Jakarta - Restaurants

[BJtemp]

I find very few things appetizing in Indonesia. Jonisteak is my place to go when I am there; often I eat there every night.

I think most steaks are not the meat cut they are labeled. I had rib eye once and it tasted more like chuck steak. I eventually settled on the wagyu steak. I have doubts about whether it is actually wagyu (just seems too cheap to be); but at least the meat is pretty tender.

[Smoothy]

Been to Holy Cow. Cut of US meat was ok but the sauces need some work.

We at at Holy Cow yesterday. Not bad at all for the price.

[McAdonis]

I stayed near Classic, so all of the places I ate were in vicinity. But next time I would venture out further. Places I tried were:

Rumah Makan Medan Baru, Padang style, which is small plates, like tapas or dim sum.

Pondok Laguna, fish grilled to perfection, but grilled lobster not nearly as impressive.

Bakso Rusuk Samanhudi, 24 hour noodle place across street from classic, sometimes food tastes better than it when dining middle of the night, oxtail is cheap add-on and much better than the meatball.

Mie Alip, noodle place but seemed in between street vendor and sit down restaurant, definitely Chinese influence.

Wherever I travel, I prefer to eat at least 90 percent of my meals local cuisine. If there is a large immigrant community, then I will probably try that cuisine as well. So I will eat Mexican when in California, Indian or Polish in UK, Turkish when in Germany, or Georgian when in Kiev. If I am dining with someone else, then of course I will try to compromise. If I am staying an extended period like a month, I will also, of course, rotate cuisines.

[Thampi62]

If you want a half decent real steak near a place like Classic there is Holycow! Within walking distance. There are several around the city. About $20 US for a US Tenderloin. Steak is cooked consistent to your order. There is wagyu for a few dollars more and Aussie beef for a few dollars less.

The food at Jonisteak is generally decent.

Thanks BB for the information. Will definitely try US Tenderloin from Holycow. Thought Holycow in South. So it is a chain.Information is power.

Will explore Jonisteak too.

Enjoy food. Regards.

[Smoothy]

Hooters USA is just another very average chain brand Hamburger/Chicken Wings restaurant. I prefer Duffys in the same class.

Switching to some restaurants in the USA.

In my opinion, Duffys is not in the same category as Hooters. Hooters has hot scantily dressed girls, Duffy's does not. Duffys is more similar to Gators Dockside. I think Hooters in the USA has the best tasting chicken wings in the world. They may not have the most meat on the bone on their wings, but the taste is phenomenal. Duffys wings are similar to the wings at Gator's dockside as they both have very good and meaty, but those wings don't taste as good as the Hooters wings. Both Duffy's and Gators are overall better restaurants than Hooters for food, but not for girls. Then again, the girls are hotter at Twin Peaks, but I don't particularly care for the wings at Twin Peaks. Twin Peaks does have a pretty good cuban sandwich. The Tilted Kilt used to have hot girls as well, but they closed that in our area.

Brickhouse Tavern has hot girls and pretty good food as well. So does Bombshells. http://www.4bombshells.com/.

Hooters wings in Asia are terrible. I'm not sure why. But the hamburgers at the Hooters Nana are pretty good.

Hooters in Jakarta would have been smarter opening in a location other than where they did. But with the manager they sent to Jakarta, they were likely going to fail anyway. That Canadian guy was clueless.

[Banana Boi]

Any recommendation from the menu in Joni steak. Tenderloin steak is highlighted in menu. And seems to be cheap also.

DO NOT go to Jonisteak expecting a thick juicy steak. It's a thinly cut piece of meat that is overcooked because it's so thin. I remember going to Jonisteak the first time and seeing a wagyu steak on the menu for like $8 US. Alarms were going off saying TGTBT but I still ordered it. If you want a half decent real steak near a place like Classic there is Holycow! Within walking distance. There are several around the city. About $20 US for a US Tenderloin. Steak is cooked consistent to your order. There is wagyu for a few dollars more and Aussie beef for a few dollars less.

The food at Jonisteak is generally decent. Eaten there many times after a session at Classic. Don't expect 5 star quality food keeping in mind most dishes at Jonisteak are $3 or $4 USD.

As for Hooters, food sucks in America so why would I ever eat at one in Asia.

