Kitchenette, Senayan City

So, wow, on approach to this restaurant, I was so impressed. The place had this lovely rustic charm to it. It felt warm, homely and inviting and more like I was stepping into a friends house than a restaurant in the middle of a shopping centre. The decor was a perfect compliment, with kitchen cabinets filled with various accoutrements and food packages and the furnishings were simple wooden tables and some booths as well.

Once seated, we were handed a charming menu made from corrugated cardboard, adding to the rustic feel of the place. At a quick glance, however, I noticed prices were relatively high. Then again, most restaurants in shopping centres here are due no doubt to the high rental costs. I settled on a spaghetti bolognese and an ice tea. When it came I was a little disappointed. Firstly, there was a sprinkling of Parmesan around the edge of the plate but hardly enough to actually add any flavour. I must admit that I do like my Parmesan heaped generously on my pasta and prefer to have it served up in a small bowl rather than have to scrape it from around the sides of the plate. Bolognese to me is your classic Italian accompaniment to pasta, known world wide and served in every Italian restaurant. You have to have it perfect. I like my bolognese with rich flavours coming through of garlic, onion, tomato, herbs and meat. It should be cooked long and slow and almost always tastes better the next day when the flavours have had a chance to mature. This bolognese was mediocre. I felt it lacked flavour and was rather bland, add to this that there was not even any parmesan to help it along and I was left feeling rather hard done by. Yes I do cook my own bolognese so I am rather fussy because I know what I like and this is not the first restaurant that has left me feeling disappointed with its bolognese. 

Nevermind, let's move on to dessert. There was a display case with various desserts to choose from that included red velvet cupcakes, banana bread, brownies, crepe cake and carrot cake. I settled on the carrot cake. It came to the table with a cream swirl on the side and was a triple layer cake sandwiched with cream cheese frosting. Did I mention I make my own cakes too? You can see them here. I officially call myself a 'cake bitch' because when I eat cake I am very particular. I know what goes into making good cake, I have made many that were good cakes and many that were mediocre cakes and many that were just plain old fit for the bin cakes. However, the difference is that I don't charge heaps of money for the privilege of eating mine. We all have a daily calorie allowance and if I'm going to blow half of that allowance on a slice of cake, it better be worthwhile. You see, told you I was a 'cake bitch'! Back to the carrot cake...definitely not good cake. In fact, all I could really taste was sweet sweet and sweet. I couldn't really get the flavour of the carrot cake because the frosting felt like just cream cheese and icing sugar mixed together. LOTS of icing sugar. I would have had some orange zest in there to bring out the flavour in the cake and compliment the whole dessert. I would have like the cake richer and darker in colour too. Also no need for three layers either make it a double layer or leave the layers out altogether especially if you are going to sandwich it with such sweet frosting. Plus, this was a whopping Rp.55,000 and the most expensive dessert in the cabinet. How disappointing! I guess when the bill came I felt like I was paying for the ambiance rather than the gourmet experience. Not to give up on somewhere that welcoming after only one try, I will go back again for a second try. It would be a shame to not be able to find something here that makes me keep coming back...