I have been living in Taman Palem Lestari for quite some time, and only recently, I realised that it is kind of a blessing, at least when it comes to food. No one is ever going to get hungry living here as there are plenty of eateries from rumah makan, warung and some cafes and restaurants. From the homemade food to junk food and from the cheap ones to the expensive ones.
This area is used to be sort of dry, unpopular and simply uncharted. With the growing demand of the residents in the area and some from the neighbourhood, the supply grew as well. Now, it still keeps on growing. One of the popular areas is certainly Citra Garden 6, where you can find the popular cafe Ninotchka, the famous kopitiam Bangi, the king of junk food McDonald, and many more. Even Bakmi GM and Starbucks Coffee are there. One curious comer has emerged amongst the well-known brands. It’s Otosan Suki, specialising in Japanese heartwarming suki and sushi. Just not long after its opening, I was granted the opportunity to try the food there.
The place is nice, with a quite eye-catching facade. It is a stand-alone 2-storey-building with orange colours. As spacious as it is, it might cater to more than about 150 guests. Every corner of the place was designed to be simple yet cozy. Family with many members will definitely love the place.
The second floor is divided into two areas, the smoking and the non-smoking ones. The smoking area is pretty nice in the cloudy afternoon. But as always, I prefer the non-smoking one. I don’t smoke and somehow, air-con is a part of my life now. 😀
Let’s just check what we had for the afternoon.
# Kyoho Kult (IDR 29 k) & Cloudy Lemon (IDR 29 k)
Served cold, these two chillers were a good fit for the sunny day. Dominated with fresh acidity from the yakult, I found it comforting in a way that woke me up from my drowsiness at that moment.
# Okinawa Roll (IDR 30 k)
Equipped with crabstick, prawn tempura, cream cheese and seaweed, this sushi roll was quite okay. The thing was that I couldn’t identify the likeable character with the overall roll. I found it a bit bland and dry.
# Yellow Submarine Roll (IDR 35 k)
This, on the other hand, was pretty good. With a seemingly unique approach, the sushi roll introduced some mango touch to the “species”. Though this was not the first time I had sushi with mango sauce, I still found Otosan Suki quite brave and pretty innovative. The overall combination of salmon, cream cheese, and mango sauce raining on its own parade turned out to be a quite nice one. If I have a say in this, the one thing that can be improved is the mango sauce, which should be purified more with the mango puree rather than the mayo.
# Salmon Shoyu Don (IDR 48 k)
For those who love donburi, Otosan Suki is ready to bring it out. One of the better ones is this Salmon Shoyu Don. The salmon texture was quite nice as it was sautéed with their signature butter, which also brought the delicate nature to the salmon. As delicate as it may seem, the “it” flavour was there and I found it very enjoyable overall.
# Hot Crispy Wakadori Don (IDR 30 k)
For those who love bolder flavour, this is the one. The highlight of the rice bowl is the chicken balls with sweet and spicy glaze. The chicken was all tender inside and crispy on the outside, while the balance between the sweet and spicy notes were perfect. If you ask me, I would say that this was the best dish of the day.
# Spicy Miso Chicken Ramen (IDR 35 k)
The extra good news is that ramen lovers are welcome here as well. Otosan Suki serves some ramen and one of the pretty convincing contenders is the Spicy Miso Chicken Ramen. While ramen is more well-known for its pork-based soup, the chicken ramen here did pretty well to have a place of its own.
# Gyu Ramen (IDR 32 k)
Another ramen that I got to try is the Gyu Ramen. With clear broth, bamboo shoots and tender beef, this ramen is meant for the light-tongue foodies. The smooth and light nature didn’t exactly suit my taste as I prefer the bolder one. 🙂
# Suki Package for 4 people (IDR 200 k)
For the main show, this suki was the highly-anticipated one. There are 4 options for the soup, the Tom Yam, Otosan Spicy Soup, Otosan Herbal Soup, and Otosan Sweet Soup and we got to taste the spicy one as it was recommended by the owner. After a short time of waiting until the juicy soup boiled, each of the ingredients was slowly drowned there inside. Oh, I surely loved the sight of the red meat slices, getting all cooked up in the soup just under mere seconds.
The ingredients we got from this package were pretty much satisfying and simply worth the money. For only IDR 200 k, you will get 3 portions of beef, a portion of chukka, king crab chunk, udon, enoki, horenso, sawi putih, 4 bowls of steamed rice and 4 glasses of ocha! You have to know that all these quality stuffs are never cheap in the market. So, IDR 200 k with the privilege of enjoying these quality food for a family of 4 will be pretty much a fair trade.
When it came to dessert time, Otosan Suki introduced some selections of pudding to us, from green tea, earl grey, vanilla and chocolate. Who doesn’t love pudding?
The one that I liked is the chocolate pudding. Chocolate is after all, my kryptonite but in way it pleases me.
Just when I think our lunch was going to be over, there’s a plain-looking dessert served to us. It’s called Chawan Pudding (IDR 35 k). And guess what? It tasted good! I didn’t see it coming, really. The delicate and creamy texture with its fragrant cheese and milk flavours were spot on! The owner then smiled seeing our reaction and told us that this dessert is some sort of their secret weapon but it’s limited daily. The difficulty of the making process makes it a rare gem. <3
I found the experience of enjoying food here was relatively nice. There were some that I loved and there were some that I found somehow lacking something. The positive thing from the management is that their receptive response and their nature in listening to the guests’ voice. They will keep on improving as time goes on and that attitude is what makes a restaurant successful.
So, to close this post, I will sum up some of the great food you should try. Hot Crispy Wakadori Don, Salmon Shoyu Don, Spicy Chicken Miso Ramen and their suki are recommended. And do order their Chawan Pudding if it’s available!
See ya foodventurer!
OTOSAN JAPANESE RESTAURANT & SUKI | JAKARTA
Ciffest, Citra Garden 6, Cengkareng, Jakarta
Phone: +6221-29024460; +6221-29024461
Instagram: @otosansuki