Hot Stone Steak Experience at Street Steak

Get ready guys, the culinary area in Pantai Indah Kapuk will be expanding soon, because the shophouses at the front area (across Burger King and Fresh Mart area) are now completely built! Meanwhile there are already two shophouses open for bussiness: Eng's Resto -- which is famous for their Asinan Bandung (Bandung's traditional pickle), and Street Steak.

As I'm not a big fan of asinan, that evening me and my highschool girls tried the newly opened Street Steak. The PIK outlet is their second branch. The first one is located in Kelapa Gading, and they're famous for the hot stone steak.

The name's not a bluff, because when we dine here, we are literary having our meal on the street! The place is decorated as a real street, complete with the pavings and road signs. Very cute and unique.

The other unique thing here is their food presentation. Your steak will be presented on a hot stone to maintain the quality of the steak. The concept of hot stone is actually quite similar to hot plate, the stone they're using is thicker, so it can keep your steak hot for longer time.

One portion of their steak consists your choice of meat, freshly-cut onions, thick-cut fries, sauteed vegetables, and one of their three choices of sauce (mushroom, BBQ, and blackpepper). The side dishes and sauces were fine, the only minor turn down was their sauteed vegetables, which for me, seasoned too strong.

Baker Street Steak (IDR 89.000)

This is my choice of steak that night, 200 gr of Australian Prime Tenderloin served on the hot stone. Well to be honest, I wasn't expect much from this dish. I mean, if I am craving for a big chunk of super juicy meat, I would order their choices of wagyu instead. But that night, I was just looking for something ordinary and affordable, so I ordered this. But what I tasted was totally not what I expected. The meat was grilled perfectly, it was very very juicy and flavorful, I would say that it was even better than some wagyu steak I've tasted in the other affordable steakhouses (no need to mention the name). Oh, and the seasoning was so good, that I could enjoy my steak even without the sauce.

Tomahawk Steak (IDR 345.000)

500 grams of enormous wagyu sirloin steak. Look at that huge steak! My friend ordered this to be shared for the two of them, as Street Steak are having promotion for this steak. It's only IDR 280.000 during their soft opening period. I usually avoid sirloin, as I hate that chewy fatty part of it, but I took a bite of this steak, and it wasn't chewy at all. All hail the power of wagyu!

Stone Grilled Chicken (IDR 50.000)

A friend of mine didn't eat red meat, so she ordered this grilled chicken instead. It was decent, though I'm not a fan of chicken breast. I love the fatty thigh more, lol.

Another worth visited restaurant in the neighborhood, for sure. Other than the special price on the Tomahawk Steak, they also got the 50% discount on the Hokubee Premium Beef during the soft opening period. Be sure not to miss it!

Street Steak

Jl. Pantai Indah Utara

Rukan Metro Broadway Blok 9BE

Pantai Indah Kapuk

Laughing Stock Steak & Seafood Grill

Last week, I got an opportunity to taste the food of Laughing Stock Steak and Seafood Grill, a new restaurant in Cipete area. Before you start reading, I have to warn you that this post will be a long post containing lots of foodporn, and I will not take any responsibility for the drooling consequences, so read at your own risk :p Oh but I hope if you decided to read, please read it till the end, because I'm saving the best part for the last.

Located at the foodie street Jl. Cipete Raya, Laughing Stock looks pretty humble from the outside but it is warm and comfortable at the inside. The two-storeyed shophouses is designed with lots of bricks and concrete element to create the industrial look, yet provided warm sofas and bright sun light to make you comfortable. My favourite spot is the colorful Scandinavian sofas by the window at the second floor, you should aim for it right away!

Sharing a little background of the restaurant, Laughing Stock is a family business started by Mrs Febri, for her love of food. She loves cooking since she was young, and she and her family love having people eating her food. Having her own restaurant has been her dream since a long time. At first they tried franchising a quite famous restaurant, Seruput, and now that they've already got the experience and knowledge about restaurant business, they finally opened Laughing Stock for public this late January 2014. 

