NOSH is one of the newest establishments in Jakarta which has caught lots of attentions from foodies lately. This posh cafe is located on the 1st floor of Citywalk Sudirman, not a popular choice to open a fine restaurant like this (no offense) but that was why we were very curious about this particular place. With a concept of French-American cafe offering unique comfort food with Asian twist, NOSH is definitely outstanding in term of appearance compared to the other cafes in this shopping mall.
The interior design is dominated with French style theme, from the color combination of blue and white, with hints of red and black, the cafe looks chic, elegant, and inviting at the same time. There are two areas (indoor and outdoor) separated by glass windows and sliding door. Although the indoor area is beautiful and cold, the outdoor area is even more beautiful because it looks like a cafe in France complete with white tables and lots of greens. Lovely!
Even before we visited NOSH, we heard and read many good things about this place, especially the food quality and we couldn’t wait to try them. NOSH serves mainly Western food with Asian twists, from salad, soup, mains, pasta, desserts, and a whole page of drinks, with price range of IDR 15,000 to 135,000 only (F&B).
Mandarin Orange Seafood Salad IDR 70,000
Grilled prawns dressed in mandarin orange vinaigrette on a bed of mixed greens and orange segments, topped with croutons. The greens were absolutely beautiful and very fresh we couldn’t ask for better ones. The prawns were big and crunchy, given generously (about 6 pieces if I am not wrong) and the mandarin orange was the brilliant idea to make this salad even more refreshing. Great start!
Poutine IDR 45,000
Fries over gravy with mozzarella cheese, topped with fried egg. This might look very “usual” but the taste was not. The fries were not your typical instant fries, they were stuffy yet crunchy, well-seasoned and very tasty, while the mozzarella cheese added the eating sensation to become much more fun. Adults and kids will love this equally for sure!
Need I say more?
Farmer’s Breakfast IDR 70,000
Eggs any style (soft scrambled, sunny side up, or fried eggs) served with toast, beef sausage, roasted garlic tomatoes, and hash browns.
NOSH also serves all-day breakfast menu (yay!) and the portion is pretty satisfying. Remember, eat breakfast like a King! XD We chose sunny side up for the eggs, and we loved the colors of our egg yolks, we assumed they are using organic eggs. The toast was slightly burnt on the edges, but still enjoyable.
Oxtail Wellington IDR 98,000
Slow-cooked oxtail enveloped in warm puff pastry, served with fragrant turmeric butter rice. Now we are talking! This menu is actually one of their signature dishes here, and although the presentation looked like a very simple soup (other than the pastry “hat”), once you dig in, it will feel that you find hidden treasure or something.
First, the oxtail was awesome. Very smooth and tender, they served only the meat (boneless) and in smaller cuts so it was easy to eat. The fragrant turmeric butter rice was yellow, soft and a bit soggy with texture that reminded me of paella (Spanish rice). This is very nice to be enjoyed when it is still piping hot so you can feel the texture of the crispy pastry meeting the soft rice and oxtail.
Prawn Sambal Cream Pasta IDR 65,000
Served with spaghetti and sambal infused cream sauce.
You know, when I saw this on the menu, a part of me screamed with happiness. Why? Because like many other Indonesians, I am so used to using sambal (chili sauce) with many dishes I eat, including, *ahem* pasta. Well, not everytime, but I often do it. Especially when I eat white sauce pasta, usually I will add some drops of sambal to enhance the flavor and give it more “kick”. So you got the idea why I was happy to see this.
The pasta was cooked al dente and I truly enjoyed it. The cream sauce was perfect, not too thick and not thin at all, it was creamy but not overwhelming, and it was SPICY! The prawns were great additions to the pasta because they were very crunchy it was so good. Even now I still think this dish will be the first reason to come back to NOSH, because it simply rocked!
Southern-style Buttermilk Fried Chicken IDR 70,000
Tender and juicy fried chicken served with house specialty gravy and truffle mashed potato.
