U-Thai Cafe & Resto, The Foundry 8, SCBD

Hi Eaters.

Thai food is always my favorite. Well, honestly, I don't eat Thai food that often or as much as I have been recently, but the resembling taste and the richness of the herbs and spices with Indonesian food certainly have become that factor that puts this certain cuisine on my favorite list.
Another FoodyID invitation brought me to try this Thai restaurant called U-Thai Cafe & Resto, located at The Foundry 8, SCBD. This is a food district I never visited before. There's always a first time for everything, right?

The design of the restaurant is actually pretty eye-catching. An industrial-theme with unfinished brick wall, wooden chairs and tables at some parts of the restaurant, and black steel chairs and tables on the other parts. For youngsters, this is a place that I think will suit their interest, but I think for families it's a little bit over the edge, especially for children since it's quite dimmed inside and the choice of music was more youthful than soft easy listening.

I failed to try some dishes that day, so to be objective, I'm not gonna review the dishes I didn't try. Here are some dishes I tried that day.

Nea Pai

Beef meatballs, beef slices, rice vermicelli, and steamed bean sprouts in dark beef soup. A good consistency on the rice vermicelli, perfectly cooked and springy. The meatballs were nothing special, but the beef slices were quite tasty. The soup was okay, I am quite fond with garlicky soup like this one, but still I think the flavors should be more bold. This one felt like it almost reach its destination but deliberately took a turn before finishing the trip.

Khao Cook Gapi

Khao Cook Gapi is truly one of the hardest Thai cuisine to find. Unlike other Thai rice cuisine, such as Khao Man Gai etc, the Khao Cook Gapi isn't always available on restaurants since it is commonly sold as a take away consumption.
The rice is not any ordinary steamed rice. It is stir-fried with shrimp paste so it has that light aroma and taste of shrimp paste. This menu has a variety of toppings, such as shrimps, chicken, mango salad, scallions, chilli, cucumber, and omelette. This one was my favorite. The rice had a nice signature flavor of that shrimp paste, the way I like it. The chicken and the shrimp were also tasty. 

Kaeng Kiaw Wan Nea

Anything with curry is my favorite! Yeah I'm a curry lover. This green curry beef soup is no exception. I love how it uses shredded chilli to give a nice spicy flavor. The soup was great, it's not quite thick and the coconut milk was quite savory enough. The beef was excellent. I would rate this dish as one of the recommended.

Gai Hoer Bai Toey

Thai pandan wrapped chicken. Usually this is one of the-must-order dish for me in any Thai restaurant. Slightly this one was my least favorite dish. For my personal preference, the chicken was too dry. I would like it to be more tender and juicy.

Tom Yum Talay

Thai's most famous dish, Tom Yum is certainly must be the number one pick in any Thai restaurant. Looking at that red-ish soup I would expect it to be spicy, the way I like Tom Yum as original as the one I have tried in Bangkok. Certainly the heat hit the mark there, but it lacked in freshness since I felt the sourness of th soup was a bit under my expectation. That main character which is the signature flavor of Tom Yum just wasn't there. But the seafood inside the food was nice and fresh.

Pad Woon Sen

Fried vermicelli sauteed with chicken and vegetables. I find this one pretty good. Apparently they treated every vermicelli dish in the right way. Nicely cooked and nicely seasoned too.

Khaoniao Mammuang

It's everyone's favorite Thai dessert. The infamous Mango Sticky Rice. Really loving that fresh and sweet mango! The glutinous rice was okay, quite sticky too. Too bad there wasn't much coconut milk given. It would be great if there were more coconut milk generously given.

Lukchup

This is the dessert originally made for Thai kings. Well, unfortunately I missed to try this one. It was all out as I came back from taking photos of other dishes. Too bad. So I can't really give you any thoughts about this dish.

Overall conclusion, U-Thai maybe has its ups and downs but I feel that some flavors were certainly more likeable nevertheless. Would love to make another visit to try other signature Thai dishes they made, perhaps the Pad Thai.