The food they served here is mainly grilled seafood and steak, as the name said, but they also provide all-day breakfast and Indonesian food. They also served limited choices of milkshakes and desserts, well for me I think milkshakes are too heavy to accompany a heavy meal such as steak, but their desserts are definitely must-try.

Chicken Mayo Bruschetta 

Chicken Mayo Bruschetta is one of their new appetizer menu, basically there are four slices of crunchy French breads topped with fresh shredded lettuce and chicken and corn mayo. A fresh and light dish to start our lunch.

Oxtail Balado (IDR 110.000)

Fried AUS Oxtail in Balado style, served with steamed white rice, pickled vegetables, soup, and crackers. To be honest I wasn't a big fan of oxtail and spicy food at the beginning, so I doubted this dish would be suitable for my liking. But it is! The oxtail was perfectly tender and the balado chilli was hot, but deliciously hot that I fell in love with it instantly. The soup was also light and savory. Dip your crackers in the soup, and eat it together with the rice and balado oxtail, yummm! 

(Psst, people said that the Oxtail Balado here are even better than Hotel Borobudur's! Curious?)

Pan Fried Salmon (IDR 120.000)

Pan Fried Norwegian Trout in miso broth served with baby tomatoes, baby potatoes, spinach, enoki mushrooms, and ginger flakes. It is another dish that has hooked me at the first bite. The combination of the perfectly crisped skin salmon fried together with spinach, enoki mushrooms, and miso broth are amazingly well balanced and delicious. Very light and healthy, yet addictive and contagious.

US Hanger Steak (IDR 110.000)

Seared 200 gr US Hanger Steak served with caramelized onions, mashed potatoes, sauteed vegetables, and Beef Jus Sauce. Hanger is a part of the plate section of the cow, which is also known at butcher's steak. There is only 400-650 grams of hanger meat in a cow, and the meat is very tender, that the butchers usually keep it for themselves instead of selling it. But here in Laughing Stock you can try the Hanger Steak, even better, it is served with Laughing Stock's special sauce, the Beef Jus. Beef Jus (or Au Jus) sauce is made of beef broth and wine reduction. The texture is kinda watery, it tasted light yet rich and a little sweet. I really love the outcome when you eat the steak with the sauce, caramelized onion, and mashed potatoes together. Totally the best main course of the day!

Surf and Turf (IDR 175.000)

Grilled Rib Eye Steak topped with fresh seafood in garlic and herbs butter served with mashed potatoes or French fries and asparagus. It is the dish for people who doesn't like monotonous food. By ordering this, you could have a huge steak together with fresh grilled prawns, sauteed squids, and battered-fried dory fish. Overall it is a nice dish, liked the salty and garlicky sauce, but for me the amount is too little for a steak that big, since I love to have my steak eaten with sauces. Oh and I have to give credit to the presentation! It's really artsy, beautiful, and unique, isn't it? The most photogenic food of the day, haha.

Grilled Maine Whole Lobster (IDR 250.000)

This was supposed to be the highlight of the day. Grilled Maine Whole Loster in garlic butter seasoning, served with sauteed vegetables and choice of shoestring french fries, mashed potatoes, or rice pilaf. Unfortunately, this lobster was not as fresh as I expected. It's not fishy, but the texture is kinda soft, it didn't have the seafood-ly crunchy texture, if you know what I mean. It would be much more delicious if the lobster was just a little bit fresher, since the seasoning was great and having pilaf rice as the side dish is a perfect choice.

Uncle Romy's Hotplate Chocolate Brownies (IDR 55.000)

Homemade dark chocolate brownies served with vanilla ice cream and dark chocolate sauce. This restaurant's favorite dessert was named after Mrs. Febri's husband, Mr. Romy. He loves chocolate so much that he ask Mrs. Febri to create a chocolate dessert dish at Laughing Stock, so it is named after him. This dish looks like no other, at first it is a simple chocolate brownies topped with vanilla ice cream, once you start pouring the chocolate sauce, it will start boiling and create the hot-and-cold sensation to the dish. Such a creative and unique dessert, this might be the next IT dessert on instagram. lol.

