Good news!
I think most of you have heard that Tokyo Belly has just recently opened another branch in Kelapa Gading. If you’re a fan of this Japanese Modern Bistro, you might have responded “Yeay!” or “Yuhuu!” or any other valid sound to express your happiness 😉
I personally love Tokyo Belly to bits. Because amongst many establishments managed by Ismaya, Tokyo Belly is certainly one of a few that showcases its strength in food diversity and quality, while manages to keep the price fairly reasonable. To mention other reasons, it also serves many unique food selections which have been wedded with some other influences. Let’s put it simply in an example, the Carbonara Ramen, the classic pasta meets the japanese ramen. The result? Well, it is a hit and miss as some will definitely love it, but some others might hate it. It depends. But if you are a man with deep curiosity like me, you will love to explore new things and these new things can be found in Tokyo Belly!
Located on the ground floor of Mall Kelapa Gading 5, Tokyo Belly is side by side with its sister, named Fook Yew, which is specialised in Chinese Fusion cuisine. I honestly like the ambiance of its outlet in Grand Indonesia more. The Tokyo Belly here somehow looked smaller due to its partitions. But decoration-wise, it still maintains its energetic look with Japanese touch. The lighting is a bit darker, good for romantic moments, but bad for photo-taking purposes 😛 And service-wise, Tokyo Belly knows the importance of good service, so they undoubtedly did well in this particular field.
The housewarming dinner was quite fun with lovely attendees, the fellow food bloggers. The evening was started with a short introduction and a welcoming gesture. But the main highlight is always the food, so when they started serving, I was excited. After all, my experience dining in at Tokyo Belly in Grand Indonesia had always fared so well.
Let’s just jump into the part where I tasted the food, from the appetizers to main courses and desserts.
– APPETIZERS –
# Tokyo Edamame (IDR 25 k)
A must-have appetizer in almost every Japanese restaurant. But like what I mentioned earlier, the food tends to have some twist. Hence, the big sautéed garlic all over the edamame. Apparently, the Tokyo Edamame here is a sautéed edamame with soy sauce and garlic. The garlicky and soy flavour did a good job in enhancing the taste. It made our snacking moment fun!
# Kawa Ebi (IDR 48 k)
One of the new menus is this Kawa Ebi. Since I am never a fan of prawn (due to allergy), it didn’t intrigued me. Not long after everyone said about how good it was, the curiosity hit me and I couldn’t resist trying it. The result? I regretted trying it! Why? Because it was so good, so crunchy and the seasoning was pitch perfect. It was kinda salty, in a good way, somehow addictive and it made me just love it! The tartar and spicy sauce were perfect companions. Dip it in either sauce, or even both to maximise the good snacking experience.
# Tokyo Nachos (IDR 38 k)
Who loves Nachos? This one is slightly different tho’. The normal nachos comes with salsa, avocado and cheese. This one comes with wasabi mayo, teriyaki sauce, and showered with minced chicken called chicken soboro. Awesome, but could actually even be better with a touch of classic cheese sauce!
– SIGNATURE SUSHI ROLLS –
This sushi tasting was my favorite part. The sushi here is always scrumptious with little surprises. They are really good with fusion sushi, and the ingredients they play with can always amuse my taste buds.
# Melt In To You (IDR 88 k)
This specific fusion sushi was amongst all my personal favourite. It was like a bomb with smooth delicious explosion when you just put it inside your mouth, almost too literally melting. It has spicy tuna, crab, salmon and grilled cheese on top with extra savory kick from the floss.
# Rock and Roll (IDR 52 k)
The Rock and Roll is the second favourite of mine. It is consisted of enoki wrapped with beef, on topped of kani sushi roll with finger licking’ special sauce. I loved this unusual sushi roll!
# Dazzling Roll (IDR 52 k)
Almost equally gorgeous as the rock and roll, this sushi roll is definitely one of a kind. The combination of mashed potatoes, golden egg, sweet and spicy sauce on top of a lovely fried salmon sushi is overwhelmingly good. It turns the traditional sushi to a modern version with a touch of western tendency. The result was pretty massive, and I couldn’t hate any part of this sushi.
