Dinner at Social House, a.k.a. SoHo

Social House, a.k.a. SoHo, is one of those "it" places in Jakarta these days. It excited me at the beginning of the year, then a few months ago I got sick of it as everyone always wanted to meet there, and then I went for this dinner. One of those after movie thing (yes, again...). This time though I was the hungry party, not M. As we were in Grand Indonesia at the time around 8pm on a Saturday, we decided wait for our names to be called (we were #2) as it would be quite pointless to go elsewhere we most probably had to wait even longer.

Social House setting

Another corner of SoHo

The place was of course packed, but we got our table after a short 10~15 minutes of wait. Last time I was there, we waited endlessly and ended up leaving. Moral of the story: if you wanna come here on peak period, that is weekend, call and make a reservation. It really saves you the hassle and tassel of waiting, wasting your time and getting annoyed.

M's Ades

After begging M to help me with the pizza, I settled to order a Peking Duck Pizza and Sauteed Mushroom Salad with Wafu sauce. For drink, I got the famous Grandma's Lemon Tea while M got her bottled water. While we wait for our food, kinda starving (me anyway) we people watched and soaked in the atmosphere. It's a cozy place. Everywhere you see woods, woods and woods. It gives you the feeling of a kitchen of a country house. They put some fake trees and barrels of woods, bottles adorning the walls; of which has been adopted to many new restaurants in Jakarta. One of the thing that I really liked when I first went was their menu, which is clipped on a hanger. Cute, unfortunately I forgot to snap a picture.

Homemade Grandma's Iced Lemon Tea, Rp 25,000 (1USD~IDR9500)

First came the drinks and I noticed something different in my lemon tea. They now added a sugar cane stick which can be used to stir (for practicality sake) or to nibble on or teething if you have small kids! In my opinion this is the best drink that they have, the tea was light in taste with enough sweetness without being overly sweet, fresh because they added some mint leaves and instead of lemon juice they gave you a scoop of lemon sorbet. Oh and the glass was quite big also. I didn't feel cheated paying for it. And if you drink a lot, you might want to consider getting the jug.

Typo that I noticed, "chungky" is the new "chunky"

I was getting more and more famished that by the time the salad came, I started eating it and almost forgetting to take a photo entirely. Luckily I remember... and snapped it just in time before the salad got desecrated. Not sure if it was my hunger talking, but I really really liked the mushroom salad. The mushroom were solid, crunchy and abundant. Add to that Wafu dressing with some lettuce underneath. The contrast between the earthy taste of mushroom and the cripsness of the lettuce complement each ingredient well. Zinged with Wafu dressing, a Japanese vinaigrette dressing based on soy sauce, it was delicious.

Sauteed Mushroom with Wafu Sauce

Up close and personal

The Peking Duck pizza was good too, but M thought that the number of duck meat pieces dwindle each time she comes around. I had to agree with that. I wonder if California Pizza Kitchen still have an outlet in Jakarta? Their Peking Duck Pizza is legendary. Back to SoHo's version, the crispy thin skin was a good point, the hoisin sauce could be added a little bit more and the cheese was just right. I wished though that the kitchen staff clean the chili seeds before putting all those chili on the pizza. However, it is Indonesia after all where everyone LOVES their chili and hot spiciness, perhaps with the exception of me. So I was transformed into a mine sweeper ensuring that I wouldn't have any hidden explosive seed in my mouth. Note to self: tell the waiter to exclude the chili seed next time. All in all though, it was a good pizza still.

Peking Duck Pizza: Top View

Peking Duck Pizza: Side view

No dessert as I was so full by the end of it. M only helped with 3 slices of pizza... Some 'loyal' friend she was...

Social House

Harvey Nichols 1st floor

Grand Indonesia, East Mall

Jl. Jend. Sudirman

Jakarta Pusat

+62 21 2358 1818