Apple Crumble (IDR 55.000)

This is the reason why I told you earlier to read till the end. The new creation of Laughing Stock, warm caramelized apple served with cookie crumble, vanilla ice cream, and white sauce. After I took a bite of this, I literally raised my eyeballs and told the others that this is really good! Apple is cinnamonly sweet and has the perfect texture, and the crumble is not just like any other cookie crumble. It's really crunchy like it's covered with sugar, but it is not sweet, so I don't know what they did to the crumble to make it that good. Take a bite of it with the vanilla ice cream and the rum-scented white sauce, and that's heaven in your mouth. Like, seriously.

(FYI, this apple crumble is Mrs. Febri's new creation that will be launched with some other new dishes on April, so you wouldn't find it on the menu, but you can ask the waiter directly if you want to order this)

At the end of the post I know I seems like praising this place so much, so I'm going to tell you that this is NOT an advertorial post, and I didn't receive any payment for posting this. This was just like another food tasting, but I really love the restaurant, they've got amazing food with beautiful presentation and lovely taste, comfortable seatings, and natural daylight to help me capturing the food better. The only thing I regret is the fact that Cipete is far from my house, and the traffic is mad.

Lastly, thank you Mrs. Febri, Norwin, and family for hosting such a nice food tasting session. Please do wait for my next visit :D :D

Laughing Steak Steak and Seafood Grill 

Jl. Cipete Raya no. 7BC

Jakarta Selatan

Ph. (021) 7591 3285/86

t. @LaughingStockID

Locale 24

Locale 24 is a new restaurant joint which just opened recently in Pantai Indah Kapuk. Being a regular at Pantai Indah Kapuk area, I've already attracted to this mysterious green bus even when it was still under construction. Now that it is on business, I was beyond excited to visit it yesterday for a late lunch.

Having the green bus as their facade is a brilliant idea to attract customers and make it stood out among the other restaurants around. Well at least for me, seeing a cute restaurant like this, I have that urge to pay it a visit and have a nice lunch inside at a table by the window (pardon me and my weird urgency). Too bad that time all the table by the window was occupied, so I have to stick with the accustomed restaurant interior. The interior was more simple, the green and white colors still dominating the ambience.

The choices of food was not too much and to be honest it was not tempting for me. No pictures, no description for most of the food, and some of the selections was too ordinary. Well but that was just my opinion, who knows if they could pull out something special out of ordinary dishes? So here's what we had there.

Appetizer Platter (IDR 46.000)

It was one of a few dishes that comes with description, so we decided to have it. The platter consists Potato Wedges, Fish Fingers, Chicken Wings, and Nachos, also comes with BBQ Sauce for the chicken wings and Tartar Sauce for the fish fingers. Overall it was a decent plate, I really love the seasoning on the potato wedges and the sauces. Portion was also satisfying. But the nachos comes with grated cheddar cheese topping, and I think I still prefer Mozzarella on my nachos.

Country Fried Steak and Milk Gravy (IDR 42.000)

You can choose the steak between chicken and beef, and I went for beef, simply because they came in the same price (HAHA). Again, portion was generous. The seasoning on the steak was nice, but the milk gravy tasted kinda too milky that it's getting overwhelming at some point. And they need to work on something for the sides, pretty sure that were just lazy frozen french fries and frozen vegetables with mayo. I don't mind smaller portion if the sides compliment it better.

Overall I think this restaurant has potential, looking at it's creative concept and the affordable pricing. But a slight improvement on the menu and dishes could do them much better. Oh and have I mentioned that they open 24/7?

Locale 24 Diner & Bar 

Rukan Garden House Blok B 10-11

Pantai Indah Kapuk

North Jakarta

Ph. +6221 29033162

Outback Steakhouse

I've always had an eye for Outback Steakhouse since long ago. Unfortunately, none of their three branches in Jakarta (Ratu Plaza, Pondok Indah, and Kuningan) located near my house, so I haven't got time to try it. Until last April, Outback Steakhouse finally made it's first appearance on Disdus! I immediately bought two vouchers, each voucher worthed IDR 200.000 at the price of IDR 110.000.  

