[REVISIT] PEPeNERO Cucina Italiana, SCBD

If I have to point out a certain restaurant for fast pick-up, I will definitely say PEPeNERO. Always a fan of this place, occasionally I find myself there despite of having so many options with so many new fancy dining places lately in Jakarta. My favorite branch is still the one in Energy Building in SCBD area, as it’s the closest to my house and the most elegant, romantic, and the fanciest amongst the others, IMHO. My last visit to this branch was back in 2011 (wow, time really flies!) and the place doesn’t really change much although I was quite surprised that it was *still* very crowded. I thought with all the new fancy restaurants growing inside the SCBD area, PEPeNERO wouldn’t be that popular anymore, but I was astonished I was wrong!

   

As usual, they gave us the complimentary bruschetta, which were served with diced fresh tomatoes on top. I don’t always enjoy tomatoes only as topping or company of my bread but the PEPeNERO’s bruschetta is quite an exception. The bread basket were also generously served and they also are usually fresh. I love how chewy their breads are, and very tasty.

The pappardelle is green because it’s made with spinach, made the pasta looked colorful and attractive. Served with minced mushroom cream sauce, it was an acceptable dish but was a bit bland as the sauce was too runny. 

This was an excellent dish for a dinner! The penne was cooked with mushroom, peas, and parma cotto ham in cream sauce, and although the sauce was also a bit too runny for me, but it was tasty and very fragrant, thanks to the ham. The portion was quite big, too, so it is probably good for sharing. 🙂

Basically it is a beef steak sandwich on home baked Rosetta bread with Mozzarella, served with sauteed onions and green bell peppers with jalapenos, mustard and hot sauce on the side. The bread was thick, fluffy, and very fresh, which was satisfying. The beef steak failed to impress me because it was more like cutlets, and was not as juicy and tender as it looked. It wasn’t bad but I definitely will not order this again.

PEPeNERO’s red sauce is always among the best ones in Jakarta’s Italian restaurants, in my opinion. So nothing could go wrong with this, a rich tomatoes flavor in the sauce, mixed with various kind of seafood made this dish simply a winner. And telling you what, I am not even a fan of red sauce pasta, but I love this.

The pizza consists of tomato sauce, mozzarella, ham, Italian sausage, mushrooms and artichoke. PEPeNERO’s pizzas are thin, with crispy crusts and have very, very original taste. I always love their tomato paste, no matter how the topping is. This pizza had a very aromatic taste, with so many distinctive flavors of each ingredients, made it one of my top list pizza now. Very recommended, especially if you enjoy lots of meaty stuffs in your pizza! 😀

Squid ink ravioli stuffed with seafood and mascarpone cheese served with seafood tomato sauce. The ravioli were very thick and stuffy, and they were black because of the squid ink. I really love their ravioli because they don’t taste like dough (some ravioli do!) and especially this menu, they put generous amount of seafood and tomato sauce, which made the ravioli tasted even better!

And I have just found out that they also have PEPeNERO Pasticceria now behind the restaurant. And they serve a wide array of cakes, pastries, even gelatos, with very, very affordable prices, which start from IDR 7K – 35K. The gelatos are available in many flavors, only for IDR 15K/scoop, which is quite cheap considering the brand of PEPeNERO which is already popular. We tried almost everything that was available that night, but our ultimate favorites were the cioccolato (chocolate) and Ferrero Rocher flavors, which tasted just like the real Ferrero Rocher, just served cold and refreshing!

   

They also have various cakes, and attractive Grande Macaroons!! I told myself I just had to buy them and tried all those cute not-so-tiny macaroons! Turned out they were pretty nice, quite chewy and had the exact flavors like said. And it was only IDR 13K/piece, which is uber cheap considering the size and fillings. I even took photo with regular size single eyeshadow for comparison, and really there were big for macaroons size.