Samarra Restaurant And Lounge (Menteng)
By
Jakarta100bars
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Once again I'm reviewing a restaurant from the Tugu Group, Samarra... Samarra is actually the most impressive of their restaurants in Jakarta in my opinion, even more that Dapur Babah Elite or Shanghai Blue 1920 . The setting is influenced mainly by Arabic/Persian art and it is just beautiful to be in this place. With the incense smell and the arab/lounge music, you will really feel transported for a moment. Some will probably say that there are too many artefacts to see and that it is too overwhelming, but I believe this is just how the owner wanted it.
Shahrazad is an arabic restaurant and café providing decent food, for reasonable prices, in an hospitable environment. This is not a place worth driving miles and miles, but if you happen to be in Tebet and you want to spend less than Rp80k to eat something else than nasi goreng, Shahrazad should not disappoint you. I tried a few dishes, and they where all relatively good value when it comes to taste/price:
To my knowledge, Turkuaz is only the second Turkish restaurant to open in Jakarta. Sesai Zorlu, its owner and chef, worked in the first one, Anatolia , for 10 years. From what I've heard, since he left, the quality of the food in the latter has been deteriorating and it is no longer the great restaurant it used to be. If anyone can confirm it would be appreciated... Turkuaz is quite small, with only about 30 sits available. There are plans to expand by the end of the year, with two private room and a lounge upstairs to smoke shisha. When we visited, on a Saturday night, it was full and we had to wait for 10 minutes to get a table. To avoid that, you can make a reservation by calling first at the following number: +62-21 7279 5853.