ATICO BY JAVANEGRA - JAKARTA - Nice Food and Healthy

It's just one week away from the start of 2017 and Jakarta's F&B scene, particularly around the CBD-Mega Kuningan area has been growing rapidly good for some time now, in two weeks I have dined at 4 new restaurants in Mega Kuningan, well that's considered a good number for Mega Kuningan standard.

If you're new to the scene, here's how you can describe the typical Mega Kuningan restaurants: fancy, casual fine dining & middle-high end, that's for sure, but that doesn't mean the "neighborhood" doesn't cater the more affordable options as they have Oakwood with its good yet more pocket-friendly tenants, but no I am going to talk about Oakwood in this entry, because this post is dedicated to one of the most memorable dining experience this month: ATICO by JAVANEGRA!

I am such a huge huge fan of Javanegra, both their coffee and food! I was first introduced by my best friend Sari Siregar and if you're reading this you should follow my main bitch because she freaking has one of the most blessed palate and most importantly she understands food that's simply why she is my favorite dining partner and besides personal stuff we talk about food all the freaking time when we catch up! Too bad she couldn't accompany me to have lunch here but I was here with also my very-very good friends Nadia, Adity & Ana! Ok back to my first encounter, Sari asked me to join her for lunch at their first Kramat Pela outlet and I was stunned by how simple the food but it was the flavor and freshness of the ingredient that really did all the talking. The owner, Andrea was this person with much passion for food and he surely loves to cook and his hobby brought his to open that first Gandaria Kramat Pela outlet, and this...

Atico is located at the newly introduced office building Menara BTPN Rooftop floor (I don't know why they refer the floor as rooftop because it was not) and that building's going to be the home to some of the new and soon to open restaurants in Jakarta, including Fat Shogun which I visited just last week but to lazy to do the review (so fingers crossed soon). Place wise, Atico was definitely way more spacious, classier looking and I love how they still include the earthy homey vibe and that signature live kitchen of theirs (only larger at this outlet), I'm the marble table guy and I was super glad that they occupy these thin marble tables which were so photogenic, and if you love flatlays you're going to love this!

Upon entrance, you'll see this bar area aka where the holy liquors are composed and of course since they're mostly well known as a coffee roaster, they also have coffee machines and manual brew machines if you fancy coffee beverages.

Macallan

Around the bar area, there's this small cake display, I saw some banana bread, baileys tart, carrot cake and more, as for the croissants, they were displayed around the live kitchen area.

Wine and champagne storage

For smoking guests or if you're just in the mood to sit outside in touch with the open air, there's this al-fresco area and since they're located at the R floor, it's tall enough for you to see the Mega Kuningan neighborhood, and the sky was this beautiful vanilla twilight yesterday (picture of the sky below).

As for the food, if you've been to their first Kramat Pela outlet, the menu's pretty much the same simple homecook Spanish-French cuisine with several specials on this outlet, and as for the drink, they emphasize on serving mainly wine and coffee, but rest assure as they also have selections of common drinks (water, soft drinks, tea, and non-coffee). Price range for the food is around IDR 70k-2 mil, not exactly the cheapest for sure.

Even before actually eating, I had good feeling about the lunch already, something about how the package everything that rang serious to me, it's almost like once you're seated you're prepared to have good food.

Tortilla de Patatas - IDR 35k
Had this as appetizer and to prepare me from more food I was about to have. This is the Spanish style potato omelette and yes the main ingredients were egg and potato. It's pretty delicious with spot-on seasoning and generous thick yet soft & moist potato cuts.

Aragula con Parmigiano - IDR 110k
They charged me IDR 110k for basically arugula leaves + pear and olive-balsamic dressing and no-cheese (even though I asked for none) which I considered very expensive.

I initially did not ask the waiter how much this was and just directly asked him if they had arugula salad here, yet I didn't expect to be charged that much.

Champignon with White Truffle Oil - IDR 95k
This was one of my most favorite of yesterday's lunch, perfectly creamy pasta with generous mushroom and truffle oil drizzle, it was just very aromatic, light but very fresh, creamy without being overly milky, such a simple pleasure without the need to feel guilty, totally recommending this!

Capellini Con Erizos y Caviar & Uni - IDR 295k

This menu's dedicated for those who are avid fan of angel hair type pasta, sea urchin (uni) and caviar. Fortunately Nadia and Adity were not fond of both uni and caviar so I had everything for myself HAHA! This dish was thicker and creamier compared to the Champignon pasta above but the consistency was perfect and it didn't bloat your palate off! I appreciate their authentic approach on their meals so if you found the pasta a tad bland, make sure you feel the freshness of the meal because that's how your properly cook it, and for this dish, I suggest mix everything together as the uni and caviar gave this hint of saltiness to the meal.

Uni and caviar both fresh af

Pollo Assado - IDR 150k

Normally not into chicken dishes but I saw they sold half portion of roasted chicken for IDR 150k so that better be worth it, and boy it fuckin was! The chicken was so beautifully cooked that the meat was soft and tender along with the semi-crispy skin, I think it was also the homemade savory sauce that really elevated the flavor and changed the game, it was just so tasty & complemented the chicken very nicely. Depends on how much you eat but half portion of this could be shared for three.

Grilled Wagyu Striploin - IDR 395k

MY NUMBER ONE FAVORITE MEAL HERE and always consistently good! First tried this in Javanegra and been falling for this ever since. Always go for medium or medium-rare and you'll understand why I rave so much about it. I totally dismissed the garlic sauce and went with a little salt drizzle on the beef, pure sex on each bite.

Baileys Cheesecake - IDR 55k

Was here for about three hours, I had my best friends with me, we chatted so much and the sky was just sweeter than the dessert.

It's always nice to have sun flirts with your skin, but this place definitely looked and felt more alive and intimate during the night, and PS for the last two weeks, they've always been super busy on dinner time so DO make your reservations!

This for my annual best meal list? Stay tuned, but Atico is definitely one of the strongest newcomers, food wise, place wise, service wise all terrific. Congratulations Andrea and team, please keep up the amazing work!