dated. Overall, I was pleased with its serving size and price but I gotta be honest that I wasn't impressed with the food itself. They lacked of taste i.e salt, etc. It was such a huge disappointment since I really liked that the spinach dip was freshly made :(

Chili's Grill & Bar

Sarinah Building, 2nd Floor

Jl. MH Thamrin 11

Jakarta Pusat

Bakso Akiaw 99

My cousin "kidnapped" me to Bakso Akiaw last week. I told him that they had a counter in Eat & Eat Mall Kelapa Gading 5, which I believe a lot more comfortable with air-con and all, but he insisted to eat at the original depot. So we went there instead. The place was crowded.

I heard a lot of good reviews about it, but had never been there myself. My mom was actually a fan. Since it was really famous, I set the expectation really high.

The waitress asked whether I wanted it with vermicelli, rice noodle, or egg noodle. I picked the vermicelli. When the order came in, I was a bit surprise since they gave me two bowls. Apparently, one was for the meatballs and sliced beef, and another for the vermicelli. The vermicelli was a lot since they gave us a bowl full each. Furthermore, I did not expect to get sliced beef in my meatball bowl. However, they were really good! I actually am drooling over my keyboard right now by looking at the picture. yummmmmm.....

Anyway, I was surprise again when we paid. The bill went for about Rp 70k for both of us, mind you each of us ordered just a bowl of meatball and ice tea. In my opinion, it was quite expensive considering it was just meatball and the place was not nice either. But, I am a big fan now regardless!


Bakso Akiaw 99
Jl. Mangga Besar No. 2B
Jakarta Barat

Din Tai Fung

I had a meeting at Senayan area last Tuesday. There were not so many of us. And since most of us felt a bit unwell, Din Tai Fung sounded quite healthy to me.

Crab Meat, Roe, and Chicken Dumpling
(Xiao Long Bao isi Kepiting dan Ayam) - Rp 68k for 6pcs

While waiting for another person to come, my brother ordered the crab meat and chicken xiao long bao. I used to hate eating xiao long bao, because I always ended up making a mess. But that's was before I read the placemat at Din Tai Fung. It told me how to eat xiao long bao properly! Geez I was really thankful, now I could eat xiao long bao neatly =D

Din Tai Fung was known for its xiao long bao. I would say they were good, but not overly delicious. yes, I love the juice in the little bao, but overall it was just okay to me.

Bubble Tea - Rp 22k

Have I told you how I miss good bubble tea so sooo baaddd?! so can you imagine how excited I was when I read that they had bubble tea. I ordered it instantly, not even my sore throat could stop me. and I did not regret it at all. They were good. The boba (bubble/pearl/whatever you may call it) were chewy and sweet, generally just like how I love it. It was not perfect, but it was more than good enough to satisfy my craving. The only downside was it was super small in term of portion that ordering one glass would not enough.

Chinese Tea - Rp 9k

The waiter would give you chinese tea automatically if you do not order any drink. Well, since the bubble tea was super small, and my sore throat was calling for hot drink, so I also got the Chinese Tea.

Ja Jang Noodle w/ Spinach Noodle - Rp 46k

For the main dish, I got the Ja Jang Noodle. Basically, you can choose the between the regular or spinach noodle. I picked the spinach noodle. Overall, the noodle was good. I really love the sweet sauce.

Din Tai Fung
Plaza Senayan
3rd Floor #318C
Jl. Asia Afrika No. 8
Jakarta Selatan
Ph: (021) 5790 0163


also available at:
Pondok Indah Mall, 3rd Floor
Pacific Place, 5th Floor
Plaza Senayan Arcadia, Ground Floor
Plaza Indonesia, L3
Mall of Indonesia, Ground Floor

California Pizza Kitchen

California Pizza Kitchen is an American based franchise restaurant. I went here on a Wednesday evening with two of my friends since we missed CPK's Spinach Artichoke Dip so much! I hadn't tried the one in Indonesia yet before, so we decided to give it a shot.

