SUSHI NARA - KELAPA GADING

More and more new places are opening, well that's just how the business goes, but can't deny at the same time I am getting more aware and the F&B competition in town is a crazy battlefield, especially when it comes to Japanese restaurants (and yes I hope everyone's doing good). Anyway, welcoming the new kid at Kelapa Gading Boulevard of feast: a new Japanese restaurant that's ready to fulfil your craving of fresh sushi and sashimi: SUSHI NARA!

Personally, getting here was barely a chore as you only need to take the left turn from the roundabout then go straight and it will be on the left side before reaching the peak of the road. The sushi place is definitely not spacious, nor it's decorated fancily, but it's pretty comfy to dine here, I mean after all you're here to eat not to chill, work on your stuff and drink refillable ocha (well maybe you can but my common sense says no!).

Imma skip on the interior details and focus more to the food! Having the word "Sushi" on their name means they're emphasizing sushi as their main 'attraction' here but expect to find various non-sushi creations like sashimi, chirasi don, maki, temaki, agemono, assorted donburi, gunkan, grilled beef and more ala cartes! The range of the food here is pretty wide and there's a lot to consider and I notice the pricing was actually not pretty bad, price range for food here is around IDR 25k-IDR 150k! Random time, but I really do like the food photography in their menu, so beautifully styled and captured.

QUICK TIP! RECOMMENDED TO COME ON TUESDAYS AND FRIDAYS because that's when they are restocking the ingredients and you can expect fresher sashimi. I was lucky I came yesterday for lunch because all of the salmon dishes that I had were beautiful!

Special Nara Hana - IDR 52k

A vice-versa combo depending on what you fancy: tuna topped with salmon or salmon topped tuna. I personally like the salmon topped with tuna better as I am an avid fan of salmon but both were equally fresh tho.

Aburi Salmon Onsen Tamago - IDR 28k

Two slices of aburi salmon wrapping the rice topped with onsen tamago (Japanese style soft boiled egg) and spring onion, it would be perfect to have everything on a single bite for that eggplotion, oozing goodness, burst of flavor and texture on that one bite! #foodgasm

Wagyu Salmon Hana - IDR 46k

Recommending this for you who fancy beef sushi, aburi beef topped with aburi salmon, mayo, ikura and spring onion, another one with burst of flavor and texture on each bite, they carefully torched the beef and salmon that yoiu're getting this beautiful smokey aroma on your bite (instead of burnt).

Aburi Salmon Sushi

Fresh ingredient is always the key to good aburi salmon and their version of aburi salmon sushi was pretty good, smooth, velvety salmon with generous sauce dressing, nothing to hate.

Mix Carpaccio

Their version of carpaccio is Aburi style where they torched the fish for a bit then serve it on top of the soysauce, then topped with mayo, salmon roe and microgreens dressing.

Aburi Kagoshima Beef with Foie Gras and Ikura - IDR 78k

without Foie Gras - IDR 48k

This was one of my personal favorites from everything on my table that day, first of all, DO NOT SHARE this as the whole serving is meant for personal (at least for me), the tender-juicy beef was so beauitfully cooked and seasoned, and I honestly think the Foie Gras add on is worth it as you're getting this additional buttery texture from the Foie Gras (and oh that - funky in a good way - Foie Gras flavor) and I gotta give credit to them as from my experience visiting the other sushi houses on the same league as them, Sushi Nara's Foie Gras was so far the best cooked, it's just so velvety creamy and melt in your mouth, unlike those that I found in the other sushi houses where it's thicker on the outside and didn't melt in my mouth like it did here.

Wagyu Truffle Don

Maybe I must have skipped on the name as the moment I am typing this I just realized that it's actually a Wagyu Truffle Don, the whole time I thought it was Wagyu Don. I didn't catch any aroma or truffle flavor but the Wagyu was honestly BOMB, it was nicely cooked, rightly seasoned without being too much (and thank God it's not saucy as I really dislike saucy gyudon aka expensive protein don) and still giving some space for the natural beef flavor to be sensed by my palate, and again no complaints with the generous Foie Gras: BUTTERY AF! Aside from the lacking of Truffle oil dressing, I really had nothing bad to say about this.

Salmon Chirasi Don - IDR 145k

Say hello to my FAVORITES AMONG FAVORITES! Their Salmon Chirasi Don is seriously the one that you HAVE TO order here. First of all, the beautiful presentation! They do know how to plate and secondly, everything you're seeing on the bowl! I really do hope I'm not just lucky, as much as I hope that they continuously keep up with the freshness of their ingredient here! I think this time my picture did give you a visual on how fresh the salmon is, it's just so silky, fresh and smooth! Light glaze of soy is applied to the salmon for that little hint of salty, then the onsen tamago, and everything topped on this Japanese rice.

For the Nigiri Moriawase, it's served on this beautiful little wood bridge that I've seen on another sushi restaurant in town and they generally offer two kinds of the 'more complete' options like the Nigiri Moriawase (IDR 220k) which consists of Sushi Hirame, Salmon, Maguro, Kanpachi, Salmon Belly, Chuka Wakame, Chuka Idako, Otoro, Tamago, Ama Ebi, Hotate, Chutoro and Tako! If you fancy their raw options then go opt for their Sashimi Moriawase (IDR 340k) which consists of Salmon, Maguro, Tamago, Otoro, Chutoro, Salmon Belly, Ama Ebi, Tako, Kanpachi, Kinmedai and Uni. I had some of the Ala Carte options of Nigiri here (photo below) like Salmon, Maguro, Salmon Belly, Hotate, Kanpachi and Tamago - personalized ala carte starts from IDR 18k-IDR 78k (Uni being the most expensive).