Last week I went to their newest outlet in Kuningan City to redeem my voucher. It is located at the ground floor, right next to the entrance. The venue was very spacious, the ceiling is high, and direct sunlight from the outside strikes through the facade window and brought us warmth. The interior was simple and elegant, mainly dominated by the wooden pattern combined with black color.

We were greeted by the compliment bread. I don't know whether I was really hungry, or this bread really tasted great. It's a wheat bread, but it's warm and soft and chewy and I wanted to ask for more!

My main course was the Ribeye Steak (IDR 229.000 for 8oz), served with two side dishes. It was said in the menu that the steak is seasoned and seared with their 17 secret seasoning blend, and they won't keep it secret if it's for nothing. That is excactly how a steak should be, tender and juicy and the spices blended perfectly with the meat that we don't need any sauce to compliment it.

As for side dishes, Outback Steakhouse offers four side dishes to be selected: Green Vegetables, Mashed Potatoes, French Fries, and Pilaf Rice. I chose their Mashed Potatoes and Pilaf Rice. The mashed potatoes was superb! It's not all crushed, you can still taste the rough potato texture between the soft potatoes. Well seasoned, and the gravy was also delightful. Pilaf rice tasted a little spicy, but still good.

David chose Ribs and Alice Springs Chicken (IDR 229.900) for his main course. Alice springs chicken is a flame grilled chicken breast topped with sauteed mushrooms, crisp strips of beef bacon, melted Monterey Jack and Cheddar and finished with honey mustard sauce. While for the ribs, it's said in the menu that each rack is smoked, grilled to perfection, and brushed in a tangy BBQ sauce. Well each words in that line are amazingly true. 

Our lunch experience in Outback Steakhouse was indeed very satisfying. The price wasn't cheap at all, for our meals and drinks we paid with the disdus vouchers worth IDR 400.000 plus we have to add almost IDR 200.000 in cash (oh I should have bought three vouchers instead!).  But it's all worth it, great meal doesn't come in cheap price, right?

Outback Steakhouse
Kuningan City Mall G11-G15 Ground Floor J 
Prof. Dr. Satrio Kav 18 
Jakarta Selatan 12940 
Indonesia
Ph: (6221) 30480505
Fax: (6221) 30480501
Web: Outback Steakhouse

Holycow! Steakhouse

Holycow steak is opening their branch at Kebon Jeruk. Yay!

I've been meaning to try this place since a long time ago, but it never happened since I rarely go to Senopati and Kelapa Gading area. But several days ago, David heard from his officemates that holycow steak is now opening their newest branch at Kebon Jeruk, so we wasted no time and tried it immediately.

We arrived there at 6.30 PM, yet the place were already packed with the carnivores that we have to share the table with other guests. We ordered the Australian Rib Eye Big Bites with BBQ sauce (IDR 105.000 for 400gr) and Potato Wedges (IDR 15.000). After fifteen minutes waiting, the waiter came to us and said that they're running out of potato wedges, so we changed it into Wagyu Meatballs with Mushroom Sauce (IDR 45.000).

The service were taking quite long. We waited more than 30 minutes for our rib eye, and the meatballs came long after we've finished our rib eye. But the place has just open for less than a week, so that was forgiven. And plus, the food was satisfying for us. The rib eye were perfectly grilled (we asked for medium well), and the seasoning's great. The meatballs turns out delicious too. 

Each meal were served french fries and sauteed green bean. The sauteed green bean were also meet my tastebud, perfect saltiness and crunchiness. French fries were just okay, needs a little salt. As for the sauce, the mushroom sauce was recommended by the menu, and I love it since it creamy.

One thing I regret is that I was too late for the free misu. You can get free tiramisu from MiSu if you mention @steakholycow on twitter. I planned to have it for dessert, but I was too late. Maybe I should have it for appetizer next time.

Holycow! Steakhouse 
#campBONJER

Jl. Arteri Kelapa Dua (Jl. Panjang)

Kebon Jeruk 

Jakarta Barat

ph. 021 - 53662815

f. Holycow! Steakhouse

t. @steakholycow