Spinach Artichoke Dip - Indonesia version (Rp 95k) vs The US version ($9.29)

We were a bit disappointed when the dish came out. It was a bit different from the one in the US. You can see from the picture that the dip in Indo was thicker in texture and lighter in color, as in there was no spinach (?). The chips were also different, since the US version came with blue and white corn tortilla chips, while Indo version came only with the thicker white tortilla chips. For the taste, well the US version's dip was tastier. However, the one in Indo was good enough to satisfy my craving. We even managed to order another portion :p

Shanghai Garlic Noodle with Chicken - Rp 85k

We also ordered Shanghai Garlic Noodle with Chicken. CPK pasta never failed me, neither did this one. The portion was enough for us three. It was great, tasty and a bit sweet. There were also generous chicken bits and mushrooms in it. I really really really like their Asian pizza or pasta.

 I actually think CPK is one of the restaurants that have good pasta in Jakarta, and I can assure you, there are not so many of them. I like my pasta to be well seasoned that I don't need to add more salt and pepper. The works should be done in the kitchen by the chef, and as a customer, I should be able to enjoy pasta served without have to add other ingredients.

We ordered Ice Lemon Tea - Rp 25k and Ice Tea - Rp 20k (not pictured). We really liked the fact that both of them were refillable.

California Pizza Kitchen
Plaza Indonesia eX
1st Floor, #039
Jl. MH Thamrin Kav 28-30
Jakarta Pusat
Ph: (021) 310 7667

Mr. Puff

We passed by Mr. Puff after having dinner at Hachi Hachi Bistro. I was too full that even dessert didn't sound appealing to me. However, one of my cousins decided to stop by. Since I was really full, I decided not to get any, yet they forced me to get some!dayum... I did believe that they were on a mission to fail my diet program!lol

Mr. Puff, Central Park

My cousin loved Mr. Puff. I love cream puff, in fact I am a Beard Papa addict, but I had never tried Mr. Puff's before. I remembered back then during my college years, I often went to Bread Papa just to get some cream puffs in the middle of group meetings :p However, I heard the stall near my university had closed down :(

I always love the crunchy shell. Beard Papa called it Cookie Shell, while Mr. Puff named it Polo Puff. They looked similar but I felt Beard Papa had bigger size. However, Mr. Puff's looked crunchier.

Polo Puff was priced a bit higher at Rp 8k compared to the Original Puff, which was priced Rp 7k. Other than those two, they have other choices of shells, but I forgot what they were. Sowwiii... :p

Polo Puff with Chocholate Filling - Rp 8k

Mr. Puff had more filling choices compare to Beard Papa. They had Chocolate, Vanilla, Green Tea, Rhum, and Mocca. In Beard Papa, I usually ordered the regular one a.k.a the not-so-boring vanilla. Looking at the different choices, I temped to order the rhum or mocca. However, my cousin had ordered the chocolate one for me :(

Well, it was great but personally I still prefer Beard Papa cream puff, even though it is more expensive. The shell at Beard Papa is crunchier and bigger. However, Mr. Puff gave me more filling than Beard Papa, I believed.

Mr. Puff
Central Park
Lower Ground #202
Jl. Letnan Jenderal S. Parman Kav. 28
Jakarta Barat
Ph: (021) 5698 5316





They also have other outlets in:
Senayan City, 5th Floor
Mall Taman Anggrek, 4th Floor
Plaza Indonesia, 5th Floor
Emporium Mall

Go! Curry

No, this one was not the same as the Go!Go! Curry in Singapore, the one with a gorilla as the mascot. When a friend asked me to accompany her trying out Go! Curry in Pacific Place, I immediately thought of the Gorilla one, but I was wrong.

The place had just opened for a few months I believed, and it was quite busy on a weekday evening. They took curry seriously since they provided different types of curry such as Thai, Japanese, Indian, Indonesian, and British (? I'm not sure about this. I mean since when the Brit is famous for its curry? but yet I'm sure one of the people from the logo was British, no?) curry, that we could choose to create our own curry. We were also able to choose the spiciness level, the type of rice, and what do we want to put in our curry. There were also three different choices for rice: usual plain rice, rice cooked with butter and cilantro, and yellow rice flavored with butter, roasted peanut, and mustard seed.

