Tummy Prosperity: Jia at Shangri La Hotel, the Brand New Shang Palace

Formerly known as Shang Palace, Jia, the newest comer from Shangri-La Jakarta finally opened its door for the customers for the very first time at 28 December 2016, yes exactly 4 days before 2016 ended. It's been awhile since the last time I went to Satoo and Shang Palace, which was also the day when I was told that Shang Palace would be closed for several months as they wanted to replace it with a brand new Chinese restaurant, carrying different concept from the one brought out by Shang in prior.

The name of Jia itself meant first in Chinese, which in my wild guess was intentionally given to this restaurant to show how it wanted to be the number one restaurant in town in serving comfort Chinese food.

Trying to make a breakthrough, Jia didn't point out traditional Chinese concept in its design. Instead, it went with contemporary Chinese interior, to let the guests felt the Chinese ambiance yet at the same time gave modern touch to the decoration. This made the venue ended up covered with combination of brick walls, ornamental wooden panels, as well as sophisticated ceramic tableware.

Expanding a little bit the space of Shang Palace, Jia occupied quite gigantic area, which were able to accommodate approximately 120 guests, plus additional another 120 in its six private dining rooms, each of which were able to accommodate around 20 people. It's quite a big one, compared to typical Chinese restaurant resided in a hotel.

Aligned with the 5-star title carried by the hotel, Jia also delivered first-class service, having numerous waitress/waiter to serve the guests with with pleasant treatment. They provided prompt response to each request and looked like they're well trained and fully equipped with knowledge regarding each dishes served, making them able to assist the guests with recommendations on menu to try.

If you wondered what made Jia so special, then you should know the master mind behind its kitchen, Executive Chinese Chef Christopher Chai, who has been with Shangri-La for almost two decades since 2008, and has ever experienced working in Shangri-La Manila as well. Having been proficient in this field for long period of time, his ability to craft delectable dishes to satisfy any Chinese-cuisines-lover-palate was surely unquestionable. Additionally, specially served for the guests, you're now able to enjoy the 'live show' from the open-oven stations where the signature roast duck was freshly made.

Not stopping there, they also made innovation for their beverages, serving cold brew Chinese tea made and bottled in their own kitchen. Various common flavors were served, including the signature Kuan Yin and Oolong. For my palate who usually met those tea in hot temperature, this new creation was surprisingly a great one as it's refreshing yet not losing the signature Chinese tea taste. Besides tea, various inventions were also made for their cocktails, combining Asian ingredients like lemongrass, red chili, ginger, passion fruit, kumquat, and many more. Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to try these cocktails, but great thing, then I would have the reason for going back here *wink*.

Talking about the foods, on top of the ala-carte Chinese cuisines which could generally be found in any Chinese restaurants, they had other distinctive dishes which basically could be classified into several big groups; namely Dim Sum, live seafood, Chinese barbecue, the signature Peking-style roasted duck creations, and La Mian. However, before even starting with trying the foods from each of the respective group, my friends and I opted for some snacks to hold our hunger. Hmmm, getting confused between salty or sweet one, we then went for both *LOL*, easy solution, wasn't it? When the salty salmon skin and the sweet crispy beef reached our table, the appealing aroma ran here and there without asking our permission. So distracting that we couldn't wait any longer to try them. Thanks they're not lying, both were so addictive especially if you ate them in sequence. Salty, sweet, another salty, another sweet; seemed like never ending chain of munchies.

Crispy Salmon Skin with Spicy Salt (IDR 48k)

Crispy Fried Beef in Honey Sauce (IDR 58k)

Now let's kick-start the Dim Sum, starting with the regular ones which might be on everyone's mandatory Dim Sum list, including us. Ranging from IDR 28k to IDR 38k, we had buns (bakpao), dumplings (ha kau, siew mai, guo tie), rice roll (cheong fun), chicken feet, glutinous rice in lotus leaf (lo ma kai), and even pork ribs (bai kut) from the steamed version ones.

