Sunday, June 12, 2011

Ocha & Bella

This is a long, overdue post. On my birthday last month, we went to one of the hippest place in town currently, Ocha & Bella.

From the name of it, one is sure to guess that this place serves Italian and Japanese. And maybe a fusion of both. The idea of such fusion itself is no cutting-edge concept; well at least to us. Some places in town have been serving mentaiko spaghetti or pizza con wasabi for a while now. And though several of my conquests to these places have proven scrumptious, I still prefer to have these two exquisite cuisines standing on their own. A restaurant that serves both would surely deliver perfection at neither. Or so I thought. Hence, I went to Ocha & Bella almost half-heartedly. The only thing that drove me to go there was these great pictures of the place that I saw over the internet. I thought I would at least go home with some decent pictures. IT turned out I also went home with a new favorite hang-out place in mind.

This place was smooth! Well, the outside area, at least, we didn’t really care about the indoor space; too…. heavy. Outside, they had these little gazebos with seating for around six people, perfect for a Sunday lunch with the family or maybe lingering lunch with some friends. There were only the two of us that day however, so we opted for an ordinary table.


We were given two different menus upon sitting, one for the Italian dishes and one for the izakaya (Japanese-style bar, look it up on the internet if you’re curious) –esque fares. There were only a few fusion items in the menus, namely the mini burgers in the Japanese division, and boy, were we glad about these. 


We decided to try both cuisines and ordered Ocha costolette (350K) and crunchy roll sushi (45K). For drinks, we had Berry Mojito (90K) and OB Negroni (martini) (90K), both of which were refreshingly awesome, especially the mojito.


The sushi were okay. They came hot, straight from the fryer, but honestly, I prefer the ones I ate some good five minutes later, when they were a bit cooler.

Crunchy Roll

From the description on the menu, the Ocha costolette was supposed to be this massive 650g slab of rib eye cooked to perfection with a special Ocha & Bella sauce accompanied with mashed cauliflowers, baby tomatoes, and tuilles. Our maitre d’ even boasted on how the dish was enough for four. Well, his previous customers must have been on a very strict diet as when the ribs came we felt a little cheated. They must have had accounted for the weight of the plate. Anywho, the ribs were indeed tender and succulent. They were cooked just on the level I liked, the level where those thick meat would just fall of the bones without so much of an effort. The said special Ocha & Bella sauce was pleasant, a bit on the sweet side, but nothing to write home about. The mashed cauliflower was something we wish hadn’t been there. The tuilles were also unnecessary; bland, plain and hard that you, too, would end up hoping they would have had omitted the vigorous process of making these and simply mashed some potatoes instead. Ordering rosemary roasted potatoes (35K) on the side was one of our best calls that night.

Ocha Costolette

 
Roasted Potatoes

About the time when the rib was the only thing left on the plate, we were craving for some sweets. Their list of desserts was pretty regular and predictable: tiramisu, panna cotta, melted chocolate cake, etc. As we were on the hunt for the best tiramisu in town, we immediately asked for the tiramisu.

The tiramisu (50K) came with an unusual platter (as seen on the picture). They gave a separate coffee sauce for it, which we thought was nice as it added extra moisture to the ladyfingers. The mascarpone was generous and delicious too. The only thing lacking was some kick from rum, but maybe it’s just us.

Tiramisu

Overall we loved this place; we stayed for almost four hours that night. Yes, the price might be on the high scale, but for a nice, warm quality time, sometimes you just feel that it’s worth it.

Summary:
Food: Good
Ambience: Good
Value: Good

Jl. KH Wahid Hasyim No. 70
Menteng, Jakarta 10340

Tel: +62 21 310 5777
Web: http://www.ochaandbella.com/
Twitter: @Ocha_and_Bella