Jittlada Authentic Thai Cuisine, Lotte Shopping Avenue

Talking about Thai restaurants in Indonesia, it’s difficult not to mention about Jittlada group, the constantly-developing F&B group focusing on Thai cuisine, which includes Jittlada, White Elephant, Chandara, and the latest one, Otterhound (Thai cuisine with Italian twist). The owner and founder of Jittlada, Mr. Lucky Soebyantoro, has his own reason why it had to be a Thai restaurant. During his study in the United States, he fell in love with the Thai cuisine that his friends cooked, because those simply reminded him with his hometown’s cuisine, Manado. The rest is the history, and we can’t help feeling grateful to his friend who introduced him with authentic Thai cuisine and inspired him to open his own Thai restaurants!

The word “Jittlada”, comes from the Thai word “Chit Lada Raho-than” or “Chitralada Palace” actually refers to House of The King. As you might have known already, Thai people love their King very much. The King deserves all the love from His people because He is indeed a very good, kind and humble person. Although He is a King, He doesn’t live in Grand Palace, but in a simple house, which Thai people call “Jittlada”. Personally, I really admire the King because he is truly a symbol of good human being who still exists in this world.

Enough about the background story, so this time we visited their latest outlet which is located in Lotte Shopping Avenue (Ciputra World), Kuningan. The place is quite big with typical Jittlada’s interior design and authentic Thai decoration, and there is also a private dining room. Didn’t take much pictures of the place this time because we were too busy eating, the food were SOOOO damn good!!

Deep-fried spring rolls filled with minced chicken, prawn, crab meat and glass noodles. The spring rolls are very crispy outside, and the fillings (and portions) were very generous. Served with Thai sweet chili sauce, this was perfect as a yummy appetizer for upcoming dishes!

What is a Thai cuisine without the infamous curry? Personally, I am not into curry as I prefer something without coconut milk. This one was very good, although already modified to suit local taste more, in this case, the curry was a little too sweet compared to the authentic Thai green curry. However, I always love Jittlada’s curry dishes and thanks for putting all the original ingredients including the bitter green-pea look alike round veggie in it!

Pan-fried chicken with cashew nuts and dried peppers. The chicken were crispy yet tender, and I simply loved everything on this plate. 

Marinated grilled beef served with chef’s sauce. This was the WINNER OF THE DAY as it was simply amazing!! The marination was perfectly done so the sauce was really well-absorbed into every parts of the beef. The beef textures were also very nice, looked like some kind of thick jerky but very tender and juicy. I am 100% sure that honey is one of the ingredients of the chef’s sauce because the meat has some kind of sweetness that only honey can produce for grilled meat. Honestly, it tasted so good that I almost believed that it was roasted honey pork instead of beef. Heaven!

Famous cooked tapioca in syrup topped with coconut cream. This dessert is probably my favorite Thai desserts ever after Durian Sticky Rice. However, so far there has been nothing that can be compared to the authentic ones that I usually find in Thailand. The tapioca in Thai restaurants in Indonesia are always still very hard, and although Jittlada’s version is already good in term of taste, sweetness, etc, I am still looking for the softer cassava, just like the original ones!

Sweet corn, young coconut, jackfruit, and arenga palm fruit with coconut milk. Despite of how boring the name might sound, this was surprisingly very great dessert. Rather than just regular mixed ice, the ingredients made it colorful and gave a nice authentic Thai touch! It’s hard for me to tell which I liked the most because all the things inside were really blended in together and created a harmonious taste which is hard to describe. The stuffs were crunchy and made cute sounds when bitten, and they were naturally sweet so the dessert was refreshing without giving you headache of too much sugar! Highly recommended.

Not the best one, definitely. Lack of flavor and clearly missing the over-the-top sweetness of the authentic ones!

Had a lot of pandan juice infused in the tea, very fragrant, exotic and of course, yummy!

I have been visiting other outlets of Jittlada and so far they still maintain the quality of the food and professional service. If you like Thai food, it’s a good option because they offer wide selections of menu and most of them taste almost like the original ones. I especially recommend going when they have credit card promotion because that helps a lot since some of the dishes are quite pricey. However, it’s still in my recommended list and I hope to be back again soon!