Otel Lobby : a revisit, a rendezvous, and a regale

Chic, elegant, and mysterious. A night-time revisit to Otel Lobby has brought enough satisfaction to complete my quick definition of a regale. Unlike my first visit, I was more amused that night as I was both having a great time and having a good meal. It was a very late birthday celebration. My friends and I were just up for it after a month of delay for Febriano and myself, while a year delay for Lid.

They said "it's better late than never" and as much as I was glad that we were having this little rendezvous, I realized that my friends seemed to be lost both literally and in between the meaning of that proverb. Fortunately, Otel Lobby has never been too packed, which what makes this place very intimate and private. Thumbs up for the waiters who managed to stay profusely patient (compared to myself) and instead of hassling me while waiting for the rest of the party, I was left quite alone with enough peace and serenity. In fact, I think I bothered them more with questions of the Hell Hour!

Every Monday - Thursday, from 5-9 p.m, they have a hell hour promotion where you can get 2 selected bar food and cocktails for the price of 1. So here goes the feeding frenzy..

As always, two menus from Otel Lobby

The non-smoking area and Febriano's very late gift on that chair.

I have always loved their mysterious, dark vibe. 

Peach Tea (25k) while waiting for my friends to arrive

BBQ Chicken wings (55k). Included in the selected menu for the Hell Hour promo. So we got two for the price of one. Very fragrant. I love the fact that the BBQ sauce wasn't too sweet and it also has a hint of little bit sourness. My perfect definition of a perfect BBQ sauce.

Bistro Burger (85k). Also included in the Hell Hour promo. It came with a bucket of fries. Look how thick that  patty is! They also said that the buns are homemade. I didn't get to try this one though..

Spaghetti Aglio Olio (55k), with parmagiano, bread crumbs to add some texture, and garlic chips. You can additional meat for the price of 85k. It was al dente. A simple yet satisfying dish for the aglio olio lovers.

Duck Confit (85k) with grilled peach and sweet onion marmalade. Not a fan of the sweet sauce.  The outer of the duck skin is crispy enough to fulfill my expectations for a good duck confit. Not the best, but it was good enough.

Crispy Duck Salad (55k) with romaine, watercress, and crispy duck. Well, they really mean it when they said crispy. I found the additional chili dressing balanced the whole dish. Another simple yet satisfying dish as I was not looking for something heavy that night. It was definitely light and it suited for what I was looking for.

Roasted Chicken (85k) with fried rice and salad on the side. Had a piece of the chicken. Well, aside from the fact that I love that it has crispy skin, I will still choose a Kenny Roger's roasted chicken. I am not saying that it's not delicious, but it was just not my favorite.

Red Velvet and Rainbow cake (40k) with vanilla bean ice cream. Included in the hell hour promo, so we get two plates of these little babies. To be frank, I don't like Otel Lobby's version of rainbow and red velvet cake. They were almost mundane and definitely failed to compete with other's rainbow and red velvet cake. For the record, I have never been a fan to rainbow or red velvet cakes, so my judgement is not bias by a certain preference whatsoever.

Toblerone Puff (40k). It is a choux puff cut into half with vanilla pastry cream and ice cream in the middle, smoldered with melted toblerone chocolate. Yummy. Perfect for a sweet tooth. I really wish I can eat it with my hands instead of using a spoon. This dessert is also included in the Hell Hour promo. Just what I needed..

Back with that proverb, I said "it's better late than never", aside from the fact that this is a late post as well, I am still grateful that we did our little late birthday celebration. I was again reminded that as I get older, I get to be more grateful. My only wish for this year's birthday, well, six wishes since I got six cakes and I am not even bragging (being sarcastic here, lol), is to keep being surrounded by these lovely people. To have them around me, to grow up together, to discover new adventures, to embark on new chapters, and to always remain silly.. Together..

Otel Lobby
The Annex Building of Bakrie Tower Southgate Entrance, 
JL. Epicentrum Tengah, 
Kuningan, Jakarta, 12940  12940
Phone : (021) 29941324
Website : http://www.otellobby.com/

We are at UNION!

Weekend night out with my besties.. U all know Union in Plaza Senayan, right? Famous for its red velvet.. Famous for 'if you don't book a table, u won't get a table on weekends'. I never had the chance to go here cause I hate to get involved with all the fuss just to get a table in this place..Well, it turned out that one of my best friends's mother is friends with the owner's mother. So we made a request to her to book us a table..

VOILA, a table we got on a Saturday night with two complimentary red velvets.. Wuiii.. The place is packed as usual. I got there at 12 p.m, it was also completely packed.. Then I took care of my business and BAM, dinner time 7 p.m still packed as well..

My friends came late, but I got in first since I was there since daylight.. So.. first thing first..

Vintage Menu

Established since '11

First thing you see when you walk inside the restaurant.. Many people bought the pastry for take outs.. 

Narcissistic picture as usual.

Me and Riyan.. His mother made this all happened.. Thanks tante..

Somehow I think the interior of the place has the same theme as LOEWY.. But it has its own twist, more like a semi outdoor black vintage design..

Complimentary bread for u to munch around while waiting for your food so u will have something to do, at least munching around, instead of doing nothing and start staring at people.. *No I didn't do that*

Garlic Escargot.. YUMMY! It has quite a crunch.. I burnt my tongue for putting it straight to my mouth, but it was worth it

It's very soft on the inside.. U can literally smell the butter in your mouth

Spaghetti with crispy pork bacon. I forgot the name of the dish.. They put some fancy name for this dish.. Well, pork bacon is the deal.. I like how crispy it is.. It's just okay..

