Chung Gi Wa Jakarta Review

3 years ago I created a Formspring account. One of the first 3 questions asked by the site was, "If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would you pick?"

For me it's Korean food.

PS: RIP Formspring. The site has announced it'll be closed down this March 31, 2013. You'll be missed!

Anyway, I make sure myself to visit Korean restaurant every month. Not every day or week cause I'll be out of pocket money :| Last Valentine, bf & I visited Gahyo. And last year for anniversary dinner we also had Korean dinner at Myeong Ga Myeon Ok.

So far we've made ranking for restaurant we've visited. They are:
1. Gahyo (no doubt. Price never lies lol.)
2. Jang Su De
3. Myeong Ga Myeon Ok
4. Arang22

Arang22 was actually the best, but their quality gradually decreases :| Han Gang would never make into my list. Their meats are tasteless! I only love their tteokpokki.
Then we had another 3 restaurant on the list: Chung Gi Wa, Soo Ra Cheong, and Tobak.
I also heard about Born Ga, but from reviews done by another blogger they seem to be so so.

Tobak is pricy. So I postponed until I have special occasion lol. I was torn between Chung Gi Wa and Soo Ra Cheong. Both claimed to have their own farm and guarantee their quality. However, available reviews stated that Chung Gi Wa only serves very little choice of banchan (Korean side dishes). Then I picked Soo Ra Cheong instead. (I do love various banchan okay!)

Soo Ra Cheong located on Jl. Senopati no. 49. Turns out it's right beside the crowded Arang22. However, when we arrived there... it's Abgujong :| GPS said it's the correct address. So? Where is Soo Ra Cheong? I Googled their phone number and called Soo Ra Cheong. I was greeted by, "Good evening. Abgujong. How may I help you?"

Wait. What?

So I had little interview to the employee of Abgujong and they said the place changed its name. So I thought it might be the same place just changes name. But the whole decoration was totally different and I remember I once saw Abgujong on Gandaria City mall (I was in front of the restaurant while making the phone call HAHA) and I asked again, the employee said it has different owner. Duh isn't that mean Abgujong bought that place? -_- so I cancelled. Abgujong was never been on my interest though. It's overrated for me.

Then we moved to Chung Gi Wa. Reached there at almost 9 PM. Place is still packed! We're on waiting list :| To be on waiting list was hard as well. You have to follow the owner (a Korean lady) which holding the paper and asked to be written in that paper. She acted like she doesn't need customer. Understandable though because if you can't stand that attitude, she still has many customers waiting. Gahyo's owner was way nicer.

Anyway we didn't wait long, we got table. But we joined table with other people, 4 noisy girls. Actually only one very noisy, though.

What I read about the banchan is true.

This is what you got: (clockwise) kimchi, spinach with sour dressing, radish slices, and veggies I couldn't figure out but tastes very nice (I assume it was processed with soy paste). All of them are refillable.

Free refillable tea comes in this metal pitcher that keeps it cold and very tiny metal glass that when you drink you can't help but think of shots :| But they take it away after they put it, I don't know what they means putting then taking away -_- probably they ran out of the pitcher since it's very crowded. Very logic reason of every bad service happened there: it's crowded.

So I want to try those banchan and I opened my chopstick. A bit disappointed cause it's wooden chopstick. You know how people judge good Japanese restaurant when it's not using wooden chopsticks, right. I thought Koreans have same level of judgement. But then this happens...

I broke it nicely okay. I just tried to separate them but this happened -_- so I asked the waitress to replace it. 

She replaced with metal chopstick yay! But the girls sat together in our table seemed to look at me all the time or what. One of them saw the waitress took metal chopstick and they want as well because maybe it seems cooler or whatever. She ordered her friends to take 4 pairs for them! I wonder why she wants to be ordered around. They also seem very newbie in eating Korean and also very attention seeking. One of them (the same one who ordered her friends around and is VERY noisy) acted stupid saying the smoke from the grill was disturbing and cover the grill with the vegetables provided for eating the meat -_- won't stop until her friends told her it makes the grill wet and the smoke even wilder. Does she want to impress me or my bf or her friends or simply lame? 

