[EVENT] 13 Ghosts Spooky Halloween Buffet and Halloween Parade at The Park Lane Hotel Jakarta

Hi Eaters.

Halloween is upon us. Yes, the scariest festive of the entire year is coming, and the hype of serving Halloween-themed dishes is echoing in the culinary world.
I, myself, well honestly isn't the bravest from the crowd when it comes to encounter ghosts. But food being shaped as ghosts, well, never scared me, LOL. I actually admired those crafty hands behind the unique and terrifying dishes.
So, this week I got invited for a sneak peek of the Halloween-themed dishes at The Park Lane Hotel Jakarta. Named 13 Ghosts Spooky Halloween Buffet and Halloween Parade, two of the splendid restaurants from the hotel, Cafe One Asian Fusion and Riva Grill, Bar & Terrace, served up a line of spooky food. More details below.

The event took place at Cafe One Asian Fusion. It's the hotel's buffet restaurant. It may not be big, but it is comfy enough. And for that night, not only was it comfy, but also it's transformed into a spooky dining place.

Accomodating the Halloween theme, I saw a lot of ornaments and decorations giving the festive the spookiness it deserves. There were a quite numbers of scary dolls resembling Pocong (Indonesian wrapped ghost) being put in the seat at every corner of the restaurant, a hanging ghost mask, and even the waitresses all dressed up like Kuntilanak (female vampiric ghost).
Not scary enough for you? Well, some of my female friends who attended the event looked pretty terrified, LOL.

So what's the Halloween-themed dishes from both restaurants? Hold on to your seats, cause the spook has just begun.

CAFE ONE ASIAN FUSION

In Cafe One Asian Fusion at the 28th and 29th October 2016 starting from 18.00-22.30 you can enjoy the 13 Ghosts Spooky Halloween Buffet. For only IDR 275K nett/pax you can enjoy the buffet, the Halloween-themed dishes, and a free flow of Hulk's Eye Mocktail (details below), Ice Tea, or Lemon Tea.

Below are the Halloween-themed dishes served at Cafe One Asian Fusion.

THE COFFIN

This has got to be the scariest food presentation ever. What a creative work by Chef Deden Gumilar, the mastermind behind all of these crafty, and sacry dishes.
This one is named The Coffin.

THE BLACK HAIR

Angel hair pasta with squid ink and parmesan cheese

BURNING FACE

Baked beef kofta coated mozzarella cheese

BROKEN RIBS

Slow cooked BBQ Australian Ribs

THE COLONS

Roasted beef and lamb sausages coated chili sauce

EXPLODE

8 hours low heat cooking Australian Beef Brisket

THE WORM

Spaghetti with Napolitano sauce

Shaped to resembles a burning dead man, it was totally scary. So wickedly cool too. I didn't try this one though. But I will surely try it when I come there again at the 28th October.

EDIBLE GRAVEYARD

Head Skull (white Chocolate)

Bones (Bread Clay)

Eyes (white Chocolate with Praline served with Jelly)

Soil (Crumbs English Cake)

Gravestone (English Cake with Chocolate Slab)

Worms (Jelly)

First of all, that skull looked so real. I mean, the shape of it was just perfectly made, just like a real skull. It sure did give some goosebumps for some female attendee. Great job with some hand crafting there, Chef!

HULK'S EYE MOCKTAIL

Green tea, apple syrup, peppermint syrup and raspberry jam

This mocktail is quite refreshing. The peppermint was strong too. Spicy, like the Hulk I guess.

RIVA GRILL, BAR & TERRACE

In Riva Grill, Bar & Terrace on the other hand, the food won't be as scary as the one presented in Cafe One Asian Fusion. The Halloween-twist is still there, but packed with a more aesthetic look, since Riva is a fine dining restaurant.

You can enjoy Riva's Halloween Parade set dinner menus for IDR 500K ++ on the 28th of October 2016.

Here are the set menus:

SMOKIN’ FROGGY LEG

Stuffed Chinese bread with char siu chopped meat

WITCH’S CHICKEN

Dead man’s eye – made from chicken liver pate with chicken feet

Gelatin worm – made from spinach salad and raspberry comfit

THE DEAD QUAIL

Whole Quail cream soup

Drying ginger hair – thinly shred “nori”

SCREAMING MONSTER

Crushed baked potato topped sour cream

Roasted bunch vegetables - whole tomato

Green pea and pure, sautéed mushroom

Slow roasted whole beef leg

Blended Red wine and beet root sauce

FAILURE SURGERY

Brain shape pannacotta , chocolate bone marrow,

Finger cookies and raspberry compote

All of these dinner set menus won't just scare you, but also satisfy your taste buds. Afterall, Halloween only comes once a year, so it's okay to indulge yourself in an unusual dish with scary presentation. What's the point of Halloween if it doesn't give you goosebumps?

