Eric @ericfoodreview

Five Spices Beef Tounge. Thin sliced beef tounge marinated with their secret sauce. A bit salty and sweet from the sauce. The tongue just disintegrates in your mouth. This is not exagerration,  I've never eaten tongue with this texture. I can say that this is tongue on the next level.

I forget the name of the menu. Just ask the waiter and you're all good. Thick taro wrapped with pork bacon. They also coated it with honey. If you know me then you know that I'm intolerant to honey. Just a little and I'll get stomach ache. But screw that, I won't miss this good shit. It's worth the pain after. Natural sweet of taro, the savory bacon, what a harmonious duo.

Cafe Brulee. It's been a long long long time, now the searching is over. Finally found a good cafe brulee in Jakarta. The coffee was good, a bit bold and sour. The brulee was amazing. They burned the cream and sugar into perfection. Sweet, slightly burnt flavor and crunchy. I did eat half of it before I mix it up. Definitely gonna recommend this. Dang!

Taka Grande Salmon Moriwase. Great presentation I must admit, big plate with 8 pillars to hold the salmon moriwase. Aburi salmon, aburi salmon cheese, aburi salmon mentai, aburi salmon foie gras, salmon kani mayo, salmon avocado, salmon ikura, salmon negi maki, salmon sashimi, salmon belly sashimi, salmon kani salad and salmon carpacio.
When I knew they present their sushi with an unique presentation to attract customer, I made a negative stereotype. The taste's gonna be mediocre. You know the place where they use 'train' to deliver your food right? To be honest, I totally hate that place, high price with low quality taste. At least that what I tasted that time. Okey, I should stop saying crap. Back to this moriwase, I love it! Not only the cool gimmick, they actually served great sushi. I thank you for breaking that negative stereotype.
I loved everything, I really mean it. The salmon tasted fresh and sweet. Here's my top 3 menu.

- Aburi Salmon Foie Gras. The aburi salmon was super fragrant. I barely tasted the foie gras flavor, but the texture was 100% there. That melt-in-your-mouth sensation was dope.

- Salmon Carpacio. Fresh salmon sashimi soaked in wafu sauce and sesame dressing, they also put mentai sauce on top. The sesame dressing sauce was so strong and kinda overwhelm the other sauce. I love sesame so much, so it's good for me. I barely tasted the mentai so the mentai was not necessarily needed.

- Salmon (and belly) Sashimi. Big and thick slab of sashimi, that's it. It's almost 3 times thicker than sushi ***. If you know which franchise I'm talking about.

Watermelon Red Salad. The perfect twist of sweet and savory salad filled with organic lettuces, tuna, roasted sunflower seeds and pomelo. What an unique gimmick. The used watermelon as a cup to hold the salad. It gave a super tempting effect to my eyes. I must say that the salad was super refreshing. The watermelon was super crunch and juicy and sweet. The tuna was kinda meaty and quite generous. The greenies itself was sour and creamy and peanuty from the dressing. I could taste balsamic vinegar and some mayonnaise and goma sauce (I asked the waiter and he said that they ain't use goma sauce, how come I tasted one. Was I deceived by my own tongue?) I ain't salad kind of guy but I'm 100% sure that this salad was a really good one. (Judging from the amount of dressing they used, it's not really healthy but still the taste was superb)

The Original Baby Back Ribs. Tender, pork loin meat, basted with Tony Roma's original BBQ sauce. You can choose between half slab (6 racks), regular slab (9 racks) or full slab (12 racks). Little tip from me, full slab is a must. There's no chance you can stop chewing at the half or the regular one. It's so so gewd. I ordered the full slab and somehow I got 16 racks, I don't know who cooked me but may God bless you. The meat was super tender, almost fall off the bone kind of tender. And the bbq sauce was also good. Sweet, savory, but not overpowering the goodness of that beautiful ribs meat. Beside the ribs you'll get 2 side dishes. Here's the options, cole slaw, ranch style beans, corn on the cobs, rice, baked potato, french fries or mashed potato. Nothing particularly unique, so I chose french fries and cole slaw. The cole slaw was bland and the french fries was mediocre. Nothing special but not a single care was given, the ribs was the only thing matter.

