TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Big letters forming the word “food gallery” welcome guests who step into the main entrance of the Publik Markette restaurant at Grand Indonesia Eastmall, Jakarta. Behind the letters, a glass box displays variety of fresh, seasoned-but-uncooked dishes. It’s like a bait to attract people into the restaurant.
In addition to the fresh vegetables and food, another glass display showcases colorful cakes with many kinds of mouth-watering toppings. They’re seem so nice.
“Our concept is to allow guests to pick their own meal,” said Fachry Surachman, the chief of the waitress to Tempo.
Despite all that premium buffet, menu lists are available on the table by preference. However, the list is dominated by alcoholic drinks. There are probably around o hundred of liquor collections starting from wine, cocktail and sparkling water. The restaurant also has a special storage with special temperature to store eight bottles of premium alcoholic water.
“Special for wine that is served per glass, we have buy one get one promo today,” said Fachry promoting.
Being Ismaya Group’s 10th restaurant, Publik Markette is designed to host middle-upper class guests who want to have meals while enjoying the interior. Look at the Victorian garden architecture that is dominated with peach, green and white colors. It’s pretty impressive.
There are total of 105 tables, for 4 to 6 people each, arranged in the room that is divided into three zones. Despite those marble tables and other expensive furniture, Publik Markette labels itself as a casual dining restaurant. Therefore, there won’t be any waitress who help folding the napkins on your lap, or small chair to put on your expensive bags. All the waitress are dressed casually in square-motif shirt and blue jeans.
And it was the time to have a taste on the food. We ordered Roasted Pumpkin with Additional Turkey Bacon. This is thick pumpkin which is steamed and then roasted. Believe it or not, the texture of roasted pumpkin’s membrane is tasted like chicken skin. Plus the sweet essence resulted from the roasting process, the pumpkin skin is tasted like chicken satay.
There are several options for the toppings such as diced pork or turkey meat that is served with salad and the dressing. And don’t forget the lemon squeeze and white cheese are sprinkled on top of the dish. The white cheese, that is made of cow milk, has saltier flavor than mozzarella or edam cheese. It also has stronger milk flavor.
For the main dish, we tried out the Jucy Lucy, a burger with patty made of veal and turkey meats. The patty is so thick and not too salty. The soft texture crumbling in the mouth so it does not stuck between the teeth. The most delicious ingredient in Jucy Lucy is the two-layer mozarella cheese interposed between the bread and the patty. The cheese sticks the bread and patty together.
“The mozarella cheese in Jucy Lucy is very tasty,” said Yulia Rafiq, a guest.
French fries dusted with cheese powder and balsamic leaves arrived together with Jucy Lucy. The french fries was spicy hot and still crunchy although it is not fried into completely dry. Jucy Lucy was served on a wooded tray that looks like a chopping board.
Done with the Jucy Lucy, we went on to the next menu, the Beef Short Ribs. It is a boneless beef that is marinated and grilled with barbecue sauce.Short Ribs were grilled until its completely done. The best part of this very-tender beef is the marbles that left on the edges of the beef.
Other main dish that we had the chance to try out was the Linguine Sausage. This is an Italian pasta mixed with mushroom sauce. There were too much balsamic leaves on the dish that make it similar to Aglio Olio with a never-ending spicy hot combined with tannin flavor that resulted from the white wine cream.
If you prefer a non-alcoholic drink, there are three options of beverages worth trying. The first is Happy Belly that is good for people who are on diet.
“Because Happy Belly contains vitamin, fiber and prebiotic,”saod Fachry.
Happy Belly is made out of sweet apple, orange, and little amount of prebiotic, that make the drink very sour. But, if it is sipped after eating the Beef Short Ribs, it would give a natural sweet fruity flavor.
The second recommended beverage is Blueberry Cheese Cream. It is some kind of milkshake with cheese cream, milk, and berries. This was the best among the three for its sweet-sour flavor, soft texture and the beautiful purple color.
The third one is the Iced Lychee tea. It is not sweet at all, with a little bit Lychee flavor. It has thin slices of lychee in it.
According to Fachry, Publik Markette is usually full during the dinner times. When we looked around, we could see happiness on the faces of the guests.
KORAN TEMPO