Tandoor Chicken Tikka with Rogan Josh Curry - Rp 56k

I went with the waiter's recommendation as there were just too many choices for everything.lol save the hassle. He practically recommended the Indian dish. Rogan Josh Curry was their special curry. I believed it was Indian curry. I ordered it mild since I do not eat spicy food. Tandoor Chicken Tikka was basically grilled chicken cubes marinated with Indian spices. He also recommended the Cilantro butter rice.

The portion was perfect to me; it was satisfying. I would say there's nothing really special about the curry. The chicken was tender. It was good but the curry was a bit bland to my taste. It might be because I ordered it mild :( Anyway, I really love the cilantro butter rice. It was aromatic and tasty. I usually did not finish my rice portion (I was on diet *cough cough*), but this time I had to work extra hard to resist the temptation!

Breaded Fish Green Curry - Rp 60k

Well, I actually forgot what my friend ordered but I believed it was the Breaded Fish. The green curry was made with coconut milk, green chili, lime, mint, and pandan leaves to give its green color. She got the long grain rice, which was the plain rice. She also paired them with Dory fillet which was fried with Japanase breadcrumbs.

I didn't try the dish, but I did ask her on how it tasted. She said it actually tasted weird at first since she got the Thai curry with Japanese style fish katsu kind of thing. However, she grew to like it as she ate more of it. And yes, she finished the plate.

Cheese Naan - Rp 23k

We also ordered Cheese Naan for the side dish. It was okay. There was cheese inside the naan!

I also ordered TWG French Earl Grey (not pictured) for drink. It costed Rp 26k.

Overall, I think it was quite good and affordable for Pacific Place. The portion was fulfilling. The bland taste might be because I ordered the curry mild, while others said it was great since they ordered it hot, or even insanely hot. Spicy food lover might want to try the insanely hot curry out!

Oh and I really love the logo graphic! Those five cute guys are so adorable :)

Go! Curry

Pacific Place, 4th Floor

Jl. Jend. Sudirman Kav 52-53

Jakarta Selatan

Cilandak Town Square, 1st Floor

Jl. Letnan Jend. TB Simatupang Kav. 17

Jakarta Selatan

Ph: (021) 7592 0265/75

http://go-curry.com/

M by Musa "The Luric (She)'ll", Jakarta Fashion & Food Festival 2011

I was invited to the annual M by Musa Fashion Show during JFFF. It was held in Grand Ballroom Hotel Harris Kelapa Gading on May 20, 2011. M by Musa is Musa Widyatmodjo's ready-to-wear collection. This year was special since Musa Widyatmodjo collaborated with Yogi Soegyono who brought a new breath to the collection.

The invitation said that the show was to start on 6.30 sharp. Howeveeeerrr, I still had to wait for more than 30 minutes, while I was actually 30 minutes late! So the show was about an hour late -.-' Furthermore, I think the committee was not well prepared, since I noticed some people came in late and they did not have enough seats for them, even for some of the VIP O.O! Anyway, Titiek Puspa, Jeremy and Ina Thomas, and some socialites were spotted in the front row.

M by Musa in JFFF 2011

A bit accident, though, I forgot to charge my camera battery! Horror I know, so I decided not to take any picture. But then, in the middle of the show I was like, heck why should I care, I should just snap everything til the battery died down, so that's what I did. However, I already missed some of the collection :( There were a lot though, I didn't count but I am sure there were at least 70 different collection sets.

The show itself was divided into 3 sections. I really love the long catwalk. This year collection was influenced by Chinese cheongsam just like before, but this one also had the Victorian feels with its lace and silhouette, and not to forget the thick Indonesian heritage was shown. There were a lot of jacquard long coats and dresses. I saw a lot of basic colors like black, grey, white and red, with a pop of green and electric here and there. Some of the models wore hats, inspired by the British in the Royal Wedding probably?

In the middle of the show, there was this little lady model suddenly made an appearance. She was so adorable and people were going like "aawww..." I had to say that she successfully stole the spotlights! She would appear again near the end of the show.

