Editor's Rating
ROBA Yakitori is the newest brainchild of Pancious group, which its first outlet has just opened since February 2015 in Mall Taman Anggrek, Jakarta.
Located just next to Pancious, it’s quite eye-catching with neon blue round signage and bright, warm ambiance.
Located just next to Pancious, it’s quite eye-catching with neon blue round signage and bright, warm ambiance.
The place is quite big, separated into the open kitchen (and counter) area, also the main dining area, which look casual but inviting.
With long tables dominating the room, I think this restaurant is targeted for larger groups or family, I can imagine during peak hours, single or couple visitors probably need to share tables with strangers.
Don’t mind that as in Japan -where yakitori comes from-, it’s quite common to experience that in many eating places.
Interestingly, ROBA Yakitori offers a fast food ordering concept for its customers, which I think is pretty convenient. First, customers have to line from the entrance and make the orders by picking what they want from the live display. It’s brilliant idea because with people identify better with pictures or better yet, real things rather than only words.
After making the order, customers pay directly and will be given numbers to bring to their tables, and after they’re done, the food will be delivered to you by the staffs.
The live display looks very interesting and colorful, it’s very hard to pick some only! XD There are variety of chicken, fishes, meat, also vegetables like mushrooms and eggplants. We can tell that the ingredients used are indeed very fresh and good quality ones.
And of course, while waiting for our yakitori or robatayaki to be grilled, we can also enjoy ready-to-eat food like Salad, Appetizers, Inari Sushi, and Sashimi (prices range from IDR 12,000 – 52,000).
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| I always appreciate the concept of open, live kitchen. |
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| Hot & Cold Ocha Dispenser, serve yourself 🙂 |
ROBA is quite brave to claim that they serve THE TASTIEST YAKITORI, so are they really great as it describes itself? Let’s find out with us!
For the chicken, I had the Chicken Ball Teriyaki, Chicken Leg Miso, and Chicken Breast Garlic Mirin (IDR 15,000/stick), the most recommended ones from chicken menu.
While the chicken ball was nicely big in portion, it failed to impress me as it was quite dry and hard to eat. My favorite would be the Chicken Leg Miso from these 3 menu, don’t expect it to be salty because the miso here is “dengaku”, which means sweetened miso. The final taste is sweet and savory, trust me, it’s good.
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| Chicken Ball Teriyaki IDR 15,000/stick |
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| Chicken Ball Teriyaki IDR 15,000/stick |
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| Chicken Leg Miso IDR 15,000/stick |
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| Chicken Breast Garlic Mirin IDR 15,000/stick |
Moving on to the beef.
Had the Beef Tenderloin Teriyaki and Beef Tenderloin Garlic Mirin (IDR 30,000/stick) and Beef Enoki Teriyaki (IDR 22,000/stick).
The beef tenderloin is really something. Tender and juicy, thick and satisfying, that’s all I can say. The teriyaki sauce is also perfect for the meat, bravo. However, I don’t really dig the concept of “Garlic Mirin” here (same with the chicken above), the white colored sauce had a strange milky taste, and last time I checked, mirin never tasted that way. Not sure what is in there, but certainly it’s not my favorite.
The Beef Enoki Teriyaki is a MUST ORDER item, period.
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| Beef Tenderloin Teriyaki (IDR 30,000/stick) |
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| Beef Enoki Teriyaki (IDR 22,000/stick) |
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| Beef Tenderloin Garlic Mirin (IDR 30,000/stick) |
For the fish, I only tried Salmon Wasabi Butter (IDR 32,000/stick) and Saba Teriyaki (IDR 30,000/stick). They are very fresh and not fishy at all. I love saba (mackerel) but it’s quite tricky to find good (and non smelly) ones here. Surprisingly, the saba teriyaki here is very delicious and free of smell. I love the crunchiness of the fish itself, and the sauce is delicious.
The salmon is also very good. I don’t really fancy the strong butter taste, but the wasabi is nicely blended and neutralized with the butter so it’s less harsh than when eaten normally. I am never a fan of wasabi because there is certain attack sensation to my nose when I eat that, but this one is okay for me.
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| Salmon Wasabi Butter (IDR 32,000/stick) |
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| Saba Teriyaki (IDR 30,000/stick) |
I also tried the Pumpkin Garlic Mirin (IDR 12,000/stick), which was so good. The pumpkin is sweet and soft, I had it as a sweet treat in the middle of savory skewers. In case you’re wondering, the garlic mirin is acceptable here because it didn’t really change the taste of pumpkin itself.
Beside it, there is Beef Asparagus Teriyaki (IDR 28,000/stick), another version of Beef roll with fillings. The asparagus was crunchy and fun to eat. Maybe next time I should try the lettuce fillings!
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| Pumpkin Garlic Mirin (IDR 12,000/stick) & Beef Asparagus Teriyaki (IDR 28,000/stick) |
Beside the skewers menu, there are also BENTO menu with prices ranging from IDR 48,000 to 68,000. The bento menu includes rice, tamago (egg), and sauteed enoki mushroom.
Yakitori Bento 2B IDR 52,000
Includes 1 stick of Chicken Leg Miso & 1 stick of Chicken Breast Teriyaki.
Yakitori Bento 3A IDR 62,000
Includes 1 stick of Chicken Leg Miso, 1 stick of Chicken Ball Teriyaki, and 1 stick of Chicken Skin Shio.
INARI
Spicy Salmon IDR 26,000 | Kani Mayo IDR 22,000 | Wakame IDR 20,000
The inari is a must try from ROBA as they are very gigantic and looking so fresh! I only tried Kani Mayo version and it is really as good as I was told. The rice is compact and tasty, and even when bitten, it didn’t break down easily.
Last but not least, for fried-stuffs lovers, don’t miss the KATSU! I tried Chicken Breast Katsu (IDR 20,000/stick), Beef Katsu (IDR 35,000/stick), and Banana Katsu (IDR 15,000/stick). The katsu are big in sizes and are freshly deep-fried when ordered, so rest assured, everything is fresh when it’s served. YUM!
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| Chicken Breast Katsu (IDR 20,000/stick) |
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| Beef Katsu (IDR 35,000/stick) |
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| Beef Katsu (IDR 35,000/stick) |
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| Banana Katsu (IDR 15,000/stick) |
After eating so many things, there is always a room for dessert, right? Here they only have Matcha Soft Cream (IDR 16,000) but I think it’s more than enough to end the meal beautifully. It has distinctive matcha flavor and less bitter than the one I like, but it’s good because it’s not too sweet. Let’s have a sweet ending, y’all!
You know, it’s not everyday thing that I go to Mall Taman Anggrek because: 1) I don’t like the mall; 2) It’s Saturday, which means I hate it even more. My last visit to MTA is probably more than 3 years ago, and believe me, throughout my whole life, I have only been there less than 10 times in total. Out of nowhere, I was curious enough hearing about ROBA and I decided to go there, and I must say I am not disappointed at all. The food was good, there is nice variety of ingredients, and the service is quite good despite being a new restaurant. I also think the prices are reasonable, and at least you get what you pay for. So if you ask me whether I recommend this or not, hell yeah, I do!
*All prices are subject to 10% government tax
Visited on: 7 February 2015
** The Food Escape team are not paid whatsoever for writing this post.
ROBA YAKITORI
Mall Taman Anggrek Level 3 #301
Jl. Letjen S. Parman Kav. 21
Jakarta Barat 11470
Ph. +62 21 53650806
Jl. Letjen S. Parman Kav. 21
Jakarta Barat 11470
Ph. +62 21 53650806
Opening Hours:
Mon-Sun 10AM – 10PM
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