Pasta House AW Kitchen by Akira Watanabe - Plaza Indonesia

Pasta House AWkitchen by Akira Watanabe - Plaza Indonesia

Lately, I'm really obsessed with Japanese cuisine. Everytime I heard about new Japanese restaurant in town, I couldn't hold myself to not try them immediately. There's one new restaurant that made me really curious about their cuisine, Pasta House AWkitchen by Akira Watanabe. Looking at its name, all I thought was this restaurant serves Japanese Cuisine. I also know that AW Kitchen has a flagship store in Tokyo, found by the popular chef Akira Watanabe. This fact supports my opinion about the dishes that they serve. However, when I saw their menu, I realized that they are not serving Japanese cuisine. It's more like Italian cuisine, with pasta as their recommended menu. By doing a research, I just knew that AW Kitchen serves Italian cuisine with Japanese twist. Chef Akira Watanabe himself is the one who introduced this kind of food in Japan. At the first year, it still hard to be accepted for some peoples. But as time passed, Akira Watanabe kept continue to innovate with the food until it was finally accepted by the people in Japan. Even today, he's very famous for his delicious cold pasta.

Bar seating at Pasta House AWkitchen

Warm yet delicious welcome bread

Jakarta is the first city where AW Kitchen opened his branches outside Japan. The first restaurant was opened at 2014, located at Plaza Senayan. Following its success, they opened the second branch at Plaza Indonesia at 2016. This branch was the place where Ivan and I had a dinner, and tried their food for the first time. The restaurant was really spacious with a fancy interior. They also have a bar seating, if you only want to come for a drink. We came at Sunday night, where most peoples had done with dinner. At that time it's not too crowded, so I got a table with a comfy couch. Nice place to enjoy our dinner time. Now, let's talk about the food.

Soft Shell Crab Fritt with Wasabi Tartar Sauce - IDR 95K

Wasabi Tartar Sauce and a slice of lemon

Soft Shell Crab Fritt with Wasabi Tartar Sauce
It's the first dish that they served, which we ordered as an appetizer. I love this food, a lot. The soft shell crab was deep fried very well, which makes it crispy outside, but still has a soft texture at the inside. The soft shell crab itself has been seasoned perfectly, but they also give a cup of wasabi tartar sauce, which also very tasty.

Spaghettini Shrimp and Corn Pepperoncino Style - IDR 95K

Spaghettini Shrimp and Corn Pepperoncino Style 
Pasta is a bestseller dishes at AW Kitchen, which can't be missed when you're visiting. Like I was saying before, they are well known for the cold pasta. But I felt unsure with it and ordered the hot pasta that also very recommended. As you can see on the picture, this pasta is different with a "classic" pasta. Starts from the seasoning, until the topping. It was cooked with "aglio olio" style, but it has a very strong taste of garlic. Unlike the usual taste of aglio olio pasta, this pasta tastes more like an asian noodle dish, and it's very very delicious. With huge shrimps and grilled sweet corn as the topping, this pasta instantly become one of the best pasta I ever had.

Look at that huge shrimp.

Grilled Black Cod with lemon Capers Sauce - around IDR 300K

Grilled Black Cod with Lemon Capers Sauce
The other main course that we ordered was the fish menu. They have several options of fish, and one of them is black cod. I love black cod because the texture is very soft and juicy. So I ordered it and paired it with lemon capers sauce to make it didn't taste fishy. The fish was grilled perfectly, and the sauce also has a balance taste. I could feel the lemon and the cream are balanced, without any more dominant taste.

For the side dish, we chose mashed potato to complete this meal. However the mashed potato tastes just so so, not the best one for me. The other things that I like from this dish was the vegetable chips. First time for me to eat this kind of "chips", but I love it - especially the lotus root chips.

