I have been staying in Hotel Arcadia (114 Jalan K H Wahid Hasyim, Jakarta 10340) on my recent trips to Jakarta. Reason being that its location is convenient for me. This is a no-frills hotel and don't expect fanciful facilities.
I stayed at Hotel Ibis Tamarin (77 Jalan KH Wahid Hasyim, Jakarta 10340) for a night in my last trip to Jakarta. The location is quite good, being near Jalan Thamrin. The rooms are reasonable although small. I was quite happy with the hotel until I was looking for a pen and found that there was no pen in the room. As I was on my way out, I approached the front desk for a pen who responded that I have to call housekeeping. At that point, I gave up.
Johan Sudiato, Head of BII's Card Centre, brought me to lunch at Golden Palace Restaurant in Jakarta. This is a new Hakka restaurant, and according to Johan, the chefs were previously from Angke Restaurant (see my review of Angke here). And true to the fact, the food is very similar in style to Angke. But I still prefer Angke. Golden palace, however, has better ambience than Angke.
Had dinner at Padang Palace (Level 2, Singapore Recreation Club, Connaught Drive, Singapore 179682) last Sunday night. We ordered the abalone set at S$42.80 per person, which came with shark's cartilage soup, salt and spice white fish, braised whole abalone, baked king prawn, fried rice, and dessert. The food is tasty and the view of the Padang, especially City Hall, is magnificent. The drawback is they charge a hefty corkage fee of S$20 per bottle for wines and S$30 per bottle for hard liquour.
Had dinner with my family last night at Prego, an Italian restaurant located in Swissôtel The Stamford, Singapore. My sister had a mushroom, artichoke, and seafood pizza which looked ordinary to me. My dad had pork loin in lemon-capers sauce which he said is good. My mom had mixed seafood grill and I had seafood linguine, which is also ordinary. Service is prompt and courteous, but I find the food quality not as good as those served by Prego in Kuala Lumpur.
Had dinner on Sunday night at Grand Café, Grand Hyatt Jakarta. Went for the buffet dinner at Rp120,000 (about S$25). The spread was quite good, with shashimi and sushi, chinese roasts, beef ribs, teriyaki cod, pasta, soup, and dessert. The apple and carrot soup was quite nice.
Cilantro (46th Floor, Wisma 46-Kota BNI, Jl. Jenderal Sudirman, Jakarta) is a new restaurant (opened only 2 weeks) located on the top floor of BNI City Tower. The space was occupied by Jakarta International Club before. I had lunch at Cilantro with partners, customers, and colleagues last week. This is a multi-cuisine concept restaurant serving, Chinese, Thai, and Japanese food. We ordered dim sum, sushi, thai noodles, and deep fried baby squid. The food was good but the best feature of this restaurant is the view. You can have a 360-degree view of Jakarta at the top of BNI City Tower. The price is reasonable, especially with the soft-opening 30% discount!
Had lunch at Grand Brilliant Palace Restaurant in Jakarta with Hardy, Harianto, and Sukendra in early November. We had dim sum, fried rice, and some dishes. The salad roll and prawn dish is good, but the others were ordinary.
Had dinner with family at Werner's Oven (6 Upper East Coast Road) tonight. I had wanted to try this German restaurant for quite some time after Thomas Frishmuth, Managing Director of Siemens Advanced Engineering in Singapore, recommended it to me some years back. And I was recommended this restaurant again by Dawn in her comment to my blog entry on Paulaner Brauhaus.
We had pork knuckles, sausages, smoked pork, and pork steaks, with Erdinger beer, both kristallklar (white) and dunkel (dark). The food is indeed good, authentic, and reasonably priced. The place, although not very nicely decorated, is cosy. The service is also efficient.
Had dim sum lunch with family today at Ah Yat Abalone Forum Restaurant (Marina Square branch). The dim sum is good and price reasonable. Most dim sum items costs between S$3.00 and S$3.50.
Had dinner with family at Sun Tsui Hang Restaurant (新翠亨酒家), 37 Scotts Road, Asia Hotel, Singapore last Saturday night. We ordered garlic pork, deep-fried mushrooms, Hakka-style salted chicken, Peking duck, garoupa fish in two flavours, abalone, and Chinese pancake with sweet bean paste. The food is above average and the price very reasonable. The ambience is not too great, but the service is efficient and friendly. You can bring your own wine without incurring corkage charges. We had a bottle of Wyndham Estate Show Reserve Cabernet Merlot 1997 (rated 84 points by James Halliday on 16 September 2000) to accompany our dinner.