Busted: Immigrant of Plaza Indonesia

Immigrant

It was a typical Saturday in Jakarta, where you meet up with one (or more) of your friends for a movie and a day at the mall which happened to be Plaza Indonesia. M was starving after we watched Surrogates and decided to have some snack at Immigrant a hip, trendy, upscale, "it" place in Jakarta of late.

Red bricks interior

Light bulbs and the bar

Bottles lined walls

I love the interior of the restaurant which transport you back to those 1950s black and white movies. Red bricks, yellowish lighting, lines and curves of bottles, all added to the comfy yet chic ambience.

M studying the menu

Her Rp 25,000 Equil water

Since I wasn't hungry, M decided to go with the salt and pepper calamari and a bottle of water while I abstained. A rare moment that is. One of the waitress seemed to be a little despondent that I didn't order any food or drink. I wouldn't mind some water actually, but seeing as I was neither thirsty or hungry, I couldn't justify paying Rp 25,000 (1USD~Rp9300) for a bottle of water. After hounding me for a few more times whether I wanted to order, she finally left me alone.

The Rp 65,000 calamari tiny plate

Close up shot

A few moments later, the calamari came out. For Rp 65,000 it was remarkably small portion! A meal at some other restaurants in Plaza Indonesia with the same quality as Immigrant are decidedly cheaper and more value for money. But then I thought to myself that perhaps the quality was what made it so expensive... Presentation was nice. Until I noticed how oily it was! I wonder why they didn't use those oil absorbent paper before serving the dish out.

So I did what I used to do with pizzas in New York, dab the oil off with napkins. As you can see, there were lots of oil. Maybe that was what I was paying the extra money for, the excess of oil. Oil prices has been on the rise, hasn't it?

Calamari blotting session

The calamari tasted good after the oil blotting session. The salt and pepper combo was nice and the flesh soft and at a good level of chewiness. The sweet and sour chili sauce was light and complement the calamari.

After a while, I came to accept the oiliness and the expensive price as something that I had to pay for the ambience. Until... I found hair on the calamari... On any other day, I would just remove the hair and discreetly tell the waitress. However, this incident was the second incident I have had at Immigrant.

The first time was in April this year where I had dinner here and shortly after they served everyone on my table, a waitress came running bounding at me, bypassing all other dinner parties on my table and asked if my pasta was alright. Suspicious? Oh yes! She asked me if my pasta were done nicely, then whether I think it was too salty. Then she was so eager to take away that pasta from me and have me order another dish. All the while she wouldn't tell me what was wrong. Throughout this whole time I had an awful sinking feeling in my stomach that something bad was done on my pasta. Had they dumped a bottle of salt? Expired ingredients? Another waiter also stood by a few meters away watching anxiously as the waitress sweet talking me into relinquishing my pasta.

Mistake happens, even at the best restaurants. I was so frustrated though that they would not tell me what error did they make. Just tell me the truth, apologize for the mistake and replace my meal instead of making me guessing what went wrong and whether I was going to have food poisoning soon after. At the end, I gave in. I let them exchanged my meal and to this day I still wonder what went wrong.

Back to the hair incident, I told the waitress. She apologized and replaced it. And I told her how disappointed I was that this was the second incident that happened to me there. If I were the waitress, I would have told my restaurant manager and give the client the extra mile of service. That extra mile of service didn't happen to us. No complimentary thing, no discount, just a rehearsed customer care 101 apology. If this was a roadside restaurant instead of a chic, trendy and upscale one, I can understand the lack of above and beyond service. But Immigrant IS a chic, trendy and upscale restaurant. I was very disappointed and felt cheated that for the price that Immigrant imposed on their clients their service doesn't match.

Would I go back to Immigrant? Yeah, probably if my friends want to go there but not in the near future. I hope the management will improve their service first. The saying goes, there's a price for quality... unfortunately not on this case....

Immigrant

Plaza Indonesia 6th floor #E02-03

Jakarta Pusat

+62 21 3983 8357