Keep on chewing!

Jazzy Dee

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U-Thai Cafe & Resto

The Foundry No. 8, Lt. 2

Phone: 0877 76630888

Jl. Jenderal Sudirman, SCBD

ROCK PAPR SCSR, The East Mega Kuningan

Hi Eaters.

Inspired by the Japanese zero sum hand game, please welcome the new comer in Jakarta's culinary world, ROCK PAPR SCSR. Yes, it's a unique name although they didn't spell it completely, but litterally just shortened each word to a 4 letters syllable.

Residing in one of the busiest building in Mega Kuningan district, The East, ROCK PAPR SCSR (RPS) sticks up to its name and serves Japanese Yoshoku Dining.
The place itself was quite big, and it has an indoor and a semi outdoor dining area, in which the semi outdoor was more convenient with lots of glass windows and ceiling letting the warm sun ray flow free inside or even let the guest enjoy the night sky during dinner hours.
It was super packed that day as I saw this place was filled with youthful souls having birthday celebration and girls having bridal shower.
Indeed this place is suitable for hang outs, since the location could not be considered like malls that has other attractions I must have think that the guests who came here must have really wanted to enjoy the venue or the food.

Seaweed Fries with Truffle Aioli – IDR 55K

The first appetizer I had was this Seaweed Fries. A simple dish, just regular fries with sprinkles of seaweed, yet it tasted so good and addictive. The fries was nicely fried to a good level of crispiness and also nicely seasoned. The truffle aioli dipping was a good way to elevate the dish too, it's nice and creamy and tasted delicious too.

Chicken & Shitake Gyoza – IDR 55K

A common Japanese appetizer normally can be found in any Japanese restaurant, this gyoza was served with edible flower decoration and Ponzu sauce, and had minced chicken and shitake mushroom fillings. It had that nice grilled color on the surface, but I have to say the taste was nevertheless nothing special. Yup, just like common gyoza elsewhere. This one indeed needs something else to elevate the flavors.

Minced Beef Katsu Sandwich – IDR 85K

Minced beef katsu, shredded Cabbage, Mesclun. Started out with something light like this beef sandwich. Well, it looked like a sliced burger though. You know when you slice down a thick burger and you can see all the layers within the burger? That's kinda how this dish looked like, LOL. The beef patty was coated with bread crumbs, but yet I felt like it was lack with seasoning. It tasted quite okay, but no elements in the dish that I could say was a stand out. It's just like a flat-out-straight-to-go-away dish without any specialties inside.

Tuna Poke Bowl - IDR 95K

Moving my way to the mains, this is the Tuna Poke Bowl. A bowl of Japanese rice topped with fresh cut Tuna, avocado, edamame and poached egg. Literally, this dish had pampered my tastebuds. The soft and moist Japanese rice and those poked tuna were indeed so good. The avocado brought freshness to the dish and who could deny a runny egg yolk being simmered onto the rice? This is heaven!

Miso Cured Black Cod – IDR 85K

3 Days Marinated Cod Fish, Pan Roasted Edamame, and Baby Corn. Being marinated for 3 days made the seasoning really seeped through and thus making this dish so flavorful. The miso sauce was truly tasty and the cod fish had a certain unique texture, not as soft as any fish would be but rather like shredded fried cassava. Well, it did look like that too, LOL. But I must say that unique texture was a darling, yet the flavor was truly nice all around.

Japanese Black Beer Braised Beef - IDR 175K

Japanese Beef Stew Style cooked in Black Beer, Truffle Pomme Puree, Sauteed Mushrooms. Couldn't really taste the black beer, even in the aftertaste. The beef, however, was cooked very nicely. It's juicy and succulent, and the seasoning (although no trace of black beer) was actually quite delicious. I loved how the portion of the Pomme Puree (mashed potatoes) was quite generous, but I would really prefer another vegetables salad on the side instead of the onion rings, though.

