Playground – Plaza Indonesia Jakarta

I’ve been hearing about this new restaurant that opens in Plaza Indonesia for sometimes, but only recently I had the opportunity to visit and taste the foods there. The restaurant is located on the corner of Plaza Indonesia extension 4th just opposite Ootoya. The atmosphere of the restaurant is certainly very unique, with very dim lights and as the name suggests, there are hanging chairs that look just like swings and rolling chairs. But other than those, it looks just like another restaurants.

Interior of Playground (sorry for the blur pic..)

My order was Red Cheddar Dory, which was pan-fried dory served with cheddar cream sauce, spinach and baked potatoes. The presentation was really nice, as you can see, but the fish was not as crispy on the outside and soft on the inside as I thought. In fact, I think the meat was a bit too soggy and too thin. However, the yummy golden sauce saved the day. It was creamy, but not overly thick and the taste complemented the fish quite well. It was so good I didn’t leave any drop of sauce on the plate ;p

Red Cheddar Dory (58k)

My friends ordered Katsutti and Autopsy Burger, which I think is one of their signature dishes. I heard many people recommended Katsutti, which basically is spaghetti covered with generous slices of tonkatsu and eggs. It was indeed good as my friend testified, so next time maybe I’ll try that dish.

Katsutti (65k)

While Autopsy Burger was quite an impressive dish on the appearance, standing tall around 20-30 cm high. Basically it was a burger with its various fillings stacked up together, among others, beef patty, onion rings, cream mushroom croquette, served with french fries, potato wedges and chips. While impressive on the appearance, the taste was quite mediocre and I guess you would have a better bet having normal burgers at BK or Fatburgers, and not to mention much cheaper too!

Autopsy Burger (125k)

The drinks…

TWG tea (30k) & Strawberry Juice

Playground

Plaza Indonesia Extension 4th floor

BonChon Chicken – Grand Indonesia

OK, since eating good foods is my other obsession (besides manga ;p), I thought I will give it a shot at reviewing restaurants and foods that I tried. Jakarta’s culinary scene has become very vibrant where a lot of new restaurants opening up at the speed of lights, offering various different type of foods and themes. With the recent waves of Korean pop culture, not only Korean dramas, songs, singers and actors/actress became very popular, but Korean foods as well. Recently, a very popular dish in Korea, fried chicken, has also made its way to Jakarta with the opening of BonChon Chicken in Grand Indonesia.

BonChon Chicken originates from South Korea and has made its way to USA, Thailand and Philippines. When you heard of the word fried chicken, you might instantly think of the big KFC-styled fried chicken with super crispy skin (or flour?). But Korea-styled fried chickens (in this case, BonChon) beg to differ, just look at the pics below!

Bonchon Chicken Take Away Box

I ordered 4 pieces of chicken drumsticks with spicy sauce (Rp 50k). They have choices of thighs, strips, drumsticks and mix with original or spicy sauces.

Chicken drumsticks with spicy sauce

Bonchon Drumsticks with Spicy Sauce

As you can see on the pic, the drumsticks have thin layer of skin coated with sauce. And they tasted very damn good! The skin is thin yet very crispy and not greasy at all. In fact, the skin is very thin, it is almost like a crust. The meat inside is cooked perfectly, which is soft and moist and I didn’t find any layer of blood on the bones which I often found on many undercooked drumsticks. I read on the internet that the chicken is cooked twice which renders out all the fats on the skin.

Besides the crispy skin crust, what I liked most is the sauce! It’s hot, spicy, tangy and sweet, the sweetness is a bit like teriyaki sauce but on a more mellow side with spicy kicks enough to make your lips swell. If you like spicy taste, then this is the sauce for you! I kept licking my fingers when I ate them, afraid of wasting the delicious sauce! XD

The downside is that I had to wait quite long for them to prepare my order, I guess I was waiting for more than 15 mins for the order. I don’t know if it was because the cooking process took a long time, or it was just because of slow service since the restaurant wasn’t crowded at that time.

The next day, I had a chance to taste Bonchon again since a friend would like to try them. This time I ordered beef Bulgogi set, which consisted of Bulgogi and rice, with a choice of soft drink. For side dish, I order kimchi soup (forgot to take pics of them). When the dishes came out, I was quite disappointed to see the bulgogi looked dry and quite unappetizing, and indeed the beef was dry with almost no sauce on it and tasted mediocre at best. And the kimchi soup was too sour yet bland for my liking and it lacked of the spicyness that I usually love when eating kimchi.

Nevertheless, I would still come back for their fried chicken and meantime I hope that they continue to improve their other menus.

BonChon Chicken

Grand Indonesia Shopping Mall, West Mall 5th floor Unit 2-3