SHANGHAI STROM - ALILA JAKARTA

SHANGHAI STROM - ALILA JAKARTA

In the midst of our busy schedule, I think Chinese food is great for our break time! For Chinese food,  Shanghai Storm by Alila Jakarta, Shanghai Storm is an open kitchen and also a Chinese-styled modern bistro!

Stepping into the restaurant, I bet that even if you don't know the name or that it's Chinese, you could still guessed it! The whole room screams Chinese, from the evident red color, to the table setting!

Here's the open kitchen by the way and they have the usual tables or if you came with a large group, there's the VIP room at the back. The VIP rooms aren't decorated with Chinese decoration but don't be confused, it's still part of Shanghai Storm!

We were welcomed by Marketing Manager, Evi Rumondang and F&B manager, Trisna Djunaedi! Let's not forget the one who's in charge of all the dishes we had, Chef De Cuisine, Suratiman and the person below Executive Chef Alex Ensor!

REMEDY LEMONGRASS
Just by looking at it, you'll know that it's a healthy drink! It's not only healthy but refreshing, I guess that's why it's called a remedy! What I could taste in this is lime, lemongrass, and some greens that I can't really guess!

SPRING ROLL

For a Chinese starters, what's better than spring rolls? I love spring rolls, especially for snacks! These were really crispy and flavorful, the filling was also generous. Yum is all I could say!

DEEP FRIED CHICKEN
Crispy chicken, cashew nut, leek, salt and pepper.

Not a big fan of cashews but the fried chicken was okay. It could use a bit more flavor but other than that, it's all good. The crispiness was perfect and who can deny deep fried foods?

SCALLOP WITH ASPARAGUS
Stir-fried scallop and asparagus in XO sauce.

Amazingly fresh scallop and asparagus covered in a perfect for seafood spicy sauce! At least, it's what it's supposed to be but I think the XO sauce was lacking in the spicy division. They said it's so that it's more universal, yet it's a bit off mark from XO sauce but cause they're a hotel, I guess it's understandable that they need to please the majority!

BRAISED BEAN CURD WITH MINCED BEEF
Bean curd cooked with minced beef Szechuan style.

Again, Szechuan is also a spicy styled but this is lacking on that side! Instead of spicy, it's leaning more to the salty with a hint of sweet, resulting a really comfort food and it goes very well with rice! The bean curd really soft and it had a generous amount of beef!

DEEP FRIED KING PRAWN
Crispy prawn, egg yolk, curry leaf and red chili.

Not my favorite, since most of the food here has light flavors, this one is no different. The usual ones with lots of flavor already lacked any flavors, having light flavor for this one made it a bit tasteless but it does have a hint of saltiness. That's only coming from someone who likes strong flavors though!

PAN FRIED BEEF RIB EYE
Beef rib eye, baby beans served with home made sesame sauce.

This is my only favorite out of all, since the flavor came from the meat itself and I really think that they marinated this very well. Love how tender the meat was and the baby beans as well! This one disappeared in seconds! Lol!

Yeah! My favorite course, DESSERTS!

FRIED DURIAN ICE CREAM
When I first heard about this, I thought that it was an actual fried ice cream, turns out it's just fried durian WITH ice cream..lol! I was expecting that they used actual durian but I think that what they used is just a durian paste and I think the fried dough was a bit too thick. It needs more generous amount of durian!

FRIED MANGO ICE CREAM
Same thing as the fried durian goes for this one as well. The only difference is that this uses mango paste and there's this slight bitter aftertaste but I don't know where it came from! Hope that they'd think of using actual mango or durian for these, cause they could be great!

