La Hoya is a new joint in Mainstreet Dining of Gandaria City that has been opened since yesterday (14 April). La Hoya serves “comida mexicana” or literally translated as Mexican food, with the concept of Mexican and Latin combined into one place. Interestingly, La Hoya is another joint from the creator of Penang Bistro, Seribu Rasa, Hong Kong Cafe and Tatsuya. It’s definitely hard to miss the spacious restaurant, especially with its bright, huge signboard just on the right side if we come from the mall entrance.  

When I stepped in, I felt like I was taken away for a while by the interior design and well.. just, everything about the place excited me. With brown color dominating almost every inches of the restaurant, it instantly brought back all the images about authentic Mexican restaurants. And the TILES! Being in La Hoya reminded me so much of Tucson, Arizona, with so many Mexican related stuffs that are not totally Mexican. I am sorry if I don’t even make any sense with my words, but I guess I just had THAT kind of feeling and it was a nostalgic, great feeling. And if I thought that the tiles are already good enough, they even have a fountain in the middle of the room. So impressive.
BTW, the table decorations (cactus in pot) are soooooo cute. I think each table has different one.  

   

   

The menu is very simple, varies from Starters, Salads, Soups, Burritos, Specialties, etc; with prices range from IDR 30K – 185K. Surprisingly, the drinks are quite cheap considering a place like this, a mocktail is priced at IDR 35K while Margarita starts from IDR 60K. Because my visit was on the second day after opening, some menu were not available yet but they cleverly marked unavailable menu with stars so we don’t have to waste time asking for it.
El Ponche IDR 35.000
This mocktail is a mix of orange, lychee, passion fruit, grenadine and soda. The result was a very beautiful reddish orange drink with fruity and playful flavors. The combination of the fruits were excellent and tasted so good. Highly Recommended!

Las Quesadillas IDR 55.000

Flour tortilla, filled with a savory mixture of cheese, garnished with sour cream, guacamole and fresh Pico de Gallo. For a starter, this plate of quesadillas was heavenly loaded! Not only the portion, I was also VERY impressed by how delicious it was. The tortilla were most probably homemade, tasted very tasty and added with the cheese filling, SOOOO GOOD. The fresh Pico de Gallo (or salsa if you prefer) was super nice and I could really dig some onion cuts in it. The guacamole was fresh and the sour cream was thick although tasted more like yoghurt rather than sour cream.


El Burrito Beef IDR 68.000

Wheat flour tortilla filled with juicy beef grilled fajitas, tasty Mexican red rice, fresh Pico de Gallo, sour cream, guacamole, a colorful salad and home made mayo-chipotle dressing. The burrito was quite big and already cut into smaller rolls when served. It was VERY DELICIOUS. Well, sorry that I am over-using this particular word but seriously it was delicious. I especially loved the red rice, very tasty with aromatic and distinctive flavors of herbs and spices. The salad was beautiful, fresh and nicely complimented the dish, while the beef were really satisfying with big chunks and juicy meat. Other than beef, this menu can be done with chicken, too.

Las Fajitas Beef IDR 135.000

Beef fajitas, served over a crunchy mixture of paprika and purple onion, accompanied with our home made soft corn tortillas. Same with the burrito, the beef were very satisfying, large chunks, thick, and so delicious! The corn tortillas were great company of the tasty beef, and I must say that the paprika were one of the best that I have ever eaten everywhere. Although they were cooked, but they were very crunchy and every single slices of the paprika was full of flavors! I was very impressed, like, seriously. Loved that they put cilantro on top, too! The chicken version is also available for IDR 90K.

El Delicado IDR 37.000

Basil Parfait served over cranberry and pistachio crumble, fresh fruit from the forest and balsamic reduction. Duh, I don’t even know how to describe this other than DELICIOUS! The basil parfait was shockingly nice, tasted like milky ice cream with hint of basil, can you imagine how fragrant is that? The crumbles… HEAVENLY GOOD!! I have certain love love relation with pistachio so it excited me a lot whenever I find pistachio included in a dessert or something. The pistachio was a little salty and combined with the sourness of cranberry, it was WOW-ness. Everything on that plate just put a huge smile on my face and I know that this restaurant is gonna be on my personal top list!

Overall, I really enjoyed my visit in La Hoya. Didn’t expect much because there are so many abal-abal (bad) restaurants that claim to be “Mexican restaurants” out there. Blame it all on Hacienda, one of the greatest, best Mexican restaurants EVER in Jakarta, it sets the bar quite high, LOL! Oh yes, the service was excellent, too. What a perfect place for my dinner today.
Thank you for the nice dining experience and wish that La Hoya can exist for a long, long time!
FYI, there’s a 20% discount for Opening Promotion which is valid until April 30th, 2014. 

*All prices are subject to 6.25% service charge & 10% government tax
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La Hoya Comida Mexicana
Gandaria City
Mainstreet Dining Level G Unit MG 31-32
Jl. KH. M. Syafii Hadzami No. 8
Kebayoran Lama
Jakarta Selatan 12240
Ph. +62 21 2923 6458
Free Wi-fi: Available
Opening Hours: Mon-Sun 10.00 – 22.00