Ricotta Hotcake – IDR 95K

Homemade Ricotta Hotcake, Berries Compote with Maple Syrup & Vanilla Ice Cream. Look at all that thick protein! Unlike regular pancake batters where flour forms the bulk, these hotcakes get their body from ricotta and whipped egg whites. The toppings were so colorful with all the berries, the berries compote, and the vanilla ice cream. Indeed so colorful, thus making it such a beautiful dessert. So sorry for the indecent pic portraying its ice cream to be already melted, LOL. Yet this one portion is a lot to bear for a single person. A sharing dessert to be exact. The flavor itself was okay too.

Deconstructed Shibuya Toast – IDR 79K

It’s a modern Japanese toast with vanilla sugar butter , mixed berries compote , honey and vanilla ice cream. Unlike common Shibuya Toast, well this one is a bit helpful, in which I mean that you don't need to slice through a thick bread, LOL. So no knife is needed. The bread itself had a bit crunchy texture, and the toppings were exactly the same like the Ricotta Hotcake. So it was just like a crunchy version of the prior. I would say I loved this one better due to the texture.

Butter Cake with Miso Glazed – IDR 50K

Warm Butter Cake with Miso Caramel Glazed, Vanilla Ice Cream. Apparently you can have miso for sweets instead for savory things, LOL. Well, I didn't guess that at the moment, but yet the combination of the miso and the caramel was stunning and making a delicious glaze to the cake. However, for my personal preference, the sponge cake was a bit heavy and dry, and maybe less spongy as I would want it to be.

Hot Piccolo/Gibraltar - IDR 30K

The choices of coffee is pretty excellent. I guess you don't need to doubt the quality of the coffee here since it uses Common Ground's coffee beans.

Overall conclusion, it was a fine and satisfying Yoshoku Dining experience. Some of the dishes I tried came out nicely although some didn't come as I would expect. Nevertheless, I think ROCK PAPR SCSR is a nice place for casual hangouts and to dine. I am sure improvements will be done in the future and certainly when that time comes I would be more than happy to make another re-visit.

Keep on chewing!

Jazzy Dee

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ROCK PAPR SCSR

The East Building Ground Floor

Phone : 021-29527101
Jl. Dr. Ide Anak Agung Kav E 3 2 No 1
Mega Kuningan, Jakarta Selatan
Opening Hours : 11AM – 12AM

Loewy, Oakwood Premier Cozmo

Hi Eaters.

Back on a tight Sunday in which I had 3 foodtasting invitations along with my @dailyfoodseeker friends. Fortunately all 3 places were located in the area of Mega Kuningan and only in walking distance so it felt great not to hustle from one place to another and simply have more time to enjoy the food and have chit chats.
And our first stop that day was Loewy, which is located at Oakwood Premier Cozmo.

Occupying quite a large space in the ground floor of Oakwood Premier Cozmo, Loewy offers a cozy ambiance for its dining area, with an indoor and outdoor dining area that overlook the hustling street of Mega Kuningan. As me and my friends went there, we chose the outdoor area which provided sufficient natural lighting for our photos. Luckily it was kinda cloudy that day so the sun was quite friendly and we were able to take photos comfortably. The interior theme applied is retro/classic with a modern interpretation. The original Thoney chairs and the leather banquet seats resembles a Parisian bistro with a touch of New York diner.
Some of my friends happen to be a fan of Loewy's dishes, especially the Egg Benedict. Me, however, it was my first time to visit Loewy despite its location was quite near to my home. So if this place can really pamper my tastebuds then certainly it would be included in my list of favorite spot, since the ambiance had captivated my heart.

So what were the foods we tried that day? Scroll below and get ready to drool.

Tuna Carpaccio - IDR 70K

We immediately kickstarted our meal with this appetizer, the Tuna Carpaccio. Thin slices of fresh tuna sprinkled with sesame seed and arugula and kaffir lime aioli dressing. I have to say this dish is so delicious. The fresh tuna was so good and the kaffir lime aioili tasted a bit sour but complimented the tuna really well.