Fresh Au Grey - IDR 50K

Fresh Au Grey
Not forgetting the beverage. Honestly, I barely order a mocktail at the restaurant. But when I read the combination of this drink, I thought this drink gonna be very fresh. Fresh Au Grey is a recommended beverage at AW Kitchen which made from the mixture of apple juice, passion syrup, and mojito syrup, added with slices of fresh strawberry and kiwi. Like I was expecting, it was really fresh and perfect to complete my dinner.

For some people (including me) it might sounds weird to eat fusion cuisine. But all dishes from AW Kitchen was an exception. Even though it has a different taste, but it's really tasty and not bad at all for Italian - Japanese cuisine. Anyway, besides at Plaza Senayan and Plaza Indonesia, AW Kitchen also has a branch at PIK Avenue which just opened last year with different concept.





AW Kitchen by Akira Watanabe
Address : Plaza Indonesia L2 - Jalan M.H. Thamrin No. Kav 28, Menteng, Central Jakarta City, 10350
Phone : +62 21 29924325
Opening hours : Mon - Sun 10AM - 10PM
Instagram : @awkitchenjkt

Tapas 24 - The Famous Tapas Restaurant in Barcelona

After posting about the best tapas (for me) at Cerveseria Catalana and the Michelin Star tapas bar , Tickets Bar , now i will write about the most famous tapas restaurant in Barcelona. It's Tapas 24.

Tapas 24 is located next to Passeig de Gracià, the popular street for shopping in Barcelona. So you don't need "special" time to go to here. You can try this famous tapas after or between your shopping time.

I was coming to Tapas 24 for lunch. The place is big, and like any other restaurant in Europe, they have outdoor seating as well. However, since the weather was really hot, so we decided to sit inside.

Bar table

So here's the foods that we ordered. We didn't order a lot of variety, instead we ordered the most recommended with a lot of quantity.

Fries with Scrambled Eggs

Bikini Sandwich

Well, i can say all the foods are tasty. My favorite food from Tapas 24 is the Bikini Sandwich. Honestly, that's the reason why i was looking for Tapas 24. The melting cheese from the sandwich taste so yummm. Go try them by yourself, and I guarantee you'll not regret it.




Tapas 24
Address : Carrer de la Diputació, 269, 08007 Barcelona, Spain
Opening hours : Mon - Sun 9AM - Midnight
Phone : +34 934 88 09 77
Website : www.carlesabellan.com

Tickets Bar - 1 Michelin Star Tapas Restaurant , Barcelona

As i was saying at the previous post , my curiousity about Tapas made me looking for the best tapas restaurant in Barcelona. And i found out about Tickets Bar, a tapas restaurant which hold 1 michelin star.

What makes Tickets Bar so special?
1. Tickets Bar get awards at World's 50 Best Restaurant, at the 29th position. They also hold 1 Michelin Star.
2. Unlike another tapas restaurant, they serve a gastronomic tapas food.
3. Tickets Bar is the new concept restaurant, made by the Adria brothers, Ferran Adria and Albert Adria, which known as the best chef in the world. They've worked at the famous restaurant, El Bulli for 23 years. After El Bulli closed at 2011, they decided to open their own restaurant. With their skill of cooking, their foods must insanely delicious.

We came here for a dinner and expecting something tasty to be eaten. We've searched and looked at their menu (from their website), about what we want to ordered. Unfortunately they just changed their menu so i couldn't order every food that I was looking for. Instead, they offer me a "Surprise Menu" which is €100 per person for 16 extra ordinary foods. That's price is quite affordable for Michelin starred restaurant. But we're not order it because it's the first time for us with molecular gastronomy food. We're afraid that we wouldn't like the taste. So, we ordered the ala carte menu which they recommend for us.

We started with the famous "Ticket's Olive" , followed by the "Mini Airbag". First bite tasted little bit weird for me (as the first timer in molecular gastronomy food). But the next bite taste so delicious and makes me want it more and more.