Moving on, the audiences were again surprised by a male model who was holding those two little guys' hands wearing matching jackets. Well, there were really cute (are they twins?), but I started to think, how many children would be in the show. I strongly felt he should pick the girl OR the boys, but not all of them. Furthermore, I couldn't help but notice the resemblance with Brad Koenig and his son wearing matching jackets in Chanel Spring 2011 Fashion Show.

M by Musa "The Luric (She)'ll"

Overall, I really love the show and the collection. I am sold! I definitely will buy some of the clothes. The clothes are unique, affordable, practical, wearable, and surely beautiful. I also love its detail in each of the clothing items. I think ready-to-wear clothing is a growing business. More Indonesian designers should have their own ready-to-wear collection. We do not go to parties everyday, but we definitely go out often.

M by Musa can be found in Sogo Department Store and Gaya, Plaza Indonesia.

Hachi Hachi Bistro

Hachi Hachi Bistro is my favorite sushi place! But noted that I loved fusion sushi a lot more than nigiri sushi. Some true sushi lovers might call fusion sushi as "fake sushi." heck I couldn't careless. Initially, I could not stand eating raw food at all, but with the help of other cooked ingredients (a.k.a fusion sushi), I was able to enjoy some sushi. Hail to the fusion sushi =)

I believed Hachi Hachi Bistro first opened in Surabaya. They had two branches in Jakarta located in Mall Taman Anggrek, and later opened in Central Park. The only downside of Hachi Hachi was both Jakarta branches were located in Grogol area, and I avoid driving around that area for its heavy traffic.

I went to the one in Central Park on a weekend night. It was not as crowded as the one in Mall Taman Anggrek, which usually would take about 30 minutes to get a table. It was full but the table was ready almost straight away.

Iidako (Baby Octopus) - Rp 9k and Inari (Tofu) - Rp 7k

Despite my long speech about fusion sushi vs nigiri sushi above, I actually loved some nigiri sushi. Inari and Tamago was one of them. Unfortunately, they ran out of tamago, so I got the inari instead. My cousin ordered the baby octopus. One of the thing that I like about ordering nigiri sushi in Hachi Hachi Bistro was we can order it in a piece. Meanwhile, most restaurants required you to order a portion, which usually consisted of two pieces.

Gindara Steak - Rp 45k

My cousin, who was a regular, ordered the Gindara for us to share. It came with a bowl of rice. The Gindara Steak was his favorite dish. I was always picky about ordering fish because well, it smelled fishy if it wasn't cooked well. However, this one was super delicious! The fish was smooth and well seasoned. Love love it.

Salmon Dip - Rp 39k & Black Dragon Roll - Rp 41k

The Salmon Dip was basically California roll topped with salmon or tuna, depended on what you pick, served with the cheesy dip. We picked salmon since I did not like raw tuna. I was reluctant when my cousin ordered the Salmon Dip since I did not really catch the idea of dipping my sushi to cheese dip as described in the menu. However, the supposedly cheese dip was actually crunchy batter mixed with cheese and mayo, I believe. and oh boy the dish was heavenly! The dip was awesome I really loved it!!

And you couldn't go wrong with Dragon Roll, since its main ingredient was ebi tempura and unagi. Both were my favorites. The Black Dragon Roll has ebi furai, cream cheese, crunch topped with unagi, more crunch, sweet sauce, and tobiko. I usually hate cream cheese in my sushi, but I loved this one. The taste blended perfectly.

Hot Ocha & Potion No. 8

My cousins ordered hot ocha while I got the Potion No. 8. The name caught my attention at first, but I also loved what were in it. It was actually green tea ice cream, cookies, milk, caramel, and ice blended together. Loved it! The waiter also said that it was one of the most ordered drinks.

Hachi Hachi Bistro was my favorite. The food was superb and well priced. I would dine here more often if only they have more branches in different area other than Grogol. Even with the super heavy traffic, it was worthed, though :)

Hachi Hachi Bistro
Central Park, Lower Ground
Jl. Letnan Jenderal S. Parman Kav. 28
Jakarta Barat
Ph: (021) 5698 5592



Mall Taman Anggrek
3rd Floor, Unit #311
Jl. Letnan Jenderal S. Parman Kav. 21
Jakarta Barat