Great presentation: they served this on a (not hot) pan, looking very good and appetizing because of the inviting colors. The buttermilk fried chicken were mouth-watering especially when I looked at the golden skin. The texture of the chicken won my heart since the first bite, very juicy and tender, I hardly needed any effort to enjoy this because it felt so smooth in the mouth. Taste-wise, it was a little bit too salty for us, but the fragrant truffle mashed potato could help neutralizing the taste.
Banger ‘n Mash IDR 70,000
Gourmet sausages (pork or beef) served on a bed of creamy mash potato, caramelized onions and house specialty gravy. For the thousand times on this review, I must say I am so impressed by how good the presentation was. Banger ‘n Mash is a traditional British dish that can be served in many ways as long as it involves sausages and mash potato, but my very first image about this particular dish is totally similar to this presentation. Amazing, isn’t it?
Look at those sausages, oh my! The house specialty gravy was sooo good it is not even funny. I am suffering now thinking about this. Seriously.
Uncle B’s Chicken Rice IDR 65,000
Grilled chicken with King sauce gratin over fragrant turmeric butter rice. If you have eaten all those great dishes above, and this is your last dish, maybe you’ll find this blah. This chicken rice used turmeric butter rice similar with the one in Oxtail Wellington, but this tasted very mild and “less impressive” compared to the other dishes we tried. Honestly, we couldn’t finish this because the texture was all soft and it was a bit sickening for us. Taste-wise, it was okay, but as I said above, less impressive than the others.
NOSH menu sheet is only 2 pages, and can you believe that they take 1 page for food (until dessert) and another page only for drinks? Seriously, they offer many kinds of beverages, from tea, coffee, milkshakes, juices, blended drinks, and many more. We tried few of them and we must say we highly recommend the milkshakes for sure!
Royal Regal Milkshake IDR 40,000
Our first choice because we grow up with Marie Regal biscuits and this was our first time finding this milkshake so it was like a mandatory thing to order. The milkshake was well-blended, and the best thing is that it was not overly sweet, but just lovely. I can sip 5 glasses of this alone because I really love the flavor.
Cookie Monster Milkshake IDR 40,000
Oreo and milkshake? Irresistible!
Salted Caramel Milkshake IDR 40,000
I always love Indonesian version of Salted Caramel because it has balanced combination between sweetness and saltiness. Served with mini pretzels, this milkshake was cute and enjoyable at the same time.
Carrot Cheese Cake IDR 50,000
Combination of carrot cake and cheesecake in one go, we loved the contrast of solid, dense carrot cake paired with soft, smooth cheesecake. This was also not too sweet so we could still enjoy this with the milkshakes and other sweet drinks actually.
Iced Red Velvet Latte IDR 38,000
The taste was quite strong, chocolaty and fragrant. Good one!
Intense Chocolate IDR 35,000
Were hoping to get a dark, rich, creamy hot chocolate but it was just a simple chocolate drink. Not recommended if you are looking for “intense” chocolate.
Cappuccino IDR 35,000
A cup of coffee is always perfect to end a perfect dining experience, and this cappuccino beautifully ended ours that day. Latte art was awesome as well.
Dining at NOSH gave me another reason to visit Citywalk Sudirman more often now. We really had one of the best experiences dining in restaurants in Jakarta in term of dishes, although for the service, we think the staffs still have so much rooms for improvement. They are very polite and friendly, yes, but the way they set up the table, present the dishes, and everything else was very poor considering the atmosphere of the cafe. It almost felt inappropriate to see some of their awkward actions but we believe it was probably because NOSH is still new and the staffs can always use some more trainings to enhance their skills.
Nevertheless, we wish NOSH the very best of luck and we’ll come back again to try more dishes for sure!
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*All prices are subject to 5% service charge & 10% government tax
** This review is written based on our visit on 15 May 2016.
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NOSH
Citywalk Sudirman 1st Floor
Jl. KH. Mas Mansyur Kav. 121
Tanah Abang
Jakarta
Ph. +62 21 2555 6737
WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM
Opening Hours:
Mon – Sun 10AM – 10PM
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