# Salmon Nigiri (IDR 98 k)
The seemingly normal-looking sushi, with lovely salmon on top. Taste-wise, it was pretty usual, but the salmon was fresh and with a tiny bit of wasabi and soy sauce to throw in the mix, I really enjoyed this nigiri sushi.
– MAIN COURSES –
# Bibimen Beef
The innovative version of Bibimbap and Ramen, just because either bibimbap or plain ramen is too mainstream. Bibimen is served pretty much the same as Bibimbap, with delicious beef, kani, and crispy mushroom to add texture. However, the rice is replaced with noodles. As nice as it sounds, I do think that they can actually add some kind of gojuchang to add more kick to the bibimen. 😉
# Salmon Tamatoji (IDR 78 k)
Slow-cooked salmon with special sauce and egg. As I said in the previous post about Tokyo Belly, this cooking method is really good. The result was real nice, with silky salmon and deeply infused sweet and savoury soy flavour. The egg was complementing the salmon nicely.
# Chicken Katsu Tamatoji (IDR 68 k)
Slow-cooked chicken katsu with special sauce and egg. If you don’t fancy fish, this chicken katsu can easily be a good substitute. 😉
# Osaka Oyako Bi-bim-bap (IDR 68 k)
The traditional donburi meets bibimbap. The main stars are the chicken leg chunks, sautéed perfectly in special sauce and egg along with carrots, onions, and shimmer sauce.
# Beef Shogayaki Bi-bim-bap (IDR 68 k)
Another hippy bibimbap but with sliced beef which is sautéed with shogayaki sauce.
# Chicken Teriyaki Pasta (IDR 68 k)
Bringing back the fav menu from Pasta de Waraku, this pasta is one to pay attention to. Showered in wafu sauce, the spaghetti is topped with chicken teriyaki and mayo. It is ready to bring you some memories of the old time. 😀
# Tangy Tomato Pasta with Mushroom Cheese Hamburg (IDR 68 k)
The gorgeous pasta of the day. I did love this pasta, like a lot. The tomato base for the spaghetti was real good but the lifetime appreciation award goes to the mushroom cheese hamburg. The hamburg was bursting with flavour, and the melting grilled cheese and mushroom on top were simply gold!
– DESSERTS –
# Matcha Fondue (IDR 48 k)
The typical matcha fondue which will always cause a love hate relationship. Comes with choices of 4 toppings, this matcha fondue will be good for matcha lovers!
# Mini Parfait and Waffle – Green Tea Latte (IDR 38 k)
Served on a glass full of smoke, the mini parfait was surprisingly good. The matcha ice cream was really enjoyable with the match-made-in-heaven red bean. How to eat it? Grab the waffle, poke it in the matcha ice cream and red bean, then put it in the mouth. <3
# Chocoholic Waffle (IDR 39 k)
Waffle and chocolate ice cream. Enough explanation right? 😉
# Bibim-ice Stone (IDR 55 k)
New dessert alert! The ever-growing innovation comes to the form of bibimbap, but with refreshing scrumptious ingredients from Japanese cheese cake, assorted fruits from strawberry, kiwi, to peach, oreo (yum!), and vanilla ice cream which is shaped like a sunny-side up! Lemme tell you that unexpectedly, this bibim-ice was the best closure of the evening. The Japanese cheese cake was awesome, with silky soft and puffy texture, then the fresh fruits and oreo just managed to keep my tastebuds playing, and extra chilling from the vanilla ice cream. It’s like sunshine on the stone bowl! Oh, and it’s definitely a dessert with sharing portion. But, oh well, I might actually be able to finish it all considering how good it was. 😉
Those were all for the evening, but hey, really, the menu selections here in Tokyo Belly are pretty much endless. The choices can sometimes be overwhelming, but then again, customers get to try different food with different styles. They always try to introduce new menus, and cut the unpopular ones. By doing that, they can always innovate more for the best interest of the customers. I do think that their approach towards the food selections is positively unique, and somehow, leave customers to want more. At least, I am certain that I want more. How about you, foodventurers?
TOKYO BELLY | JAKARTA
Mall Kelapa Gading 5, Ground Floor (GF)
Jalan Kelapa Gading Boulevard, Jakarta Utara
Website: http://www.ismaya.com/tokyobelly
Instagram: @TokyoBelly
Review about the outlet in Grand Indonesia can be read here!