Tony Sampler. A trio of appetizers. Fire wings, spinach artichoke dip and half onion loaf served with dipping sauces. The fire wings was so so. The chicken looked red but it's not spicy, just slightly hot. The meat was tender though, but not really special. It served with bleu cheese dipping sauce. The sauce was super bland. Normally bleu cheese has a strong odor and sharp so it's not for everyone. But this dipping had none of it. 

If you ask me what's the most iconic and must order in Tony Roma's I gotta say it's the onion loaf. The ribs is tasty but nothing compares to their onion loaf. Giant hand cut onions, light breaded, deep fried and served with their signature BBQ sauce. Crunchy and super fragrant and tasty and sweet and oniony obviously. No matter how many times I eat it, it always blows my mind. The BBQ sauce was sweet and bit sour, tasted good but I always eat it without the dipping. 

I really thought the main star of that sampler was gonna be that onion loaf, but the spinach artichoke dip surpised me. Creamy spinach blended with a mix of cheeses and artihoke hearts. Served with tortilla chips, sour cream and salsa. First, the salsa was terrible, for me it had an absurd taste so I put that aside. Then the sour cream was not really sour so I didn't enjoy that either. But the creamy spinach was in a whole different level. It's a little bit sweet and earthy and creamy thanks to the cheese but it also had some sourness from the artichoke. It's complex and somehow the combination of everything just kind of fits perfectly. The tortilla was so so actually, nothing particularly special, but it's perfect to scoop that creamy spinach and adding crispy texture out of it.

Truffle Steak Don. Thick slice US beef, kokuho japanese rice, 63 degree egg and katsuobushi beef sauce. The steak was super tender and so gewd. I could taste the natural sweetness from the meat itself. The egg was runny and cooked into perfection. It gave extra creaminess and sticky texture, loved it! And the moment the don arrived, I could smell strong truffle aroma. If you like truffle then you'll love it. My only concern was the kokuho japanese rice, it's a super super normal white rice. No need to mention it, it made my expectation go high and all I tasted was normal white rice. Overall, still a super solid steak don.

Teppan Saikoro Steak. 200gr cube cut steak over beansprout & chopped garlic and served with japanese rice. The steak was good. Tender and so flavorful. Savoury and the natural sweetness from the meat itself and so earthy thanks to the beansprout. Taste wise it's good, however it didn't meet my expectation at all. First, the size of the saikoro beef. It's just too small and trust me, it's the saikoro steak not some fermented soybean. When I read the 200gr of steak in the description, I expect it to be huge square chunk of steak not this thin cut steak. Second, the japanese rice. It tasted like normal white rice. No japanese taste or whatsoever. Third, the chopped garlic. I thought they gonna give me a small diced fried crispy garlic. Not big size sliced garlic. Still, I did enjoy my bowl.

Beef Plater. Texas beef ribs BBQ, beef back ribs, roasted beef brisket and turkey bacon potato served with watercress salad. I think it can be shared up to 4 persons.
There's nothing special with the turkey bacon potato. Creamy potato wrapped with bacon. The bacon was good but thats it. No turkey taste or whatsoever. The roasted beef brisket was tender with slightly smoky flavor. The beef back ribs was great, especially for those who love to gnaw the bone like me. There is no glamourous way to eat this.
The texas beef ribs was the star of the whole plate. Super tender, rich in BBQ flavor, very clean and leave no aftertaste flavor on your tongue. It's super tender and you need no knife at all, you can just pull it off with your fork. This was one of life's finer pleasures. Superb.

Teochew preserved black olives mixes with plain rice. The rice was so tasty that it could be eaten on its own and you can see how fluffy that rice was. The rice beautifully seasoned and had such interesting aromatic flavor. Dope, so dope I must say.

One of the best chinese restaurant. Everything is ridiculously good. You don't even need recommendation, just randomly pick the menu and you'll get a deeply satisfying bite.

Thanks sheraton for such a wonderful night. The food was good, the ambiance was nice and the service was superb. Definitely recommend this restaurant.