Smokey Ribs

Last week, I managed to meet up with my college friends Abby Limantoro, Elia Kurniawan and Dewi Fransiska who also known as Trio Kwek-Kwek of TIB'96 Trisakti. Haha. We were struggling to choose the meet up place at PIK as this area has many restaurants and hang out place. Our choice finally fell to Smokey Ribs, because we were looking for the restaurant which only exist at PIK and Elia was craving for a one fine Ribs after a fail restaurant meet up at Sizzler.

Actually, I've already aware of this restaurant since the moment PIK was not very known as a new hip culinary area. I always want to try, but never had a chance. Now I heard they successfully spread their wings to Medan. First impression when I enter the restaurant, it was quite cozy, reminds me of the old TGI Friday's at Aston Hotel at Kebon Kacang in the 90's. Quite love the ambiance here. We order two appetizers as well as two main courses to be shared among four of us.

Chicago Beef Ribs - IDR 239K++ (Large)

The meal was consist of three cuts of short beef ribs. Actually, I never like short ribs as it's quite difficult to cut and the meat is not much after so much effort to cut it. Also I feel that short ribs has bones larger than the meat. So, not one of my favorite. The only plus was that the BBQ sauce as a dipping was quite decent.

Smokey Baby Back Ribs - IDR 240K++ (Large)

Baby back ribs is my fave dish if I dine at Tony Roma's. I know it was not fair to compare between these two because of the price, however, I can tell that baby back ribs here was not good enough. The meat have less fats and it made the meat was too dry. But compared to the Chicago Beef Ribs, I prefer this Baby Backs.

Service was good. I was in the situation when the electricity went off, and the waiters was sending an apology and explaining the situation. Although the food was not meet my expectation, I always remember the old saying of "Good friends and good laugh always make a good food".

Thanks for the talks and sharing, girls!

Food - 6/10
Cleanliness - 10/10
Service - 9/10
Ambiance - 9/10
Price/Value - 5/10

Smokey Ribs
Ruko Crown Golf, Blok B No. 10-11, Bukit Golf Mediterania
Jl Marina Indah Raya, Pantai Indah Kapuk
Jakarta Utara
+62-21-70710955
Business Hours : Mon to Sun 11am - 10pm

Paradise Dynasty

There are not many restaurant which served nice Xiao Long Bao or Shanghai Steamed Dumpling. One of the best we had in Jakarta is at Paradise Dynasty. Although not to forget to mention that Din Tai Fung also served fantastic Xiao Long Bao, but I am quite disappointed that Din Tai Fung in Jakarta is not serving pork Xiao Long Bao. The nearest if we would like to have pork version of it, we have to flew to Singapore.

Paradise Dynasty is a Shanghai cuisine restaurant chains from Singapore. They are famous with the Xiao Long Bao as well as their La Mian or simply translated as pulled noodle, because the way they prepare the noodle is by pulling the dough until it become noodle. I was not ordering the La Mian this time as I already have it too often here.

Dynasty Xiao Long Bao - IDR 88K++

This is the signature dish from paradise Dynasty. It consist of 8 Xiao Long Bao with 8 different flavor, such as Foie Gras, Black Truffle, Szechuan, Cheese, etc, with different color each of them.

How do we eat this Xiao Long Bao? According to the rule written in the chopstick cover, we should eat the Xiao Long Bao in below order to ensure maximum taste. To start with Original and end it with Szechuan flavor.

I'm sure most of us know the way to eat this tiny delicious dish. Pop a small hole at the below part of the Xiao Long Bao while holding it in the spoon so that the broth comes out, sip the broth, stuff some ginger and black vinegar inside the Xiao Long Bao, and then eat it as a whole. The different flavor of each pieces gives different experience for our tongue. Fantastic!

Deep-fried Chicken with Salad Sauce - IDR 72K++

The second dish that I tried this time was their deep-fried chicken. Although this dish was simple, it really surprise me when it was served in my table. The smell was very fragrant (was it shrimp paste fragrant?). And for the serving size was very generous with 8 big chunks of chopped chicken thigh (yes, all of them were thigh part!). The skin was crispy outside and the meat inside was not dry. It was fried to perfection. Love it very much!

