Botany Restaurant, Holiday Inn Hotel Kemayoran

Hi Eaters.

It's another hotel buffet restaurant. I think I've been writing a lot about hotel buffet lately, so please don't ever be bored by what I write in this blog.
But seriously, who doesn't love buffet? I mean, it's a place where you can eat whatever you want, as much as you want also. Seems pretty heaven enough for someone who loves to eat like me, right? LOL.
The next post after this one will also be about a hotel buffet. But let's not over-rush things. Let's talk about this particular place first, Botany Restaurant.

Hotel buffet seems to be an uplifted feature from a hotel since it is also a magnet to attract frequent visitors. Highly rated hotel restaurant has always urged to serve the best buffet as it is also a way to promote the hotel as most people really consider dining experience to be one of the main reason of choosing a hotel to stay in.

Botany, located at the heart of Kemayoran, a business district, sets comfortly in the ground floor of Holiday Inn Hotel. 
Holiday Inn itself is also under the same group as Intercontinental Hotel, a well known 5 star hotel in Central Jakarta. As I have previously tried the hotel buffet at Intercontinental with satisfaction, then high hopes also came along as I was going to try the buffet at Botany that Sunday noon.

The restaurant itself was not quite big as I thought it would be. There aren't as many food stations, unlike some hotel buffets I've visited before. But in the other hand, they provide some complete selections, and most importanly they have pork! Da yumm!
The interior was warming with big glass windows overlooking the road, so I get the sun and also the natural lighting to take pictures. The green color dominating the venue reflects the environmental color as the restaurant's name, Botany.

I was literally happy to see some pork bellies in their pork station. And not forgetting their Bak Kut Teh. Obviously there were so many people came and try the pork, so it kind of run out quickly. And to be honest I do think they need to speed up on refilling the empty stations.

The dessert was fulfilling. There were quite a lot of options of cakes, chocolates and other pastries to try. And they tasted pretty good too.

ALA CARTE

There are also some ala carte menus you can try here.

Deep Fried Calamari with Lemon Mayonnaise and Chilli Salt

A simple dish. Just calamari coated with batter. But nevertheless it took skills to make good fried calamari. If you overcooked it then you will be eating rubber. So hands down to the chef, this one was good. The sauce that goes with the dish, delicious. A perfect dipping companion for that crispy treats.

Veal Schnitzel with Steamed Haricot Vert

Pan-fried breaded veal escallop with cheesy mash potatoes and lemon sage sauce 

served with string bean

This one was also quite nice. The mash was so good. I really like the cheesy flavor, and also loving its smooth texture. The veal was nicely cooked and seasoned beautifully.

Caramelized Banana

Seared banana with cinnamon, palm sugar and vanilla ice cream

A nice dessert. Banana wrapped in puff pastry. Sweet but not too over so still decent.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Shake

Chocolate ice cream, Milk, Peanut butter and simple syrup

This one has a unique taste. They called it "Martabak". Chocolaty sweet with nutty texture and a nice milky taste. Basically things you will get in a conventional style Martabak. Sweet and refreshing.

Overall conclusion, I enjoyed the buffet selections. It might not be as wide and variative as hotel buffets I've tried but the taste of their food was far from disappointing.The other good news is that the menus change time to time due to availability and fresh produce, so probably you won't get bored from the food. To round it up, it's a recommended hotel buffet to try.

Keep on chewing!

Jazzy Dee

TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | ASK.FM

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Botany Restaurant
Holiday Inn Jakarta Kemayoran

Phone: 021-29568800
Jl. Griya Utama Blok B No.1
Sunter Agung, North Jakarta
IG: @hikemayoran

Opening hours: 06.00 - 22.00

Shiraku Soba

Hi Eaters,

Say hello to another new soba restaurant that just opened its first outlet in Jakarta, to be precise in Elang Laut, Pantai Indah Kapuk.
Shiraku Soba is the name and it is in the same group as Carnivor and Cut & Grill. Yes it took a different path compared to its siblings and took Japanese food (soba, in particular) as its main course.

Occupying a 3-story shop house at the vicinity of the growing culinary area of Elang Laut, Pantai Indah Kapuk. This restaurant is located near Meaters Steak (one of my favourite restaurant) and it is easy to find since it has such a big and catchy signage.

The interior was quite modern. Being a Japanese restaurant it didn't apply much Japanese ethnical element in the restaurant. But I do love the usage of gray and chocolate colour that dominated the restaurant's ambiance. It gives an impression of industrial theme applied to the interior though in a slight way it is actually more simple and modern.
The restaurant itself was not quite big. In a 3-story shop house, it only use 2 floors as the dining area while the 3rd floor was used for the kitchen area. Probably it could hold up to 60 people max.
So enough with the introduction, let's start with the food now, shall we?

