A Tavola

A Tavola is an Italian restaurant located in Kemang Area. I remembered reading a review of this place, stating that this place serves authentic Italian cuisine with affordable price. So... Me and Asmet visited this place a while ago when we were confused of getting what to eat :)


The place is quite small. Mediterranean style decor but a bit rusty here and there. The place looks a bit dated and got that "kantin" feel. Personally, I don't like the place but that's what you get with that kind of price right?


The food:
1. La Voglia (Rp. 70.000)


Cheese platter served with foccacia, black olives and olive oil on a wooden cutting board. Presentation was good :) Love it. The cheese served are Bel Paese, Asiago and Fresh Mozzarella. Bel Paese is the round white one. Similar texture with brie but a bit harder. The Mozzarella is a not as chewy as I expected, maybe because of the "fresh" factor. The Asiago is quite salty but goes very well with the olive oil. Let me remind you that I am no cheese expert but I do LOVE cheese. For me, this platter is good but not great. Oh I forgot, hate the foccacia... Too dry!

2. Zuppa Ai Funghi (Rp. 18.000)


A plate of cream mushroom soup. Made of champignon and porcini mushroom, this soup is quite yummy. Not the best I ever had but not bad. The soup is not creamy enough for me but the texture is perfect. The bread is crunchy, love it :) I can't stop wondering why they put shredded cheddar on top of the soup.. Cheddar makes every dish tastes cheap!

3. Ravioli Con Funghi (Rp. 38.000)


This dish made me confused. The ravioli texture is okay but tastes a bit sweet. I dunno what they use to make that orange ravioli but that certainly not goes well with the creamy sauce. The sauce is a do-it-yourself cream sauce, I can cook better cream sauce than that. The shredded cheese on top, total turn off. The mushroom bits helped a bit but I didn't enjoy that ravioli as much as I expected.

4. Fettuccine Alla Norcina (Rp. 50.000)


Fettuccine is not al dente. Again with the cream sauce... Disappointed. The fresh chopped tomato is confusing. They serve the fettuccine with a nice italian sausage but it can't help the confusing pasta, too bad.

For me, no good. Yeah it's cheap but that is not an excuse for some weirdness in my pasta. As a place that serves cheese platter, I expect more. Authentic? Hmm... In some ways yeah but in many ways, I don't think so. Good value for money but doesn't entertain the palate much.

Rating: 6/10
Location: Kemang, South Jakarta

De Luca

Back to Italian :)


As I said in my Pesto post earlier, Italian restaurant is flourishing in Jakata. De Luca is one of the latest addition. Opened head to head to Monolog ( I think they belong to the same group) it's one of Jakarta's it place right now. Located in Plaza Senayan, De Luca is one of the alternative for a place to eat (fiuhhhh, finally... I kinda hate going to PS coz it's eateries are pricey yet not yummy)


The decor is simple, subtle light brown wooden chairs and tables with wooden panels along it's walls. Decorated with some metal-covered yellow light bulbs, De Luca is a warm, welcoming and cozy place to chat and hang out with friends and families. Some of the tables are located at the street side, giving a bistro like feeling. +1

The food:
1. Ice Peach Tea (Rp. 30.000)


I like the peach tea here for some reasons. Firstly, it's not too sweet. The glass is quite big and they put slices of peach in it. Love it :)

2. Sparkling Mango (Rp. 30.000)


Same like the peach tea, it's not overly sweet. A balanced drink to quench your thirst after shopping all day long, a mango garnish would be nice though. The two mini cherries at the bottom of the glass are a treat!!! :D

3. Bread Basket (Complimentary/Rp. 10.000)


It's a complimentary but we asked for more, they charged is for the additional basket. The bread... is yummy :) The basket consists of baguettes, focaccia and bread sticks. All of the breads are warm, I think they heated it before serving it to us. The baguettes have crunchy texture in the outside and fluffy in the inside. The focaccia is thick and heavy but exceptionally yummy, my fave! The bread sticks are different than Pepenero's heavy sticks. It's light, crunchy and hollow. Asmet really liked it.

4. Spaghetti with wood-smoked salmon, mushroom and spinach in cream sauce (Rp. 78.000)


YUMMY!!!! The pasta is cooked perfectly!!!!!! I loveeee the texture of the pasta. It's like undercooked pasta but it's cooked. You still need to chew it instead of just sliding it into ur stomach like some lame pasta from a fast food joint. The cream sauce tastes a bit like Pasta de Waraku's. It's thick and covered the pasta completely. You won't find any liquid in your plate. It's very creamy but not 'that' creamy u feel bloated afterwards. The combination of the 3 toppings (IMO those 3 are my fave toppings for creamy pasta) are just right. Not too much salmon, strands of spinach here and there plus those yummy mushrooms... Yum Yum Yum :) This dish go straight to my top ten pasta in Jakarta hehehe

