Jakarta Diary--Going Japanese

One thing I notice about Jakarta, or at least Grand Indonesia Shopping Town, is the proliferation of Japanese restaurants. On my second night, where hours before I made a presentation during a blackout, we went to Pasta de Waraku.

One side of the restaurant was a photo op waiting to happen.

One of the better pasta dishes I tried--squid, octopus and spicy cod roe in wafu sauce. It's also my first time to eat pasta with octopus. The squid was buttery soft, the octopus gave an interesting texture, firm but not rubbery, and the cod roe and wafu sauce tied everything together. Wafu typically consists of soy sauce, rice vinegar and vegetable oil.

I went back for more the next day, even though I know it's not good to repeat dining places. I had salmon calppacho, thinly sliced raw salmon. Yum!

I paired the seafood pasta with red miso

with the oreo shake.

Both were just okay.

We also tried coffee here at Ninety-nine Restaurant, located at the mall's basement, near Ranch Market--the upscale grocery where I saw snakefruits.

One wall used live plants as wall accents.

The banana caramel cake was just right--creamy, not too sweet, and perfect with coffee.