Anyway Galbi Tang came.

Comes with rice. Tasted okay. I prefer Galbi Tang on Arang22 since the broth is thicker and yummier. However, for the meat (which I take zero picture of them :|), Chung Gi Wa wins hands down. We ordered Samgyeopsal and Pork Ribs in sweet marinated sauce. Both are so yummy! Samgyeopsal was the best though. It directly made into rank 2 kicking Jang Su De and other restaurants down haha.. Bf who regularly traveled to Korea even said taste and place of Chung Gi Wa reminds him of place in Korea. And this place has very affordable price compared to others. We spent only IDR 200k for 2 portion of pork meat (pork is indeed cheaper, but they are cheapest!) and a bowl of soup that both of us can share.

Then my latest ranking is:
1. Gahyo
2. Chung Gi Wa
3. Jang Su De
4. Myeong Ga Myeon Ok
5. Arang22

Of course they have weaknesses though. No various banchan, no dessert, bad service, but the waitress are good. But if your pure intention is to only eat meat, then GO. This place is the best. They also sell Pajeon! (Korean pancake) I might be coming back soon though haha.. I gotta admit I underestimated this place cause I thought this was owned by local since they have farm in Bogor or somewhere in West Java. But it's owned by Korean and the meat really marinated the meat well and I feel guilty deep down for not making it my first choice.

Anyway they're indeed hidden gem!

You can find them at: Jl. Dharmawangsa III/ No 2. Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta Selatan.

Lotteria Supermal Karawaci Review

Call me biased! You all may be agree or disagree, but I really think there's some kind of Korean invasion into this country, correct?

Anyway to those who's looking for food information in here, I'm deeply sorry that I didn't update my blog for a very long time.

So today's post is about another Korean food stall entering Indonesia. Lotteria has been in Indonesia for quite some time it's just me that's late noticing :| As I know there are already 2 Lotteria, each at Gandaria City and Mall of Indonesia, Jakarta. Somehow they expanded into Lippo Village in Karawaci, Tangerang and I'm thankful for it. For me personally it's better than BonChon and like an upgrade version of KFC (yeah, Kentucky Fried Chicken).

I was first seeing it on Twitter. It's a very random day to see grand opening of a food store on Twitter, I know. But what catches me and made me squeak to everybody I know to accompany me going there is because 2 reasons. First, I once saw Lotteria in this Korean variety show, Running Man. It's my favorite show and I'm literally addicted to it. Each episode has been replayed by me minimal 10 times. Ask me any episode and I'll tell you the guest and their missions right away wtf sorry out of topic. So ya I saw Lotteria in Running Man, episode 74, if you care to look by yourself lol. Second reason, the endorser is Song Joong Ki. Former Running Man cast as well. He's the latest endorser I think, because back in 2000 when Lotteria first established in South Korea, the first endorser is Song Ji Hyo. Also Running Man cast lol. The only female member, super pretty, smart, and bad ass. Even though super blank most of the time but she is adorable and so goddess like. Cut the story short, I tried Lotteria because of Running Man. End of story :| Eh those two people sharing both Song surnames are not related btw haha I dunno why I bother explaining this -_-

This is Lotteria Chicken Set. Buying set means you already got 2 chicken pieces (one big, one small), rice, simple salad, and drink of your choice. The chickens consist of soy and sweet spicy. I ate this with my BFF and we both agree that the sweet and spicy isn't really nice. Compared to the soy one which is HEAVENLY. After that day I brought bf here as well and he's agree that the sweet and spicy isn't nice.
Later on we figured out that you can change one of the chicken but only into original one. We asked for both soy sauce but can't get :p So we have one original and one soy sauce since then. The top one (dark reddish one) is the sweet and spicy sauce chicken, while the bottom one is the heavenly soy sauce. The cashiers are usually polite and will patiently explain the menus to you, and later they will deliver your order to your table. But maybe you should be the one that have patience when the store is packed because other than the original is usually not yet made so you should wait a bit longer compared to ordering only the original one :) They have the set with one chicken thigh, that's only original and you are not allowed to change. The best part that I secretly like is they don't serve chicken wings. I hate chicken wings T____T it's too complicated to eat, contain very few meat, and too mainstream tsk. [TIPS] Also if the store isn't crowded you can ask which part of the chicken with which sauce. I usually order upper thigh with soy sauce (since it's bigger :p) and the lower thigh with original one :D

Drink included in the set is choices of soda like any other junk food store but it can be upgraded by only adding few thousand Rupiahs. I upgraded into Ice Choco.

