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

[Singapore] Tim Ho Wan

Meet Tim Ho Wan's pork bun, currently the best pork bun I've ever tasted. I've been eyeing this pork bun for months since it's Singapore branch opening, and so there's no way I'm not paying it a visit on my Singapore trip last month.

As expected of a 1 Michelin Star Restaurant, the bun is to die for! For the price of S$ 4.50, expect three beautiful buns with sweet and crispy outer layer, fluffy bread, filled with tender and fragrant char siew pork with BBQ sauce. It is definitely a must-order dish when you're here, and let me tell you, they're best eaten while hot and fresh.

Also people said that your visit at Tim Ho Wan wouldn't be complete if you haven't tried their Big Four Heavenly Kings: Baked Bun with BBQ pork (S$ 4.50), Vermicelli Roll with Pig’s Liver (S$ 5.50), Pan Fried Carrot Cake (S$ 4.50), and Steamed Egg Cake (S$ 3.80). So we did order them all (I didn't take picture of the vermicelli and carrot cake), and also added Chicken Feet with Black Bean Sauce (S$ 4), Prawn Dumpling / Har Gow (S$ 5.50), Pork Dumpling with Shrimp / Siew Mai (S$ 5.00), Glutinous Rice Dumpling / Lo Mai Gai (S$ 5.00), and Beancurd Skin Roll with Shrimp (S$ 5.50).

Other than the buns, the other items that I recommend are their Glutinous Rice Dumpling and the Carrot Cake. But all the dishes were decent though, all ingredients were fresh and taste good.

Unfortunately, to get this scrumptious Dim Sum, you have to wait in the line alongside with the other hungry Singaporeans, because Tim Ho Wan has no reservations policy. I waited for two almost two hours to get seated, but there was not even a slight regret. So hereby I'm leaving you with this picture of people lining to get their favourite buns. And trust me, this is not even the end of the line. Get yourself prepared!

Tim Ho Wan Singapore
68 Orchard Road #01-29A 

Plaza Singapura Singapore 238839 

(Dhoby Gaut MRT) 

Tel:+65 6251 2000
Opening Hours: 10.00am – 10.00pm 

(First-come-first-serve basis; no reservations)

also available at:

ERA Centre, 450 Lorong 6 

Toa Payoh, #02-02

Telephone: 6483 2000Opening Hours: 11am – 10pm (Daily)

[Singapore] Song Fa Bak Kut Teh

My encounter with Song Fa Bakut Teh wasn't planned at all. Actually, I've never had any interest towards Bakut Teh. Although I've never seen it before, I always thought that Bakut Teh is some kind of herbal soup that taste like some sort of medicine. Well Song Fa proved me that I was wrong, and I shouldn't be judging food foolishly just by it's name.

That day we were walking down the road looking for our hostel, when we passed by a crowded restaurant at the corner of the street. And yes, that was Song Fa. It was fully occupied and there were a bunch of hungry customers lining up even though it wasn't a proper meal time. Drawn by curiosity, we were up early the next day to give it a try.

Song Fa at 8 AM in the morning was a lot different than the day before. The place was not overcrowded, there's only a plenty customers enjoying their breakfast calmly and having friendly conversations. I'm glad we came early.

The menu were quite various, but most of them are organs. Since I'm not eating organs, I ordered the safest yet the best seller menu, the Pork Ribs Soup (Regular size, S$ 8) and also a plate of Xiao Ba Cai in Oyster Sauce (S$ 3.5) and rice. The soup was far from what I thought as herbal and medicinal, it was rich and garlicky and peppery and so heavenly, while the pork ribs was tender and seasoned well. And the best part is, the soup is refillable! The Xiao Ba Cai was another great dish to accompany the soup. The vegetable was fresh and it has strong flavor of oyster sauce.

Later I found out that Song Fa is one of the most popular Bakut Teh place in Singapore. It's been around for more than thirty years, and people still keep coming. Well that explains. If only I had another day in Singapore, I wouldn't think twice to get my breakfast there.

Song Fa Bakut Teh
11 New Bridge Road #01-01
Singapore 059383
Bussiness Hours : 
07.00 AM - 9.30 PM
(Closed on Monday)
Ph. +65 65336128

Also Available at:
UE BizHub East
6 Changi Bussiness Park
Ave 1 #01-38 S486017
Ph. +65 66948098


By the way while we're on this area, the hostel I stayed near Song Fa is called Bunc@Radius at Clarke Quay. For the price of S$ 35 a night, you'll get a clean shared room and bathrooms and they're air conditioned well. The service was also flawless, breakfast is provided, and there are free water, milk, and oranges all day. And it's less than 5 minutes walk to Song Fa. That could be a great choice if you're traveling to Singapore on budget. It was my first hostel experience, and I am really a satisfied customer.

