TARTINE Restaurant, fX Sudirman, Jakarta

Hi everyone! I know it’s late, but how did you spend your Christmas Eve last year?

For me, usually I had dinner with my family, but last year (2014) I didn’t. Instead, I and Mr. K spent our private Christmas Eve dinner together in Tartine restaurant in fX Sudirman.

No, Tartine is definitely not a new place but I love it. With a concept of French restaurant, Tartine has been around for long, and considering that it has so many loyal customers, I bet it’s still going strong as ever.

My first time visiting Tartine is back in 2004, I went to the outlet in Cilandak Town Square (Citos) which has been opened since 2003. I fell in love to the place, ambiance, food, and service, as it is very classy, elegant, and so French, in a good way. They even use the French blue and white dinnerware, to be precise.

Later in 2009, Tartine opened its new version in fX, which is designed by French restauranteur, Gil D’Harcour, at the image of a down-to-earth French rustic café with an underground feeling. So that explains why both outlets have completely different touch.

As typical Tartine restaurants, the place has minimal lighting, is actually very dark, but I love it. There are so many christmas decorations which made the place looks merrier and colorful. Initially I didn’t want to take photos for this dinner (come on, it’s just once a year romantic dinner thing, LOL) but Mr. K wanted to try his camera in very low-light environment like that, so yeah. :/

“Tartine” is named after the traditional French open-faced sandwich that housewives would carefully prepare for the whole family on a casual Sunday. A tartine is similar to Italian bruschetta and here, they use Poilane, a famous French sourdough bread that is made daily at their Belgravia bakery. The bread is lightly toasted with olive oil and served with delicious seasonal ingredients and a fresh house salad.

This time I tried their Tartine Croque Monsieur (IDR 65,500) which consists of bechamel, smoked chicken and poached egg.

First of all, the bread is very soft and easy. The smoked chicken has this distinctive smokey taste which I love. Poached egg wasn’t impressive though because it was a bit overcooked, while the fresh salad with splash of vinegar is totally enjoyable.

For the appetizers, I had Caesar Salad (IDR 52,500) which is awesome. Big enough portion for both of us, fresh Romaine lettuce, generous shaved Parmesan cheese, and tender grilled chicken. For the soup, I tried one of the special Christmas menu, Green Mussel Soup (IDR 35,500). The soup is simple red sauce based, with fresh green mussels which bring out the flavors and fragrance.

And of course I wouldn’t miss the Escargots Garlic Butter (IDR 60,500) which, in my opinion, is a must-order item when you visit Tartine. I remember before escargots are going mainstream, long before today, Tartine has already been known to serve good quality (and delicious) escargots. To be honest, I don’t really remember the taste of my experience few years back, but well, this one pretty sure satisfied me. The escargots are almost crunchy and chewy at the same time, served with very aromatic garlic butter that goes really well with the companying bread. It might look “too oily” but well, once for a while, I can forgive myself for that.

Another special menu for Christmas is the Stuffing Chicken Breast (IDR 75,500), which is quite enjoyable but probably not something that I will order again. The chicken breast is thick and a little dry, difficult to digest, but the onion gravy helps a lot. I also love the sides: potato salad and the fresh veggies with the vinegar, nice neutralizers.

The last dish we had that night is Pepper Steak Tenderloin (IDR 180,500), which I assumed would be great. In fact, the meat didn’t impress me that much, we asked for medium, but it was slightly overcooked and made it a bit hard and not-so-tender anymore. The blue cheese dressing is quite a rarity so thumbs up for that.

At that point, we didn’t even bother ordering desserts anymore because we were too full to move, LOL! I don’t know why, it seems like I always tend to order a lot more than I should. XD

Anyway, we really had great night at Tartine despite of all the inconvenient service (too lazy to write though), but once in a while, it’s nice to go back to our favorite restaurants in the past and have a blast like the good ol’ days!