Duck Leg confit with crispy potatoes. They should just write potato wedges instead of crispy potatoes.. -__-" It's kind of disappointing. I didn't like the sauce. It's like they made an effortless runnier version of sweet soy sauce.. The duck was perfectly cooked though.. Crispy on the outside, tender on the inside.. 

This is the Union burger with cheese and foie gras.. I love how the combine a little bit of French with a butch dish as a burger.. The combination works.. 

Creamy Ravioli with salmon spinach.. I like this.. It has the perfect amount of feelings and I think for a ravioli dish, it's balanced between the spinach and salmon

The choices of cakes.. By daylight, they still have a lot.. I took this picture when we were done eating.. The green one is pandan cake.. The cake is 50k a slice

Mocca cake. I think this is very ordinary and I think it's overpriced. It really is just a mocca cake..

The famous red velvet.. With cashew crushed together with sugar and poured all over it. They use cream cheese but somehow, I also think that the red velvet is ordinary. The ones in Disini Bakery in Bandung are far much fragrant. The slices of the cakes in here are quite big. We couldn't finish the whole thing so we took one home for Riyan's mom..

According to me, the food in here is okay.. But it's not great. I gave 7/10. I think it's overrated and I don't get what the fuss is all about. Maybe some of you will think that this place serves awesome food, but not for me. I'd rather go to Tin Pan Alley for dinner rather than having to queue or making reservations weeks before the due date..

It's not bad! Once again, I highlight it. But it's just not the place suitable for me and my friends.. It's another typical hip restaurant and cafe in Jakarta.. The place is packed for a reason, but I just don't get that reason..
Once in a while, the place is nice to hang out and spend good times with your friends, maybe for a light meal and a drink or two.. I love the atmosphere 

Union
Plaza Senayan, 1st floor Unit Sogo
Jln. Asia Afrika no 8
Phone : 021-5790 5861

iCreamy~

Their menu and logo

I have a very hard time in choosing what I want.. The price is very friendly indeed

I want it all!

Last week, my friends and I visited Island Creamery first branch in Indonesia! They're originally from Singapore and now we have it in here! Anyway, they're famous for their ice cream. It's more affordable if you compare it to famous brands such as Baskin Robbins, or Haagen Dazs..

Click HERE to visit their facebook page.. They're located in Flavor Bliss in Alam Sutera

They have interesting choices of flavors.. The place is so adorable and they have outdoor and indoor sections. Let me just show you the picturesss

I love their interior

The indoor arena is filled with photos of customers..There are tons of these kind of pictures on the wall

Frozen Desserts

They have the children seats. But here's the deal, look at the toys on top of the table, I wouldn't trust my kids with that high level of sugar after over consuming any dessert in this place. They're going wildddd

They have so many selection of desserts, from pies to cupcakes!

They have different types of icec cream choices, from red velvet ice cream to mangga harum manis... The ones on the left are the mudpie and mini baked alaska. Mini baked Alaska is basically raspberry ice cream fully covered with meringue 

Ready to be taken home..

I think this is the cutest ice cream cake ever!

They have many more choices to pick

Your toppings

Selection of yummy sinful cakes.. The red velvet and rainbow cake had been sold out so we didn't get the chance to try some.. huhuhuhu

They were having a promotion. If we tweet about this place, we will get three of these.. They're basically cakes with different flavors covered with chocolate.. They have the rainbow cake flavor also the red velvet ones

Since we didn't get the chance to try the red velvet, so this is as far as how we go on their red velvet. Quite moist.. 

Lidia with her prize

We haven't had any dinner that night, so we grabbed some in Island Creamery. If you scroll back up, the menu said, Ice Cream - Burgers - Coffee and Cakes - Obviously, it means they specialize on it.. Then you stick with it! We were branching out in ordering different kinds of food and I'm quite disappointed by most of the meal we got..

Islander Burger. This, I am not disappointed. It's pretty good actually

It doesn't only looks good, but it also tastes very good

Now, the disappointing part.. The other meals that we had weren't satisfying. 

A smoked beef spaghetti.. There's nothing wrong with it, but there's also nothing special about it. The Indonesian version of pasta..

This is the flame-grilled 1/2 chicken. Obviously it's not a 1/2 of a chicken, they should rename it. And the term "flame-grilled" is obviously, literally true. It was burnt and bitter. I remember laughing at the chicken when I first saw it..

Beef bolognese pasta, again Indonesian version of pasta, nothing special

This is the Beef Island fried rice. Well, it's supposed to be okay. What possibly can mess up a simple fried rice? But danggg! Ir smells like raw eggs. Maybe it's because of the sunny side up, but it really did smell like a raw egg. I took a bit of this and quickly drank to rinse off that smell..

Now back to the yummy stuffs! For desserts! Everybody's on diet so Ivan and I ordered only two slices of cakes

Childhood Chocolate Slice. For chocolate lovers, you need to go for this one! The choco ball on top  is Maltesers..

The Rum Raisin. I love the hint of rum smell on this cake. It's just the right amount. I am not a fan of raisins, and apparently I encountered none on this slice. Top notch!

One slice of cake is worth of 23k, which I think is very decent. With the qualities of the desserts that they offered, the cakes are worth it. The food isn't that expensive as well.. If you're going for a light meal, this is the place to go. 

Even though I am disappointed in the food, I will still go back to this place for the desserts and appetizers.. Maybe even for the burgers and coffee. They really have a nice environment and ambiance. Really cozy! The staffs are amazingly friendly.. This place is worth a try!