Fresh Oysters

Spaghetti Mushroom

Last but not least, they offered me a beef steak for sharing. They served it very well, cut the meat in front of us and explained how to eat. They showed us the perfect texture of the meat, which cooked medium rare, as our request.  It came in package like at the photos below. We ate the meat with the red pepper and it's so tasty. I like the texture of the meat, and the red pepper also taste so yummm.. Honestly, it's the best steak i ever ate.

Dessert is a must

They also sell the caviar which they use on the Mini Airbag. You can see that on their display window.

with our favorite chef - Albert Adria

Overall, their food taste so delicious and the price is also quite affordable for Michelin Starred restaurant. If you want to try their foods, you need to make a reservation two months ahead on their website . You also need to do it at 12am their local time. If you passed it, you'll not get any space. Yeah, it's really hard to have a dinner in here. But it's worth it.





Tickets Bar
Address : Avinguda del Paral·lel, 164 - 08015 Barcelona
Phone : +34 606 22 55 45
Website : http://www.ticketsbar.es/en

My First Tapas at Cerveseria Catalana, Barcelona

When we're talking about Barcelona, one thing that can't be missed is Tapas!! Tapas are a wide variety of appetizer or snacks in Spanish Cuisine. To be honest, i never had any experience with tapas before. My curiousity about this Spanish food made me found out about the best tapas restaurant in Barcelona. I got some result for that, and the first restaurant that i visited is Cerveseria Catalana.

Cerveceria Catalana is located at the city centre of Barcelona, right next to Catalunya. I went here for having a lunch after visited Casa Milà, which is just a few steps away from this restaurant. Reservation are not necessary to eat at this place. They have a big space and you will not wait too long for eat here. 

At this visit, we got the outdoor seating. So we didn't get inside the restaurant and ordered their food on bar. We just ordered some of their recommendation foods from the menu.

White Anchovies in Vinegar 

Assorted tapas 

Razor Clams

Grilled Cuttlefish

Cabreaos Eggs style 

For the first time eating tapas, i think the food is very tasty. I tried something "new" in here, that i never eat before, the anchovies and green chili. I liked them a lot. For me, all of their food is cooked perfectly with less spices. The seafood is also really fresh. My favorite is the grilled cuttlefish. It has a great texture (not chewy), and it doesn't smells fishy at all. If you're the first timer in here, i recommend you to order their Assorted Tapas. Everything on that plate was so yumm.... Surprisingly, the price is also quite affordable. We only paid for €77.75 (after VAT) for all those foods and drinks as well.

Satisfied with the first visit, we decided to had a lunch (again) before we leave Barcelona. This time we get a table inside and i just know that they have more foods, beside on their menu.

They put some foods that already seasoned at the window. We can choose any food that we like, and they will cook it at that time. It can be grilled or fried, depend on what kind of food that we choose. I quite interested with Zucchini flower, because it's also something "new" for us. We don't have it at my country so i think this is the right time to try it. We also ordered the seafood "satay". Because we've  tried their seafood before and it's not dissapointed at all.

Grilled seafood satay

Deep Fried Zucchini Flower

We also gave some try with their baguete sandwich and salad. I've read some reviewed and they said the sandwich is recommended,

Salad 

Baguette Sandwich

Personally, i don't like their sandwich. Because they using baguette that has a crispy texture, and i think it's not suitable for make a sandwich. The last food that i ordered is Patata Bravas. We ordered it because we saw almost every table order this food, and we really feel curious about it. We were asking to the waitress about this food and they said it's a fried potato. Sounds simple and nothing special, but when we ate that, we will say "This is the best fried potato ever!!!" They cut the potato at the medium size (not too big and not too small), so it has the perfect texture. Crisp and smooth at the same time. The other things that we like is the sauce. I can't say more about it. You should try by yourself. You'll not regret it.

Patata Bravas

Cerveseria Catalana
Address : Carrer de Mallorca, 236, 08008 Barcelona, Spain
Phone : +34 932 16 03 68
Opening Hours : Mon - Fri : 8 AM - 1.30 AM , Sat - Sun : 9 AM - 1.30 AM