Buta Miso Soba - IDR 55.8K

Just a quick reminder: Here you can choose the noodles based on your personal preference, either soba or ramen. In my review, all of the noodles used were soba.
In the picture above is the Buta Miso Soba which is abura soba with special shoyu and miso tare, served with slices of roasted pork, soft boiled egg, chopped spring onions, dried seaweeds and sesame seeds.

Visually, the look of the dish was quite appealing. I formly asked wether the soba needed to be mixed with vinegar and chilli as in the other soba brand restaurant and they said I need not to add anything because the soba was already seasoned. But unfortunately, it was a little bland. I didn't feel the seasoning at all. So I added more soyu to give it a boost of flavors, and it helped a lot. 

The positive thing about this dish was the pork. It's so scrumptios. The egg was delicious too. I just hoped the soba could go the same way.

Chicken Teriyaki Soba - IDR 48.5K

This one is the Chicken Teriyaki Soba, which is abura soba served with special homemade teriyaki sauce, marinated chicken thigh, soft boiled egg, chopped spring onions, dried seaweed,  and sesame seeds.

The soba apparently had the same taste as the Buta Miso so I'm not going to talk about it again. While in the other hand, the chicken thigh was quite delicious. Marinated nicely and the seasoning seeped through the meat.

Tori Katsu Kare Soba - IDR 56.8K

Tori Katsu Kare Soba is abura soba served with curry sauce, deep fried marinated chicken thigh, soft boiled egg, chopped spring onions, dried seaweed, and sesame seeds. This one was nice. I always loved a nicely cooked curry and this one didn't fail me. The curry was savory and in the perfect thickness. The aroma was nice and certainly went so well with the fried chicken. 

Gyutan Don - IDR 48.5K

Gyutan Don is a bowl of rice topped with slices of ox tongue cooked with teriyaki sauce, chopped chilli chunks, sunny side up egg, chopped spring onions, dried seaweed, and sesame seeds. The interesting part about this dish is that you can ask for the rice to be replaced by fried rice.

This dish was maybe the highlight of the day. The winner. It tasted really good. I loved the juicy and succulent ox tongue which had a nice savory and spicy flavor through its seasoning. My recommendation if you should confuse on what to order.

Karaage - IDR 35.8K

Karaage is always my favourite appetiser in any Japanese restaurant. Deep fried marinated chicken thigh, served with homemade mayonnaise and lemon wedge. The chicken was nice, with crispy outer skin and juicy meat beneath it. A little bit oily, but the taste was delicious, especially of you eat it along with the mayonnaise. Yumm.

Iced Matcha Avocado - IDR 38.5K & Iced Matcha Nutella - IDR 38.5K

Drinks served in a cookie glass are nothing new. I remember I had this kind of drink around last year in a cafe in Bandung. Shiraku has 3 kinds of drinks served on a cookie glass: Iced Matcha Original (IDR 35K), Iced Matcha Avocado (IDR 38.5K) & Iced Matcha Nutella (IDR 38.5K).

The pictures above are Iced Matcha Avocado served with a cookie glass that is drizzled with white chocolate & Iced Matcha Nutella served with a cookie glass that is drizzled with chocolate.

For you who loved unique flavors then opt for the Iced Matcha Avocado to taste how matcha could blent so well with avocado. The avocado was more dominant so you'll taste more sweet fruity flavor than the actual bitter matcha. On the other hand if you're a chocolate fan then opt for Iced Matcha Nutella that has a more sweet chocolaty Nutella flavor. You can never go wrong with Nutella, right?

Choco Kakigori - IDR 45K

And then finally we had dessert. This one is the Choco Kakigori. Chocolate ice cream on top pf shaved ice drizzled with milk, and on the side there are almond nuts and Nutella bomb mochi.

This is something a chocoholic would love. But I think the shaved ice was a bit rough. If it had a more soft texture then it will be great.

Not a fan of chocolate dessert? Don't worry. You can try the other desserts available like the coffee jelly or the matcha pannacotta.

coffee jelly 

matcha pannacota

Overall conclusion, it was a decent lunch I had that day. Some of the menus, IMHO, need improvements, and some other were quite good. Japanese soba has been quite a hip lately so I reckon this restaurant holds a bright future ahead.

So I would like to thank Shiraku Soba for having me to try some of their menus. Best of luck and Godspeed!

Keep on chewing!

Jazzy Dee

TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | ASK.FM

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Shiraku Soba
Ruko Elang Laut blok D No.39
Ph: (021) 2986 6563, 2251 2189
Jl. Pantai Indah Selatan 1
Jakarta Utara