Salmon Special Roll

Last but not least, another one that's good (but unfortunately my heart's already stolen by the Salmon Chirasi): Salmon Special Roll! Really nothing to dislike, a serving of 8 that's perfect for sharing (or if you can take everything then everything for you), generous mayo dressing, fresh ingredient, just simple and enjoyable.

Their biggest rival has got to be Sushi Hiro as both are located in Kelapa Gading and I must be totally honest and say that they both are very close in terms of quality, and to keep it fair I like some menus better in Nara and some in Hiro (even though range wise, Hiro has way more options) and it's yours to decide which one you like better. If you're sick of the waiting list in Hiro and craving for something that's close to what they have in store, Nara is the more affordable but very close quality to what Hiro offers! I really do hope they'll be packed this weekend! Welcome to the jungle Sushi Nara, wishing you the best of luck!

DO NOTE THAT THEY HAVE TWO OPENING HOURS AT THE MOMENT!

Sushi Nara

Jalan Boulevard Raya Blok QJ5 No. 24

Kelapa Gading, Jakarta Utara 14240

021 - 2245 7055

Opening hours: 11 AM-2:30 PM, 5:30 PM-10 PM

Average spending for two: IDR 350k

Dresscode: casual

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Map for Sushi Nara

MADAGASKAR INDONESIA - PLAZA SENAYAN

It was an impromptu visit with friends to this newly opened (and highly talked about) restaurant when I didn't pack my guns with me, so shoutout to my dear friend for allowing me to use his camera.

The last two weeks the name "Madagaskar" has been on my radar and carefully got into my ear after my cousin first talked about it, he brought the whole family to this 'family' and kid friendly restaurant for the kids to have fun in this jungle-ish vibe restaurant and told me the kids had good fun, and that's what popped into my mind the first time I stepped myself in the restaurant, it really is a family restaurant. It was packed with customers that weekend afternoon and yes mostly families with little kids where they posed around the souvenir store, 'crocodile' and basically everywhere. The souvenir store would be the first thing that you'll see as soon as you step inside but to get the jungle vibe is barely a core because it's everywhere.

Madagaskar is a restaurant that's owned and managed by the same people who own Marche, both in Plaza Senayan and located close to one another and now locating the spot of what used to be Melting Pot. It's hard for me to believe that it was actually Melting Pot as I still vividly remember how spacious, neat and 'expensive' looking the restaurant was and now it's a completely different setting, basically miniature jungle with greens, branches, replicas of this and that everywhere. I notice the restaurant has two stories but I am pretty sure that there is no smoking area around the restaurant.

They have WIDE selections of food here, like wide enough that it's almost hard to decide one because everything looks so good on the menu, while they're mainly Western dishes but when I asked the waiters there, the Indonesian food selections are the ones that they claim to be strong at, but we weren't feeling Indonesian food that time so we opted for the followings (keep the Indonesian food for the possible future visits), but price wise I would say it's more to the affordable side (in contrary to the fact that it's located in Plaza Senayan and recent cafe standard), expect to find food that ranges around IDR 30k-150k, and for the drinks, expect to find various tea, coffee, juice, mocktails, and cocktails that ranges between IDR 20k-IDR 100k.

Ravin Teriyaki Edamame - IDR 30k
This was a decent starter to the lunch before the big guys came to the table, it's edamame generously dressed with garlic and teriyaki sauce. Generous dressing on the coating that it's almost better than the edamame itself.

Sweet Ostrict BBQ Fries - IDR 48k
Unless you have specific restrictions, it would be hard to decide which one for the table when it comes to the fries as they all looked freaking tempting!!! The Sweet Ostrict fries consist of shoestring fries topped with chicken, mushroom, mozarella cheese then dressed with homemade BBQ sauce! While I expected more chicken chunks, overall it's hard to go wrong with a simple friendly guilty pleasure like this.

Fowl Oatmeal - IDR 60k
To be completely frank, this was MY FAVORITE DISH among everything you're seeing here. The chicken was beautifully deep fried with fresh tender chicken meat and generously seasoned with oatmeal, salt, pepper, chili, curry leaves and more. It was a bit spicy but addicting at the same time and I don't know why but I felt like having powdered sambal matah which was good.

Fried Mushroom Platter - IDR 68k
Another one that's easy to love: simple beautifully fried assorted mushrooms! Didn't expect that they would nail the frying that beautiful to be honest (sorry skeptical bitch here).

Carnivore Bolognaise Pasta - IDR 70k

This might look small on this picture but this pasta was actually VERY generous that you can actually share it with two. I found this to be just OK, nothing stood out, the bolognaise tasted a bit burnt but I am weak for pasta that even though it's not that good I managed to keep on digging it slowly that it's finished.

Poultry Baked Rice - IDR 50k

This happened to be a classic example of a menu picture so good that it's disappointing when it's served. I expected chunky mouthwatering chicken katsu as displayed on the menu and I got thin ones, expected the basil rice to be awesome too but the rice was a bit hard and overall I didn't find this special.

We ordered three more food aside from the ones you saw above but I felt bad about taking pictures of some of them as it was my friends' order and they were super hungry that I didn't want to hold up any longer. Anyway they also have kids menu here for the little ones, steaks, burgers (I saw this gigantic burger with double patties served on the table next to me) and more! That's my simple review of this newly opened restaurant, thank you for reading!

Madagaskar

Plaza Senayan 5th floor
Jalan Asia Afrika No. 8
Senayan, Jakarta Selatan 10270
021 - 5790 6082
Opening Hours: 11 AM - 11:30 PM
Average spending for two: IDR 300k for two
Dresscode: sporty casual
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email: eatandtreatsindo@gmail.com

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Map for Plaza Senayan