MD and I, along with a friend of ours, went to Pesto Autentico, a ristorante located at the Thamrin Nine, a rather new establishment in the bustling Central Jakarta. The name of the restaurant first came to my attention around a month ago, and as a fan of that certain Italian sauce made from basil that shares the same name, I felt a certain calling to come here.
We arrived here around 2pm,kind of past lunch time, and maybe that is why the restaurant was not so crowded. The place definitely had an industrial theme to it, which worked well for me. The lighting was dim at the right level, lounge/jazz music in the background was a pleasant touch. A pity the view from the window-side tables was not so great.
The Look
Appetizers were not in our interest that day; we went straight to the mains: ravioli with ricotta and spinach (55k), roast beef (99k), and fettuccine pescatora (75k). Where's the pesto, you said ? That's exactly what I asked to the waiter, who then pointed me to the only dish in the menu with pesto while saying "it was really just the name of the restaurant". It was not even in the recommended items. Was I disappointed? Yeah, pretty much.
My ravioli came in modest portion, 6 pieces of bite-size (admittedly MY bite-size is larger than most) ravioli. These morsels tasted nice, the best entree we had that day, but I definitely had better ricotta spinach ravioli before. The roast beef, which was the only item from the "recommendations" blackboard that we ordered, came out too ordinary. They served it with some baby potatoes and salad in a fried-wonton-skin-bowl (we thought the salad didn't look appetizing so we passed it). The fettuccine pescatora (description: a combination of handmade fettuccine with prawns, squid, and white wine cream sauce) was a tad too creamy.
Roast Beef
Our drinks were refreshing but nothing too special: fragolino (a combination of strawberry, orange, yoghurt; 40k); tropicana (a concoction of banana, lychee, strawberry, honey, yoghurt; 40k); and pesto signature iced tea (with strawberry, peach, selasih, lychee jelly, and mint leaves; 35k).
Fragolino
The only dish that lived up to its name and lifted us up that day, was the tiramisu (29k) we ordered for dessert. This guilty indulgence came chilled in a very cute canister. The ladyfinger biscuits (yes, not sponge cake) blended very well with the soft, creamy mascarpone and the not-so-subtle rum, sweetness of which was balanced by the bitter cocoa. The coffee beans gave some nice but unnecessary crunch.
Tiramisu
Overall Pesto was not what I expected. The place was decent but wasn't enough to make up for the food, especially with that price. If we ever wanted to come here again, it would be just for the killer tiramisu.
Food: Average
Ambience: Good
Value: Average
Thamrin Nine, UG Floor
Jl. M.H. Thamrin No. 10
Jakarta, Indonesia
Tel: +62 21 29937230
Web: www.pesto.co.id
E-mail: ciao@pesto.co.id
Twitter: @PESTOautentico
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