Thailand is certainly one of the most exotic countries, and one should at least once takes a visit there. Thailand is not only famous for the culture and beautiful beaches. The food is also said to be one of the best. Honestly, I only visited the country once and it was a long long long time ago. Once I have a chance, I will definitely go to Thailand. For now, visiting a thai restaurant in Jakarta is already good enough. 😉

I visited Jittlada, the branch in LOTTE Shopping Avenue Jakarta, just this afternoon. So the experience is still fresh and I can remember the taste of the food quite vividly in my mouth. As I know it (I might be wrong) Thai food tastes typically fresh, sour or pungent. The delicacies usually accentuate the acidity of fresh ingredients. Me myself, actually love sweet stuff, and I am not a big fan of acidity.

First step here, I found that they were pretty good in creating exotic ambiance. The chandeliers, the lighting and the paintings played a good part in entertaining visitors’ eyes. I love the dark colour and the welcoming atmosphere. My family and I picked our best table by considering the feng shui (okay, I’m joking =P).

I redeemed a voucher of two main courses and one vegetable dish. Since the choices were limited, it was not very hard to make up our mind. We chose to have a portion of Grilled Sirloin Beef, a portion of Cashew Nuts Chicken and a plateful of Kailan with Salted Fish. My sister couldn’t resist the Tom Yam Kung’s inviting picture (yes, she’s a thai food lover), and eventually, we just had to order it for the sake of her appetite. =P

Soon enough, our foods were starting to be presented one by one, so we didn’t have to wait for long. No complain for the service! The presentation of the food was good either.

Let’s start taking a look at our foods.

Cashew Nuts Chicken (49.5k – exc. Tax)

As the name implies, it contains pieces of crispy fried chicken with cashew nuts every here and there. I initially thought it would be similar to a Kung Pao Chicken, and I was wrong. It resembled more to a Sweet and Sour Fried Chicken, as it featured the sweet and sour sauce. Since my sister never likes sweet and sour sauce, she disliked it. I, on the other hand, loved it! The chicken chunks were crispy, and coated with the sweet and sour sauce. It wasn’t outstanding, but I liked it anyway.

Kailan with Salted Fish (35.5k – exc. Tax)

The name says it all. It’s a sautéed kailan with salted fish. This kind of dishes never disappoints. It’s usually a must in a family dinner. My family loved this because it was just sautéed perfectly over a delicious oyster sauce. The kailan was still green, no taste of rawness at all, with crispy-ish texture. Gladly, the salted fish wasn’t too salty, it didn’t overwhelm the overall dish. 9 out of 10.

Tom Yam Kung (45.5k – exc. Tax)

I bet almost everybody knows this typical thai signature soup. The first thing comes to my mind every time I heard the name, is sour! ouch. And yes, this Tom Yam Kung by Jittlada is sour too. Did I like it? Ehm.. Funnily, kinda. It was delicious. The seafood was fresh, especially the fluffy prawns. The acidity of the soup was obvious on my tongue, but it didn’t make me hate it. It made me like, curious! The tom yam kung didn’t only accentuate the acidity, but there were something else. Something sweet-ish, something fragrant. The taste was intriguing and my mom even loved it! Well, too bad my sister who is a super fan of tom yam kung, didn’t find it as intriguing as the rest of us did. I wondered why, but maybe it’s just a matter of preference.

Grilled Sirloin Beef (85.5k – exc. Tax)

This one was my choice and it didn’t disappoint at all. I think it was the best dish for the day! As simple as it sounds, this is just a grilled sirloin. Sirloin is usually the type of beef with more fats. It usually is chewy in texture and not every one can bear chewing it. However, it appeared that Jittlada surprised me with how tender the grilled sirloin beef tasted in my mouth. It was grilled with a great technique, it was not chewy at all. It was so tender, smoky, and very well-seasoned with delish sweet soy mixed glaze (well, I didn’t exactly hold an interrogation with the chef, so yeah, that’s just my best guess). As a twist of taste, they also provided a chopped garlic and chili sauce with fresh acidity sensation as the dipping sauce. Surprisingly, dipping the already-delicious-grilled-beef in the sauce made the taste even better.

Price-wise, it might be considered as a bit pricey, at least for me. Luckily I came with a voucher, thus it didn’t seem that pricey for this first visit. However, I will definitely come back with my family, with or without any discount/voucher. =D

Service was impeccable and ambiance is good.

For a conclusion, I did find all the food here very good, somehow eye-opening. It really made me like thai food, like to a whole new level. I used to find thai food as an okay food, not great. I guess I have to change my mind. Jittlada did a great job in changing my mindset. Thai food can be really good if it is cooked in a right way. I am more curious now than I ever was about the food in Thailand! Maybe Bangkok will be a good place to start my thai food journey. =D

Let’s see when the time comes! Ciao all!

JITTLADA
3rd Floor, #17 A109, LOTTE Shopping Avenue Jakarta
Phone: – N/A –
Website: http://www.jittlada.com