It's not chocolate milk. It's chocolate drink. Better than Milo, a bit more like Cadburry hot chocolate drink. Except this is iced of course. Took a picture of a tray because it's cute hehe.. Koreans love pastel so much! Like I do! :p

Dessert! Something that should not be missed! Well, Indonesian McDonald's has finally brought McFlurry Oreo into the store but strangely only Orange Ice Cream flavor is available -_- so when I see this ice cream I was interested because I thought it's McFlurry Oreo! This is called Tornado. Comes in 3 flavors: Oreo, green tea, and forget... :| but it's too watery? Also the biscuit isn't Oreo because it tasted bitter :(

I ate in here 3 days in a row lol. First day with BFF. Second day with bf. Third day with brother. Hahaha.. they all love it. But I don't think as much as I do. Objective opinion without being biased, the chicken is really nice. Also the chocolate. I also already tried the Beef Teriyaki burger. It was good as well, but I don't really like the texture of the bread. Other than that no complaint! I believe it has lots of calories, fats, and oils... but it's nice haha.. Price also very affordable (read: cheap).

Give it a try and later leave comment if you'd love to! See you around :)

BonChon Chicken Jakarta Review

Suddenly this BonChon Chicken popped in few malls in Jakarta. Seems like every mall I go, I saw it lol. BonChon Chicken (written: 본촌 치킨; funny because if you read it, it's actually read BonChon ChiKin lol. It's translated correct though) is a Korean chicken food place. I think it's franchise from somewhere. Probably originally from Korea. Sorry I don't really bother to research first. But I'm sure it also has place in Singapore because I once saw the famous Singaporean blogger, Xiaxue stated that she likes BonChon garlic sauce chicken. (Indonesia doesn't have garlic one)

The day I ate this was by accident. We were passing through many food stalls in a mall, deciding what to eat, then there's BonChon Chicken waitress was distributing free samples. Bf took a bite and he said it's super crispy and yummy so we decided to give it a shot. I don't bother taking samples because I originally thought it would be the same like OMO! Chicken or Kamikaze. But many of my friends messaged me that day asked me to try BonChon. Universe has set me up :|

-French Fries-

Wanted to cry seeing it. Haha.. BonChon do not offer size of french fries as I remember. And it came in this only 14 sticks of fried potato :| It was quite thick than common fries but.. 14.. Yeah I counted it. Few of them even half tall than the rest. So I will never order french fries from here anymore :|

-BonChon Chicken Strips Original Sauce-

...because wings are too mainstream. Haha okay. It's a good point. I'm tired eating wings because of so many bones plus it has less meat on it. I never like wings. Always prefer drumstick. Wanted to order drumstick in here but lazy bf is lazy. Wanted to eat all in one bite apparently.. I don't know. It's easier to eat without getting messy I guess. Though they provided washbowl so you shouldn't be afraid of eating messily :) Rice ordered separately because we ordered the medium size of chicken strips containing 8 strips.

It's not crispy but it is a solid white meat without fat. They have 2 choices of sauce; original and spicy. As I mentioned, Indonesia didn't provide garlic one. We were drinking Coke and Fanta. All costs almost IDR 80,000 which is quite affordable. Also there's 10% discount for student by showing your valid student card! :)

They sell Mochi Ice Cream too but we were in hurry to watch The Hunger Games after eating this and I forget the dessert :( The Hunger Games was awesome btw!

Anyway, beside rice, chicken, and fries, BonChon also provide choices of Chicken Wrap, rice package with choices of chicken (strips, drumstick, wings, etc.), dory fish, and many other choices. For me it's worth to try :)