Shanghai Storm

Alila Hotels and Resorts

Jl. Pecenongan kav 7-17

Jakarta Pusat 10120

021-2316008

Opening Hours :

Lunch : 11:00 am - 03:00 pm
Dinner : 05:00 pm - 11:00 pm

GIA Restaurant & Bar

Italian restaurant at Sampoerna Strategic Square! I first found out about this place from an Instagram post, as usual, and after a little bit of research, I found a picture of it's interior and was starstruck! Located on the lobby, they go by the nameGIA and is a fine dining restaurant, which suits it's interior! What kinda disturbed me was how the staffs kind of suggest (insist) that we make a reservation first. Now, I'd totally understand if the reason is because the place is fully booked but the truth is it's almost empty! Maybe it's because they're a fine dining restaurant?

The restaurant is divided into 2 sections, though I don't know why, I'm just gonna make a wild guess and say that it's for privacy purposes. Really sorry that I'm unable to show you a clear view of the divided sections, since they DON'T ALLOW any type of interior photographs here, with any kind of device! That was a huge minus point for me but thankfully I was able to sneak a few shots before they told us about it, so you can still get a little sneak peeks of the gorgeous interior!

Patterned ceramics adorn all of the tables, at least I think it's ceramic? Guess it's expected for a member of Ismaya Group, they're practically famous for their amazing concepts! Anyways, if you're familiar with Bibliotheque Bar, I'm sorry to say that they're no longer there and is replaced by GIA.

Glad that they, at least, allowed me to take shots of the foods!

WELCOME BREAD

Starting with a gorgeous welcoming bread and right about that time, I was confident that the foods would be good. This unique bread tasted surprisingly good! The black side is parmesan garlic and the white (or yellow) one is black olive. Be sure to enjoy it while it's warm for the perfect taste!

ICE LEMON TEA

My trusty beverage of all times!

PANCETTA IDR 175K

Crispy pork belly, chickpea puree, red onion jam, roasted baby potatoes.

Here they have 2 pork belly menus, the other one is called Maiale, which is a grilled pork belly but I decided to go with the crispy one. It was really worth the price cause the size is really generous as you can see from the photo, though it was a bit hard to cut through it and the crispy skin's just the BOMB! Pork has never seem to fail me!

These are the side dishes; baby potatoes, chickpea puree, and red onion sauce. All of the side dishes're okay except for the red onion jam, which I'd suggest to leave it out unless you like strong onion flavors!

CANNOLI SICILIANI IDR 55K

Ricotta cream, hazelnut gelato, popcorn.

Didn't really expect that the ricotta cream will be this overwhelming! Fyi, ricotta is a type of Italian cheese from sheep milk. This was literally ricotta cream wrapped in a crepe and it was too much, the crepe's a little bit too crispy for my liking as well! The chopped peanuts and chocolate on each end of the ricotta cream didn't help much either. The only thing I can tolerate here is just the hazelnut ice cream!

VALRHONA CHOCOLATE SYMPHONY IDR 85K

Drizzle EVOO dash of salt 65% gelato, 75% tart, 85% mousse.

So there's 3 types of EVOO chocolate usage here and if I'm not mistaken, EVOO chocolate is chocolate infused with certified Extra Virgin Olive Oil, the percentage probably indicates how much EVOO was infused. First is thegelato; I personally think it was way too thick, maybe if they could tone it down a little bit, that'll be perfect! Next is the tart; topped with caramel popcorn to balance out the bitterness of that thick melted chocolate. Be warned that it is very VERY bitter! 

Last is the mousse; the black chocolate that looked like a tombstone tasted the same as the melted chocolate on the tart, a little bit bitter even! You can find red velvet crumble below the mousse for texture variant. Out of all the 3 types of chocolate, my favorite was the tart!

Upon arrival, you'll see this table of drinks, a real eye-catcher, whereas the table I sat at was behind that glass, which separates the 2 section. There's also an outdoor (which I didn't not get to take photo of)! I do hope that they fix that policy soon!

Gia Restaurant & Bar

Sampoerna Strategic Square

South Tower, Ground Floor Unit 7- 8

Jl. Jend. Sudirman Kav. 45 - 46

Jakarta Selatan 12930
021-57953300