[Member #4698]

The Hooters in Jakarta is going out of business.

RIP Hooters Makati and now Hooters CGK. Yeah! I am rooting for BKK closings too. What can I say? I hate the concept in Asia.

In America I don't give a shit. Hooters USA is just another very average chain brand Hamburger/Chicken Wings restaurant. I prefer Duffys in the same class.

[Thampi62]

The Hooters in Jakarta is going out of business. Such a shame. There was a lot of potential to make that place a success in Jakarta. But it was incompetently managed from day one, so I'm not surprised. When it first opened, it was completely packed, but they didn't have enough cooks so it took forever for the food to arrive. My first visit there it took 2 hours for my chicken wings to arrive to my table after I ordered them. It pissed everyone off to the point they never wanted to come back.

Hooters in Pattaya is also facing the same problem.

[Thampi62]

Hi friends,

Any recommendation from the menu in Joni steak. Tenderloin steak is highlighted in menu. And seems to be cheap also.

[Smoothy]

The Hooters in Jakarta is going out of business. Such a shame. There was a lot of potential to make that place a success in Jakarta. But it was incompetently managed from day one, so I'm not surprised. When it first opened, it was completely packed, but they didn't have enough cooks so it took forever for the food to arrive. My first visit there it took 2 hours for my chicken wings to arrive to my table after I ordered them. It pissed everyone off to the point they never wanted to come back.

[Porker]

Hello, I paid 700,000 for 2 pax on a midweek night in July of this year, without any alcoholic beverage promo. There was no truly outstanding dish there, meat quality was barely decent, but eat all you can has value built in for hungry westerners.

This was a disappointment from legendary feasts from a decade past, but probably smarter from the corporate stake.

[Porker]

Hello, grab food delivery was amazingly efficient in July of this year in Batam, North Jakarta and Bali. The choices I saw were from mostly chain restos / fast food, but the app ordering price was the same as the onsite menu price and the delivery "fee" was always a whopping 5000 rupiah, like 30 cents?

At about noon at Wendy's at Mangga Dua Square, the mall underneath Novotel, we saw close to a dozen Grab ojek drivers arriving to pick up orders.

5000 rp for delivery fee is obviously currently a loss leader without Grab getting some mass kickback from the resto making the food, but enjoy it while it lasts?

[Offshore Swell]

Was in Gun Powder yesterday on a date and the food and staff were both excellent, highly recommended if you like Indian food with a slight modern twist.

I've yet to find any satisfactory sushi here, definitely spoiled from numerous trips to Japan. All the O-Toro seems to be previously frozen and none of the restaurants could get the rice right. I've had better pre-made sushi at Japanese supermarkets than all I've had in Jakarta thus far.

Sushi Masa in Penjaringan. Best Sushi / Sashimi in Jakarta. Fish all imported from Japan twice weekly. Expensive, very busy a lot of the time and excellent.

As an aside, the drive through Penjaringan to get there will illustrate to you, all the reasons why the new royal bar and cafe on the railway tracks nearby is cheap.

Hope that helps.

OS.

[Enzo2019]

Was in Gun Powder yesterday on a date and the food and staff were both excellent, highly recommended if you like Indian food with a slight modern twist.

I've yet to find any satisfactory sushi here, definitely spoiled from numerous trips to Japan. All the O-Toro seems to be previously frozen and none of the restaurants could get the rice right. I've had better pre-made sushi at Japanese supermarkets than all I've had in Jakarta thus far.

[Koperen Klaas]

You've been to Jakarta many times. No recommendations?

There are plenty of discussions about Indo food here if you scroll back. Here are a couple.

http://www.internationalsexguide.nl/...=1#post1496107

http://www.internationalsexguide.nl/...=1#post2069525.

I even love the simple joints in shopping malls (with Pasaraya basement my current favourite) and roadside eateries. Beware of hygiene with the latter though. In Kalimantan I often went to a simple eatery in a pasar malam near my place of work. Pasars are often a great place to eat. In faraway places like Palangka Raya and Batam the streets light up with food stalls in the evening.

This is not to say that I don't love Italian food in Indonesia. Italians are just as fond of garlic as Indonesians. Last summer there was a light panic when there was a danger of a shortfall in garlic imports.