TWG Tea Boutique

Enjoy Your Afternoon Differently

We've spotted this little gem even before it was opened, and was patiently waiting for it.

Was worth the wait though, it was the right timing too since the last time we wanted to go there, we had to wait for, like, 7 more tables? Was very crowded.Fortunately, on our first try, we didn't have to wait that long.

Tea scented candle..?

Store is very nice and homey, although it could have been bigger. Kind of tightly packed, to be honest. Half of the store is used for mainly the Tea Store and kitchen. 

As usual, ambience discussion comes first. Very classy, very regal. Crowded, but with nice music. Heard any classical or Il Divo in any restaurant or cafes nowadays? That's right. 

The way the menu is sorted is like this : There are all-day menus, brunch menus, afternoon menus, and dinner menus. I forgot whether they have lunch menus, but let' s just presume they do. 

We ordered the tea set, which only available during afternoon time. The one that we chose was the sandwich and scone plus we ordered two macarons.  We ordered two pots of tea, mine was Diplomat's Tea and hers was Lavender Valley

The set, with sandwich and scone

Macaroons

First thing to say, the scone is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. It's not something commonly served and possibly not something commonly eaten here as well, but seriously give it a try.The texture is perfect, there is a good mix of sweetness and savory, and to make it even more perfect, it is served with tea jelly and butter cream. 

Personally I loved the butter cream better, but the tea jelly is also good on its own. Actually, you can just eat it directly. 

The macaroons were fine. The black one taste better in our opinion, and it might be the best one in the store. 

Golden Teapot... (stupid image won't rotate)

The tea? Well, mine as awesome for me and hers was awesome for her. Tea is a very personal thing. I like smoky ones, while she likes lavender. Simply pick the ones that suits you, whether oriental (Pu-Erh), smoky (like me), flowers (lavender, chrysanthemum), or just try anything you like. 

The meal and tea themselves cost around Rp 300 K, however the adventure didn't end there. We shopped for some tea and in total we spent around Rp 1 Mio just for the takeaway (3 tubes of tea, 100 gram each). 

You can find the store just at the ground floor of Plaza Senayan next to Metro Dept Store.

Definitely coming here for, maybe, a million visits.

TWG Tea Salon and Boutique
Plaza Senayan Ground Floor
Phone :  +62 21 572 5276 

Pancious

Food Adventure @ Pancious

Pancious is already a well-known restaurant known for having great selection of.. non pancakes.

We've ate here twice in the past 3 weeks, so let me share what we had and what we think of them.

Please note that we DID NOT order these on the same day. Otherwise, we would be having a belly with the size of a car.

Go Curry

Warmth Guaranteed

A while ago we decided to eat something rather destructive to our digestive systems. We ate Go Curry before watching Pacific Rim, therefore you can be sure that we were enjoying giant robots with relatively warm stomach.Located in Pacific Place mall, the restaurant is not that large nor small, but nice enough to mingle with friends or having a date (like us)

The way you order it is that you decide what curry do you want (they have Red, Brown, Japanese, Green, and Rogan Josh), which type of rice (or carbohydrate-related stuff), and then the dish (Chicken katsu, etc). Plus, you can add additional things if you want, however a-la carte choices are also available. Also, level of spiciness. I know some of you likes to gamble with life and death in terms of spiciness. 

AMUZ French Restaurant

Perfect Dining for a Perfect Night - AMUZ French Restaurant

Last month was a very special moment for us.  I mean, I 'arranged' the special moment so to speak. Take a guess, doesn't take a genius to find out the answer on what happened. 

As this is not a personal feelin' and happenin' blog, let's just stick to things that pleases your tongue : delicious food!

AMUZ is located in the Energy Building, 2nd Floor,in SCBD Sudirman. Conveniently located just right after Graha CIMB Niaga. Many has said that this is basically the best French restaurant in Jakarta, so I'd figured out this will be the best place for the best moment.

When we came on 18.30, the place was still very empty, with only 2 seats filled, although we later found out the later it got, the more crowded the place became. Advance booking is highly recommended. 

The place is marked clearly, you won't miss it. Not really a super-secret hidden place where even the sign cannot be found. 

We occasionally saw the chef walking around the restaurant checking for stuffs. Too bad we didn't had the opportunity to mingle! Deeply apologize chef it it wasn't you!

Ambience is very soothing and calming, with a very good selection of songs that brings up a fine-dining feel of the whole room. Atmosphere-wise, it was just perfect.  This really brings a certain standard to a fine-dining restaurant.

We chose the 6-course menu as we wanted the opportunity to try different stuffs at once, however there are a lot of choices from the menu should you wish to go ala-carte. My suggestion is that the course menu would give you the opportunity to taste more, but again it's everybody's choice. We saw someone ordering the steak and they do show you the meat beforehand - a fine dining standard.

We started up with the Surprise Amuse Bouche, which consists of mushroom soup, ravioli with cheese sauce (the one with foam, really delicious!), and a thin bruschetta. 

Pictured below is the Marinated Blue Finn Tuna Toro. Very fresh, very tender. Now, before you say anything, this is not like a sashimi of any sort. Definitely a 5-star quality cuisine!

One of us (I'm not gonna say which one) was not really into Foie Gras, therefore we asked for a replacement for the third menu. Turned out we can  exchange it with an Angel Hair Carbonara with Truffles. Now that was quite unexpected and the chef let us had a few more truffles within our pasta. Replacement that comes with an excellent compliment!

Below is the Foie Gras served with Orange Confit. The risotto-like orange stuff is actually a barley risotto. Unusual, but tastes awesome nonetheless. 

Continuing our adventure with Pan Seared Coral Grouper with Orange Lentils. A very tender fish with a very crispy skin. The barley risotto makes a return. The return of Barley Risotto. Or whatever. 5-star fish!

Second to last menu was the Oven-Roasted Farmed French Challans Duck, served with Baby Corn and Tarragon-scented Polenta. A delicate dish, that's all I can say about this amazing thing.

We end it Raspberry Soufle, with White Chocolate Milk Shake and Tarragon Ice Cream. The Soufle itself is fine, but the ice cream is not really into our taste, as the Tarragon taste is very, very strong. 

The course is Rp 685 K each person and including drinks, we end up with around Rp 1,8 million. Price is fair enough and I think for us we got more than we pay for. 

Taste wise - this is beyond excellent. I have to admit that it requires a bit of acquired taste to truly enjoy the food - as the taste are very delicate and complex. However, for those of you who already know how to properly please your tongue - prepare your wallet and hit the place. 

Definitely worth the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th and Nth visit in the future. We plan to try various stuffs here every year to celebrate the 'day'. Expect another review next year as promised!

Amuz French Restaurant

Jl Jend Sudirman Kav 52-53 The Energy Building Lt 2 JAKARTA

Phone : +62 21 250 506 or +62 21 250 5064

Singapore Food Collection

Back With a Lot of Food from Singapore

After gone for quite some time due to travel and unbelievably busy real life schedule, here I present you some of the food I consumed savagely during my Singapore trip on June. Won't describe about the trip since this is not a travel blog (wasn't really travelling though), however let's just say I'm trying as much food as I can.

As you know, food in Singapore is quite regulated especially in terms of additives. However, that doesn't mean we didn't eat nicely there.

We stayed at Mandarin Oriental Hotel and I can tell you the food is amazing.

Take a look!