Pork Dumpling with Hot Chili Sauce - IDR 45K++

This dish was actually more suitable to eat along with noodle. I just love the perfect combination between the steamed dumpling with the chili oil sauce. It was a bit too hot for me though, but generally the taste is nice.

It was quite a decent experience dining in this restaurant. I love the ambiance. It was cozy, well lighting with enough light, nicely decorated and the dining situation was not too noisy. For your information, they are in the same management with Paradise Inn and the more premium Taste Paradise.

Food - 7/10
Cleanliness - 10/10
Service - 9/10
Ambiance - 9/10
Price/Value - 6/10

Paradise Dynasty
Central Park Mall
LG Level Unit 139-140
Jl. S. Parman Kav 28
Jakarta Barat
+62-21-29704981
Business Hours : Mon - Sun 10am - 10pm

Restaurant Trio

As this weekend is a long weekend, I used this opportunity to explore new spot a bit far from West Jakarta. This time, I visited the nostalgic area of Jakarta culinary at Gondangdia-Cikini-Menteng. This area has a lot of heritage culinary spots. One of them is Restaurant Trio.

Restaurant Trio is famous as one of the heritage Chinese food restaurant in Jakarta. According to some sources, the interior and exterior of this restaurant was never changed since its first opening in 1947. Green painted wall outside the restaurant is the unique identity of this place. Inside, the interior is so oldies including the cabinet, wall clock, posters, etc.

Among the crowd who swarmed this restaurant dominated by Akong and Ama (this what we call Grandpa and Grandma in Chinese language) with their son/daughter along with their grandchildren. Either they feel fit with the dishes here, or they eat here for the good old time sakes. The oldies 70s and 60s music accompanied us while eating in this restaurant through old bass speaker hanging on the wall. Surprisingly, the music was western, not chinese ones.

Looking at their menu was so confusing with lots of variety of dishes. Surprisingly, they also have premium Chinese cuisine dishes like Shark's Fin and Roasted Duck. I was relying on my guts when I choose what to eat, also based on my experience eating at Pecenongan area, since I was thinking the way of the cooking will be quite the same. So I choose Ayam Goreng Mentega (Butter Fried Chicken) and Kangkung Hotplate (Hotplate Water Spinach).

Ayam Goreng Mentega - IDR 45K

Almost all of the food was served on aluminum plate. I also found this way of serving at the heritage Fajar Restaurant. For this dishes, this was what I call the real original Ayam Goreng Mentega. It was not using too many Worcestershire sauce, and the taste was mainly depends on the butter that they used. The chicken itself was so crispy, though I feel it seems a bit dry. Taste wise, this chicken dishes was delicious and reminds me of the good old times.

Kangkung Hotplate - IDR 65K

Kangkung Hotplate was one of the famous dishes if you are visiting Pecenongan area. If we compared with here, it was a bit dry with less of sauce. Served with thin slices of beef, quail egg and cashew nuts. The cashew nuts was a surprise, since usually Kangkung Hotplate in other restaurant didn't have this. I personally prefer Kangkung Hotplate at Pecenongan. Actually, this dishes was in the last list in their menu, maybe means less favorite. I choose this dishes only for the sake of comparing. It was a complete missed.

I learned something if I want to visit this restaurant again next time. Actually, instead of looking at their menu book which contains lots of dishes, you can choose only the favorite menu on the wall near the cashier. It will make you choose easier. One of my next target will be Lumpia Udang Khas Trio. Maybe next time, for the good old time sakes....

Food - 7/10
Cleanliness - 6/10
Service - 8/10
Ambiance - 6/10
Price/Value - 7/10

Restaurant Trio
Jl. R.P Soeroso No. 29A
Gondangdia, Central Jakarta
+62-21-31936295
Business Hours : Mon to Sun 10am - 2pm and 5pm - 10pm