Namaaz Dining - Jakarta

If you want to have some unique dining experience which is still rare in Jakarta, you can try Namaaz Dining.

Namaaz Dining is one of the first molecular gastronomy restaurant in Indonesia. It is a fine (fun) dining style, in which you can enjoy around 17 course of menus from appetizer to dessert which served uniquely. Each menu has it's own story and explanation how to eat and enjoy them.

Adrian Ishak, the owner / chef stated that the menu will be changed annually.

The restaurant is only open for dinner, and by 2018, one night, it only accept 28 seats. So, to dine here, you absolutely need to reserve your seat. You can reserve your seat on their website beforehand, and you also have to pay it first via Bank Transfer. Price for 1 person is IDR 1.250.000,-

The Place

Namaaz is located on Jalan Gunawarman. The building is just across KFC restaurant, but the signage is not quite visible, and the front door itself is not on Jalan Gunawarman, but on the side road (Jalan Sanjaya). I recommend you to use Google Maps for exact location of the restaurant. Since it is for Dinner, the restaurant will be accessible started at 7 p.m.

The place is cozy, with open kitchen, which is mainly used for food preparation. The table is specially arranged for guests that night. So table arrangement will be changed every night.

The Food

Note that this is 2018 themed food, for 2019 theme will be different. So it is not a spoiler.

2018 Theme is Cinema. There will be 5 different genre for this theme; Romantic, Comedy, Drama, Thriller, Horror, and Sci-Fi

Appetizer

Candle

This is our first menu. What you see is not what you get they said. They served cassave chips with balado sambal. The balado sambal is look like candle but tasted so good.

Cabe-cabean dan Batu-batuan

Tinorangsak chicken with peyek chili sauce. They made the tinorangsak chicken look like green chili and the rock underneath actually the sambal roa.

The sambal is covered by glutinous paste and black seeds so it resembling a rock.

Truffle - Nasi uduk Semur Jengkol

Seasoned rice ball (nasi uduk) with potato mousse and semur jengkol. You just put all of the topping on top the rice ball and it really taste great.

Plot Twist

As for our third course, the waiter announce that it is a plot twist. Like in movies, it is unexpected things which is already in front of us. For our menu, the waiter said that the terrarium which is a decoration in our table is actually a food. He then, shakes the terrarium and after few seconds, the flower turned into popcorn.

Popcorn with rendang flavour then chilled in liquid nitrogen -190 celcius before given to us. After we eat the popcorn suddenly our mouth is fill with smoke just like a dragon!

Novel

They give us a novel wrapped with recycled paper and inside the novel there is paper which is jelly, sugar and edible flower that can be eat. We rolled the paper and put on top of the novel. After that they will give you gado-gado (salad with peanut dressing) to put in the paper roll and you can eat it.

Cotton Ball

Deconstructed tempeh which is made look like a cotton unseasoned.

In this menu, we are proving that it is our nose which enhance the taste of the food. The Tempeh itself is bland. But there are 2 bottles given to us. The left one is mendoan aroma, and the right one is bacem aroma. The instruction is to chew the Tempeh and smell one of the aroma at the same time. That way, the tempeh will taste like mendoan and bacem tempe.

Asinan Bogor

Asinan with a extremely unique look. On top of the straw is peanut, fruit, and veggies while the soury soup is put inside the glass bottle. Just chew the paste while drinking the soup and mixed it in your mouth.

First Main Course

Soto Pekalongan

A brown pottery cup came with various topping inside, after that they pour the soup into the cup. We used potato (perkedel) as spoon to eat and the end the spoon itself will be eaten.

Tasting through colors and music

3 different colors of chocolate is served. They said it's like experimental food. Which one is sweeter? While in tempeh menu, we experimented with smelling, in this menu, we experimenting the effect of what we listen to the food taste.

The chocolate actually have same taste. But you can taste different; slightly sweeter or bitter depending on what song do you hear when eating the chocolate.

Risotto

Seasoned cooked rice topped with galangal as the yolk and fried galangal string with pete (stinky bean) powder to look like abon (floos)

Crime Scene - Ayam bakar madiun

We were served with deconstructed Roasted chicken on the aluminium plate with sugar bottle, sweet soy sauce, shrimp paste sambal (this look like blood). The chicken is tender and it's easy to eat even though you have to hold the chicken feet.

Coconut QR Pudding

Interpretation of Gulai Tunjang (Beef Knuckle Stew). Outer made of kikil (knuckle) and the inside filled with stew. The food concept and the story can be seen by follow the QR code link.

Benang Cap Sikat Gigi - Beef Papiong

Beef papiong (toraja dish) is bamboo grilled beef with shallot garlic, ginger, and lemongrass chilli stew and place on the bottom with rice on top. They made the string from coconut milk. You will love this dish.

Dessert

The dessert is mainly focused on Sci-Fi theme. The story is that there is alien forces which planned to invade the earth. So the dessert course concept are around that.

Sometimes when we still eating main course, the waiter are installing iced Kecombrang above our table, which is dripping into a  container filled with water. The drops then become caviars.
Then on first dessert course, the dripped caviar are taken. In the story it is alien eggs. It is served on egg shell with Mango Pudding base (which is imitating egg yolk)


UFO

Fruit dessert with Honeydew and Pandan haze. You can find noodle of cucumber, watermelon inner skin, condensed watermelon sauce, starfruit granita, and seasonal local fruit on the UFO plate. Very fresh and sweet at the same time.

dessert yang pake pipe

Semifreddo of tonic water pineapple ice cream caviar.

Exploding Dessert - Es Podeng

For the last dessert course, they gave us the raincoat to put on also our bag/camera must be covered with cloth so it wont get damp or wet. After everyone ready, they start a uplifting rock music and serving exploding dessert, which reminding us that fine dining can be fun too. 

By the way this is es podeng but they elevate it with the explode things for us to enjoy not only the food it self but also the presentation! Genius!

Conclusion

It is fine dining and it is long dining. We started the dining at 7.30 and finish around 11.00. But they have a premium and top service. When we visited, there are times when the power is cut off (possibily from PLN) and backup generator is not available. But on that time, they provide each table with liquid nitrogen to manage the cool temperature (because the A/C is off). But they do any possible way they can to keep us feeling comfortable and we really appreciate that. So while it is not perfect, but we can say that it is a good effort to remedy the uncontrolled situation.

Aside from that, thumbs up for the creativity and although it is quite expensive,  it's worth the price and we'd like to support this kind of creativity to make unique food experience. Planning to come back this year when they already change the menu.