THE HALAL GUYS INDONESIA - SENAYAN CITY, JAKARTA
Sunday, December 11, 2016
Now more and more foreign establishments are opening real soon in Jakarta and this one is definitely one of the most anticipated! So I just came back from attending the exclusive foodies preview of the soon-to-open The Halal Guys Indonesia, yes you heard it right: THAT Halal Guys from New York City is about to open in Senayan City by late January 2017.
FYI just realized that this post is a Senayan City back to back.
It was a short catch up session where the team from Halal Guys Indonesia introduced two of their highlighted menus: Mix Gyros Rice and Gyros Rice with Fries. Basically Gyros rice consist of fragrant brasmati rice (Indian rice) soaked and marinated with spices and condiments such as meat, vegetables (lettuce, tomatoes, even cabbages), falafel (deep fried chickpea ball) and pita bread. It looks pretty much like this:
FYI just realized that this post is a Senayan City back to back.
It was a short catch up session where the team from Halal Guys Indonesia introduced two of their highlighted menus: Mix Gyros Rice and Gyros Rice with Fries. Basically Gyros rice consist of fragrant brasmati rice (Indian rice) soaked and marinated with spices and condiments such as meat, vegetables (lettuce, tomatoes, even cabbages), falafel (deep fried chickpea ball) and pita bread. It looks pretty much like this:
Disclaimer: I never tried the original Halal Guys in New York so I can't compare, but the review will be based on my experience, as usual.
Now straight to the review and both products are basically the same only the fries one had extra fries condiments and nothing else (but the crinkle fries was good tho). Portion wise, it was a tad larger compared to The Halal Boys and the meat was marinated and seasoned better as well. The rice was very light in flavor (some might even consider it as bland) and basically the sauce played such big roles in enhancing the flavor (and it's my own preference). The white sauce had this yogurt-y flavor and texture character with this refreshing hint of sour, sweet and medium-thick, if you love spicy food then make sure to add in the hot sauce, it was very spicy for me apparently and we weren't aware of that so we kinda put a lot of it to make it look chio as fuck for pictures. If the white sauce changed the flavor, the hot sauce seriously set the bar higher. Spicy but so good.
Never been a big fan of falafel so it was just ok for me I can live without it, if you notice there are two kind of grilled meats in the serving, the whiter one was chicken and the darker one was claimed as lamb but I believe there was beef mixed in. It was obviously not lamb as there's this very clear beef-like hint of flavor, and it was delicious, fragrant and cooked perfectly.
Do realize that the lamb-beef mix will overpower the chicken, but as long as it's delicious and NOT stinky I am all good.
Gyro Rice Fries - basically the same only with extra crinkle fries topping.
The official price point will be released soon, but at the moment they're planning to sell one portion for IDR 65k and IDR 80k (for the extra fries topping). So note these two: Senayan City (near Pancious and XXI), Late January 2017. Best of luck!
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Senayan City LG Floor
Jalan Asia Afrika Lot 19 - 4th fl.
Senayan, Jakarta Selatan 10270
Opening hours: 10 AM-10 PM
Average spending for two: IDR 200k
Jalan Asia Afrika Lot 19 - 4th fl.
Senayan, Jakarta Selatan 10270
Opening hours: 10 AM-10 PM
Average spending for two: IDR 200k
Dresscode: casual