Chicken and Avocado Salad - IDR 95K

Fresh salad with chicken and wasabi dressing. This one was also super good. The fresh salad combined with nice tender chicken chunks, OMG it's delicious. The wasabi dressing was flavorful and to my convenience it's not spicy at all (for my palate). I normally don't like avocado unless it's juiced, but I did eat a lot of them that day. So yeah, it's that good!

Roasted Duck with Hoisin Sauce - IDR 110K

A generous portion of roasted duck served with rice, gai lan (Indonesia: Kailan) and hoisin sauce for the dipping. I love how they served us duck meat with less fat. The duck was so so juicy and tender. It tasted so good after I dipped it in that sweet and salty hoisin sauce. For my personal taste it could be more perfect if they can make the duck skin to be crispy, but this one is already superb the way it is.

Brisket Sandwich - IDR 150K

Served with caramelized onions, horseradish aioli, and french fries. To avoid a full tummy, I opted not to eat the buns but went straight to the beef brisket. Afterall, it's where the 'magic' is, right? LOL. This one is no disappointment since the brisket was seasoned beautifully and the flavors were so tasty. I think this dish should have a salad for the side to balance the whole plate, considering there are quite a lot number of carbs on one single plate.

Lamb Fricassee - IDR 180K

Stewed lamb served with braised potatoes, carrots, and peas. This dish was very delicious. The lamb was cooked to perfection. It's so tender and succulent, and the sauce was super tasty too. Unfortunately the carrots were a bit hard, like solid rock, so it's difficult to even just cut it with my spoon. Everything else on the plate was perfect though, so it's just too bad that the carrots seemed to be undercooked.

Cotton Cheese Cake - IDR 70K

Served with blueberry compote and lemon cream, also fresh strawberries and blueberries. Just as the name said, this cake is cotton-ly smooth. The texture was so soft, it didn't take any effort slicing through it. My spoon just felt like it was slicing butter, LOL. Super loving how rich the taste was. Sour, sweet, and a bit cheesy. A perfect combo. A must try dessert to order at Loewy.

Pot de Crème - IDR 55K

Served with Chocolate and Caramel custards, chocolate ganache and crumble. Look at that awesome layers of custard, ganache, and crumble. This is sweet-tooth heaven. Both of them tasted so so sooo good! Really loved that silky smooth texture of the custard, and it went so perfect combined with the crunchy texture from the crumble. Overall not too sweet but yet so addicting. My fave was the chocolate one (big fan of chocolate here).

Virgin Pina Colada

This one is out of the list from the foodtasting menu that day. It was my friend's order. Unique, isn't it? Served in a glass shaped like a skull. The taste was so refreshing. As any tropical drink should be, it's sour and sweet, but in a balanced kind of flavor. What's most important is that this drink is so instagenic, LOL.

Egg Benedict

One of the most recommended dishes here is the Egg Benedict. My friend is one big fan of Loewy's Egg Benedict. So I was curious enough to try this dish since my friend seemed to really dig in to it. And... BAM! It's really good! That hollandaise sauce was superb, both in flavor and in consistency. That cubed potatoes were unexpectedly delicious! I think every component on this dish is just executed beautifully. Kudos to the chef!

Overall, I had a very very satisfying meal here at Loewy. All the food seemed to be thoughtfully made and executed brilliantly (except that carrot error though). Definitely gonna be one of my favorite dining place in the future.

Thank you Loewy for having me and all the best of luck ahead!

Keep on chewing!

Jazzy Dee

TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | ASK.FM

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Loewy

Oakwood Premier Cozmo Ground Floor
Phone: (021) 2554 2378
Jl. Lingkar Mega Kuningan E4.2 No 1
Jakarta Selatan
IG: @loewyjakarta