Overall conclusion, it was a night to remember. Not only because of those terrifying food presentation, but also the great hospitality. All the Kuntilanak-dressed up waitresses were giving an impeccable service throughout the event. It's always nice to feel welcome.

All the food were terrifyingly good! And I mean it in a good way. Seriously.

So if you don't have any dinner plans for the upcoming Halloween, bring yourself here to be spookified by the creative dishes from Chef Deden Gumilar.

Keep on chewing!

Jazzy Dee

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The Park Lane Hotel Jakarta
Jalan Casablanca Kav. 18, 

Phone: (021) 8282000

Menteng Dalam, Tebet, 

Jakarta Selatan 12870

Website: parklanejakarta.com

Sperta, Grandkemang Hotel

Hi Eaters.

It's another hotel buffet review. This time I was invited to another brunch session at Sperta, Grandkemang Hotel, Jakarta. It is called Brunch It Up.
It's always nice to be invited to these kinds of events so I have a lot of hotel buffet listed on the blog as a reference if someday I would want to have an occasion in one of them.

Okay, back to the topic. As I arrived I saw this height measurement upon the entrance of the restaurant. So the price range for adult is IDR 325K ++/pax. For children between 110-140cm is 50% discounted, and for children below 110 cm is free of charge.
It's a decent price and still in the mid range for a hotel buffet, in my opinion.
And FYI, the Sunday Brunch starts from 12.00 - 15.00.

I really love how the restaurant put a lot of attention in the comfortness for the diners. Most chairs were cushioned and there are a lot of comfortable sofas for diners to sit. It was indeed so homey and the service was impeccable with lots of smiles from the waiter, waitresses, even from the manager, Mr. Florent Humeau.

The restaurant has a direct access to the swimming pool. The great thing is you don't need to be a guess of the hotel to enjoy playing water. By paying for the hotel buffet, you also will get free access to use the swimming pool. So if you're going here with kids, they will surely enjoy the moment splashing around in the kids pool.
At the swimming pool area there is also a grilling station available, and also the bar, where you can get the BBQ and some liquor while watching the kids playing in the water. Pretty cool, right?

I'm pretty amazed on how they use the limited space to provide quite a lot of food stations. Well, surely it can't be compared to the "big boys" who have a huge area specifically for the buffet. But the variety of the food was quite diversed and the choices of food were quite many. I think for a hotel buffet it was quite sufficient and satisfying.

As you can see from the pictures above. Seafood, sushi, sashimi, chicken, beef, vegetbales, dimsum, rice, pasta, cheese, up until dessert. There are just a lot to choose from.
They also have a signature dish, the Raclette cheese, melted on top of potatoes and you can choose to eat with pork, beef, or chicken. Unfortunately I kinda skipped on taking the picture (my bad) but let me tell you, the taste is awesome. You must try.

As always, if you have read my other hotel buffet reviews then you must know what I would eat first. Yes, the sushi and sashimi! Not forgetting the seafood too!
The sushis in my opinion tasted pretty good. They served unagi sushi too, so it was a plus point. The sashimis..well..I've had better ones some place else. I feel it's not as fresh as it should be, and the slices were a bit too small. The seafood was good. I really hope they would serve oysters too in the future, and maybe add some more varieties for the seafood other than prawns, clams, crabs and squids.

The dimsums were killers! I mean, they tasted delicious. I tried almost all of them, and they all tasted sooooo yummy!
I heard that for the dimsums, the restaurant hired a chef from China, so I didn't hesitate to try them all. I wish they would have a brunch promo specializing on these delicacies coz they were DA BOMB!

The dessert station is a feast for sweet-tooth. There were just a lot to choose. And have I mention that they also have ice cream? 
I was encouraged to try their signature Chocolate Pudding, which is kind of similar like a warm chocolate cake. It's delicious! Soft, moist, and oh so chocolaty! Just the way I like my chocolate to be, not too sweet with a bit hint of bitterness from the chocolate. Yumm!
And for my recommendation besides the Chocolate Pudding, you must try their Eclairs and Pannacotta. OMG, so delicious!

Overall conclusion, I didn't have the chance to try all of the food. So you must know that even though there are not so many food stations, it's possible that you could get full by the delicious food.
And oh I almost forgot. I tried their pork station too. The pork ribs were stunning, addicting, well in other words: so insanely delicious. 
So this is another hotel buffet I would strongly recommend. If you're looking for one in the southern Jakarta region, this might suits your need well, especially if you also happen to bring kids that you must spoil too.
Thank you Sperta, and also Grandkemang Hotel for the invitation. I wish you the best of luck. Keep improving and keep up the good work.

Keep on chewing!

Jazzy Dee

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Sperta
Grandkemang Hotel
Phone : (021) 7194121
Jl. Kemang Raya No. 2H
Kemang, Jakarta