5. Linguine with minced beef an asparagus in pesto genovese (Rp. 68.000)


Pesto genovese is one of my fave pasta style (the others are cream and aglio olio) but it's not a common dish. Many Italian resto didn't serve this kind of pasta. My favorite pesto is Pizza Marzano's but this is a tough competitor. Just like the spaghetti, the linguine is cooked to perfection. I'm a bit confused with the size of the linguine, it's too wide to be linguine. I had linguine a lot and usually it's a bit thinner but I still love it hehe. The linguine is covered in green oily sauce with lots of minced beef and small cuts of asparagus. I think they need to put more asparagus and less beef. The flavor of the beef is quite strong and it's like the beef and pesto are battling in my mouth. Strangely, their battle is my pleasure :p Yummy!!! The minced beef gives a slight creaminess which is a good balancing act for the heavy herb-infused pasta. The asparagus serves as tiny crunchy surprises in every bite. Another yummy pasta for the day!! *grin*

I love this place! The decor, the ambience and most of all the food. The service is a bit disappointing. The girl that waited on us had a very sour face and stood impatiently while I was reading the menu.

dr. B: Yang enak apa ya mbak?

girl: Wagyu nya pak, enak lho pak

dr. B: Ga pengen makan wagyu mbak, yg laen apa?

girl: (diem) (ngelipet tangan) (nyender ke meja) (berdiri dengan bertumpu ke meja) (goyang-goyang ga jelas kaya cacing kepanasan)

beberapa saat kemudian...

girl: coba wagyu nya aja pak

dr. B: (jutek mode on) uda dibilang saya ga mau wagyu!

I know they're having a wagyu promotion (for that price, it's not promo yaaaaaaa) but that doesn't give them permission to shove that wagyu up my face. Thank God the food was great, less than that, this entry would've been filled with foul words here and there. Additional info, the service tax is 10% :(

Narsis time

Rating: 7.8/10
Location: Plaza Senayan, P1

Pesto

As a foodie, Italian food is one of my favorite. In my opinion, the yummyness of Italian food is unmatched by other western cuisine including french cuisine For me, French is too pretty and pretentious. For the last 2 years, Italian restaurant had been flourishing like mushrooms in the rainy season. We can find all sort of Italian food everywhere. Pesto is one of them. Located in the center of Jakarta, this place is swarmed by expatriates and people who works in Thamrin-Sudirman area.

I went there with Asmet a few months ago for lunch. The place is not that crowded but when we finished, it was full.I kinda like the place. It's simple with industrial touch here and there. It's kinda similar to Loewy actually. Service... Hmm... The guy waited us knows literally nothing about the menu. OMG! I asked bout the specialty and the answer is "ummm, ammmm" I ended of telling him to go and let me contemplate myself about what I'm gonna order.

The food:
1. Bread Basket (Complimentary)

One of the reason I like going to an authentic Italian restaurant is because the bread basket. I'm a huge fan of bread and usually those bread basket is a treat. Pesto's is quite disappointing. We got 3 kinds of bread. A soft roll, a sliced soft baguette and a cheese focaccia. The focaccia is yummy but the rest sucks. Is it that hard to serve freshly baked breadsticks?

2. Rustica (Rp. 59.000)

An Italian style pizza with tomato sauce, mozzarela, cooked ham and mushrooms. The pizza is very very runny. The topping fell of the pizza while I was trying to put it in my mouth, such a turn off. The taste is rather bland, the tomato sauce is a bit to sour for me, not enough mozzarella and the ham tastes like paper. The only good thing is they put quite a generous amount of mushrooms, otherwise that pizza is not worth paying for. The crust is not bad but I had better.

3. Saltimboca Alla Romana (Rp. 72.000)

According to the menu, it's escallops in parma ham, sage blackpepper sauce with spinach and potato gratin. Another disaster!! I don't understand this dish actually. The presentation is good but the sauce ruins everything. When I think of sage blackpepper sauce, I think of a juicy blackpepper sauce with a nice scent of sage. Instead, the pork and ham is drenched in some sort of reddish liquid resembling a thin tomato sauce with blackpepper on top. The spinach is just ok but the potato gratin is nice. A big plate of pork dish and the outstanding element is the potato gratin? *sigh*

4. Papardelle al Ragu (Rp. 69.000)

Finally!!!! There's something worth mentioning here. The papardelle has nice consistency. Blended very well with the tangy tomato sauce. The pork ribs are yummy!!! Tender and juicy, combined with the tomato sauce, it leaves a fresh yet carnivor-ish taste in my mouth. I dunno how to explain the sauce but it was very very yummy, love it.

One thing I hate in upscale places is the price of beverages. They don't sell local brand of mineral water here, instead they serve this Italian imported bottled water for Rp. 28.000. I don't mind paying high price for food but for 500 ml of water, Rp. 28.000 is outrageous. Serve a bottle of nestle for Rp. 10.000 has given your restaurant 600% profit, so why so greedy? The table next to us is an expatriate and he asked the waiter to serve Aqua and not this Lurisia brand. So it's not just me then :p

I don't think I'm coming back here anytime soon unless someone plans to treat me :D For the price they charge, there are lots of places in Jakarta that serves better Italian than that.

Rating: 5.5/10
Location: ANZ Square Building, Jakarta