UNION at Street Gallery Pondok Indah Mall

UNION is my favorite place to get cakes, and I believe most of you adore it too just as much as I do. Having heard that they've just opened their second branch at Street Gallery Pondok Indah Mall that serves new cake variants, I just can't stop myself to immediately visit their new joints several days ago.

Located at the end of Street Gallery, the venue is surely more spacious than the one at Plaza Senayan. Welcoming you at the entrance is the bakery, where the mouthwatering cakes and luscious danishes are displayed beautifully. A little further inside is the dining area, which is designed with similar concept as their previous outlet with the black framed windows, ceramic tiled columns and ceiling, and still bathed with sunlight. But while the Plaza Senayan's outlet connected to the outdoor plaza, the PIM's outlet is connected to the main road of Pondok Indah, so you might smell the exhaust fumes sometimes. 

Not wanting to be left behind in this Cronut Craze Season, of course I ordered their available cronut selections, which is called Flaky Doughnut here. There were three available selections, the Cinnamon Sugar, Boston Cream (Chocolate Vanilla), and Peanut Butter, at the price of IDR 35.000 each. Actually the Cinnamon Sugar looks more tempting for me, but according to the waitress' recommendation, their Boston Cream flavor is the best seller, so we decided to give it a try.

Their Boston Cream Flaky Doughnut came in a big size. It looks crunchy and chocolatey from the outside, but then I cut it through and the Vanilla Custard Cream started to flood outside. And as expected of cronut, you can see layered pastry inside. Taste wise, well, I always love UNION's creation for their pastry always match my not-too-sweet tongue. The cream is rich, but not too sweet, and with a slight bitterness taste from the chocolate, they're a perfect match to eat your cronut. A satisfaction indeed.

Moving on from the flaky doughnut, I also got a hard time choosing which cake to try. They got two new creations, the Nastar Crumble Cake and the Confetti Cake, which for now only available at PIM outlet. Nastar Crumble sounds very unique, but in the end, Confetti Cake won, simply just because it has cream cheese frosting which I love so much, lol.

The Confetti Cake (IDR 55.000) came in a rather pale colour (pardon my bad photography skill, it was actually not that pale), and the taste was just okay. Well as always the cake was moist and the cream cheese was superb, and when you eat the cake you could taste the sweet burst from the confetti, but I think it's kinda too ordinary? I think I should've ordered the Nastar Crumble instead as it sounds extraordinary.

Well don't worry, there's always next time for UNION.

UNION Brasserie, Bakery, and Bar

Street Gallery Pondok Indah Mall 1, GF

Jl. Metro Pondok Indah

Jakarta Selatan

ph. +62 21 29529781 - 82

web. UNIONJKT

Desanesia

It is getting harder to find local snacks in Jakarta, isn't it? I just realized that since I got my full time job, I hardly have time to find local snacks. My office is connected to a mall, so I stick to what the mall have to offer, but local snack is not on the list. I think the only time I bought local snacks is when I went to Bandung for weekend trip.

Just in time to cure my local snack craving, Desanesia offered me to try their products, which use 100% local products and made based on the recipe that has been handed down from generation to generation, but manufactured with advanced technology so there is no doubt that the quality is well maintained. Even better, their products could be delivered right to your doorstep. Who could resist such convenience?

There are currently two kind of snacks developed by Desanesia: Mini Ranginang and Spinach Chips. But they come in several taste variants, and here's what I got:

Original Cheese Mini Ranginang (IDR 19.500), Spicy Cheese Mini Ranginang (IDR 19.500), and Cream Cheese Mini Ranginang (IDR 28.000). Their Ranginang comes in perfect bite size and excellent crunchiness. It is crunchy, but surprisingly not oily at all. Amongst all flavor, my personal favorite still goes down to the Original Cheese flavor. I just can't stop myself to finish the whole pack that time (Ops). The Spicy Cheese flavor was slightly too hot for my tastebud, while the Cream Cheese flavor was definitely an inovation, but still for me, their Original Cheese flavor is the best!

In the other hand, from their two flavors of Spinach Chips: Original Spinach Chips (IDR 15.000) and Spicy Spinach Chips (IDR 15.000), I prefer the spicy flavor. Actually the seasoning was already nice, kinda reminds me of "Rempeyek", but this is using spinach as the main ingredient. But adding the spiciness is just feels right.

So how to get these fascinating local snacks? Easy, just mention them on twitter @desanesia or @desainovasi, or order it via distributor Adinda Soraya (+6285624249502) or Adjie Wicaksana (+62818143540). For more information, also visit their website desanesia.com.

Remember that as you consume their snacks, you are also supporting local products and help empowering the local people of Cikidang and Cikoneng Village. Ciao!