ZOOM Palace, Flavor Bliss Alam Sutera, Tangerang

Couple days ago, I visited this restaurant called ZOOM Palace which is located inside The Flavor Bliss complex in Alam Sutera area. The Flavor Bliss itself is popularly known as one of the popular eating spots there, where we can find many big restaurants such as Sushi Tei or Ikkudo Ichi. I am not a frequent patron of Alam Sutera area, but that doesn’t mean I dislike the area. Quite the contrary, I really like it because there is always something new and interesting that I don’t find anymore in Jakarta.

Back to the restaurant.

ZOOM Palace is a cafe and restaurant that has been existing for more than a year already, and I think it’s quite well accepted by the locals. Nested in a two-storey building, it seems to have everything we need in one place: cozy cafe, lounge with live stages, bar, rooftop seating area, etc. Although it looks like one building from the outside, once I went inside, I was quite surprised that the areas were kinda divided, but of course not too far one to another.

THE VENUE

The original theme of the place is like a community place, in their case, it’s bike community as you can notice right away: there’s Harley-Davidson and Honda’s bikes displayed in the main area from the entrance. This area is bright, cozy, and casual, ideal for enjoying some food and coffee, or just hanging out with friends.

Going inside, there is another area that functions more like bar and lounge, complete with shisha/hookah selections and live music stage, but it is usually more ‘alive’ later at night. There are live music performances every weekends starting from 9PM and I can imagine the hype judging from the coolness of this area.

Proceeding to the second floor, there are indoor area as well as the outdoor area, which is the rooftop seating area. It wasn’t really functioning during my visit because it was around 3PM and it was deadly HOT up there, but I could imagine how nice it is when it gets dark! The indoor area isn’t really exciting but they cleverly make seating plan so people upstairs can look down and join watching the live performances too.

Now, probably a question you ask yourself, why the name “ZOOM”? Well, got to meet the director of the place, Mr. Fauzi, and he told me:

“Zoom” means big, and it doesn’t only refer to our (food) portions but we also hope that someday the restaurant can be something big.

Hmm, that makes a lot of sense, and I am sure every restaurant owners/managers want that to happen to theirs 🙂 But did he mention about the portions? That got me curious so bad after hearing that!

THE FOOD

Meanwhile, he also told me that their specialties are the grilled stuffs and Asian dishes, and I see that the prices are quite affordable, ranging from IDR 12K – 276K. We didn’t get to try each categories, but managed to taste some of the most recommended menu from ZOOM Palace. Curious? Check these out! 😉

Grilled Sirloin Australian Black Angus 350g IDR 275.9K

This is the main specialty of ZOOM Palace and it looked wow when served. We can choose the side (potato and veggie) as well as the sauce. I chose salad and mashed potato, also mushroom sauce because it is usually the most neutral taste compared to BBQ or blackpepper sauce, and for food tasting, I always stick to mushroom sauce first to be able to understand the real taste of the steak itself. The sirloin steak was indeed big and thick, but my bad, I ordered it medium-well, so the consistency was a bit hard and dry. I usually love my steak medium or medium-rare, but only in western countries I am brave enough to order it that way. The problem is I don’t really trust Indonesian standard of meat processing or hygiene, so I usually opt for medium-well to make sure the meat is well-cooked. Although the meat was a bit hard, the taste was superb. The meat is obviously well-seasoned and had really nice texture that shows good quality beef. The mushroom sauce was thick and strong, deliciously made and served generously. The salad was fresh and tossed with light sweet and sour dressing, very enjoyable. Mashed potato was nice and mild, no cream added yet very soft and delish.

Nasi Goreng Ijo Special IDR 49.9K
Because green fried rice using green chili extract as main ingredients is already too mainstream, ZOOM Palace innovated a new kind of green fried rice using green pak choy (caisim). Very excited to hear that, but I was a bit concerned about the taste. I mean, green chili is probably not everyone’s favorite but it is fragrant and delicious for me, but caisim is a vegetable and it certainly is quite tasteless unless paired with meatball or noodle. But boy, I was glad I was wrong! The fried rice tasted just like regular fried rice, with bits of eggs and ikan teri, there was no trace of pak choy’s taste AT ALL. Instead, it had a bold taste, probably from other seasonings and tasted just like something related to Thai cuisine, a feast to the eyes and tongue definitely! As if things weren’t satisfying enough, there was a grilled chicken with super shiny and thick seasoning that looked OMG-so-delicious-please-eat-me kind of grilled chicken. It was well-marinated, well-grilled, and the meat was so soft and taken off the bones so easily. What a perfect dish!

Tongseng Iga IDR 49.9K
Another original creation of ZOOM Palace, beside having other menu with oxtail, this one is using beef ribs as part of the tongseng. Loved the soft texture of the meat, simply delicious. While I am not a fan of the soup as it was too sweet for my liking, I still enjoyed the dish. This is probably perfect for Indonesian tongues as we all usually eat soto or soup like this by adding sweet soy sauce, here you need no more because it’s already sweet enough.

Bread Pudding IDR 35.9K
Soft bread pudding with a pudding texture and complimented with loads of raisins, topped with vanilla ice cream and strawberry slice, served with caramel sauce, who can resist this? The bread pudding wasn’t exactly the kind of my favorite (prefer the ones with more prominent bread texture rather than pudding) but taste-wise, perfectly hit the spot. Enough sweetness, very fragrant, and the hint of caramel in the sauce complimented everything just right.

THE DRINK

As ZOOM Palace claims itself as one stop entertainment place, it has been trying to provide many kinds of beverages from fresh juices to mocktails, beer to wine, and so on. This time, we got the chance to try some of their signature drinks as well as the Illy coffee that they use as main coffee brand in the cafe.

The Special IDR 30.9K
This mocktail contains fresh orange, banana syrup, and mixed fruits. My initial thought: boring, boring, boring. When I tasted it though, I was surprised because it had mixed taste between orange and berry fruits, with hints of banana. In one word, I would say it SHOCK! It was indeed The Special because it’s no similar to any orange mocktails that I tried before. Seriously, The Special has to be served in bigger and taller glass, please!

Three Musketeer IDR 30.9K
This recommended ice blended drink is a mix of Espresso, fresh milk, Irish syrup, vanilla ice cream and cookies. Taste-wise, it was dominated by the strong aroma and taste of espresso, followed by the Irish syrup, and it was sweet.

Lychee Ice Tea IDR 25.9K
As you can see from the photo, the ice tea is served in a tall, fat glass that made me smiling widely. It was very refreshing and there was also some lychee fruits on the bottom. Again, this drink also had right amount of sweetness and not sickening at all. Lovely!

Black Coffee IDR 28.9K
As I mentioned above, they use only Illy coffee and I wouldn’t want to miss having some good Illy after my delicious treats! So as expected, it tasted dark and strong, quite acidic but very good to wash the mouth.

ZOOM Palace is not your regular cafe and restaurant, but also a one-stop entertainment place. Clearly there are so many things to do there, and with great food in great portions, it’s not like everyday we can find this kind of place. Honestly, I would definitely love coming back often if only it’s located closer to where I live. But even if I have to travel around 1-2 hours just to go there, I would still do that and I am sure this was not the last visit!

Last but not least, thank you for having us and see you again soon! <333