Steamed Barbecued Pork Buns (IDR 36k)

Steamed Soup Pork Dumpling (IDR 32k)

Steamed Seafood Dumpling Topped with Egg White (IDR 32k)

Boiled Pork and Vegetable Dumplings in Sichuan Style (IDR 32k)

Steamed Barbecue Pork Rice Roll (IDR 34k)

Steamed Chicken Feet with Soy Chili Sauce (IDR 28k)

Steamed Glutinous Rice Wrapped in Lotus Leaf (IDR 28k)

Steamed Pork Ribs with Crispy Garlic (IDR 35k)

If you realized, they were mainly pork, pork, and pork. Yes you got it right fellas, we did love pork too much that we opted for those coming with pork as the main ingredient. But you needn't worry as some of them did come with seafood and chicken. Shortly summarizing, they were all pleasant, having rich combination of Chinese traditional seasonings. But the key highlight for me were two here, the garlic pork ribs and the shrimp inside some of the steamed dim sum. The first one stole my heart right away once I had it in my mouth as I did love the strong garlicky flavor, which was perfectly complemented by the juicy and tender pork. Whereas for the second, every single dish containing shrimp here was such delicacy as it was so fresh that you could have that heavenly 'explosive' sensation from the excellent shrimp texture each time you chewed it.

As you surely knew, having steamed version only for dim sum definitely would not be enough, so you got it correctly when you've guessed that the fried one should come afterwards. Still at the same price range, there they were the fried wontons and curry puffs.

Deep-fried Wontons with Crab Paste and Mayonnaise (IDR 38k)

Deep-fried Minced Chicken and Seafood Puffs in Curry-Coconut Sauce (IDR 30k)

Again, both were flavorful though the second one, yes the one that looked like Chicken Little (well at least in my imagination), captured my interest better. I loved the idea of combining two proteins into a single dish, chicken and seafood, and made it come with the sauce which typically had plentiful combination of spices - curry. Great thing, the curry flavor was just right, not overpowering the taste from each of the protein, letting you to be able to taste the flavor of each component in the dish.

Steamed check, fried check, what's next? Surely the 'dessert dim sum', yeah the sweets part! The three choices we picked from this group were actually very different, one to another.

Steamed Custard Buns with Salted Egg Yolk (IDR 32k)

Deep Fried Swan with Almond Sauce (IDR 32k)

Crispy Chinese Red Bean Pancake (IDR 32k)

The salted egg yolk bun, which was so in-trend few months ago and seemed to start being everyone's favorite, became most of my friends' top-of-mind when we're about to choose which one to go for. The second and the most beautiful one, was the one landed on our table simply because it's beauty (yeah, we're successfully sold!). While the third and perhaps the most traditional Chinese one, was the favorite menu of my friend Fiona and I, when this restaurant's still Shang Palace. Despite the gorgeous swan didn't turn out as scrumptious as expected and we still preferred Shang Palace's red bean pancake, the salted egg yolk bun was such an indulgence! But beware, you should enjoy it when it's still fresh from the kitchen, with warm temperature and molten yolk filling. You didn't need to worry if you hated salted egg as I also did, because its flavor wasn't that strong and this was surely the winning one from the dessert group!

Steamed Pork Siew Mai Topped with Abalone (IDR 298k)

Literally bringing Dim Sum to the next level, Jia came up with the concept of premium Dim Sum, serving this Chinese traditional breakfast menu with premium ingredient. One of the key players here was the abalone, beautifully served on top of pork siew mai. Despite I had to admit that it was quite pricey, the abalone was indeed the top notch which I could never forget. Such an exclusive spoiler for my taste bud in this late brunch.

After the dim sum, there came another round to satisfy my almost-full tummy. For this live seafood part, we agreed to opt for this tempting-looking dish. Coming as the base, the bean curd was okay for me but the baked scallops and the shrimp paste were indeed lip-smacker! I looooved the chewy (surely in a good way) texture of the scallop and the way the shrimp paste did perfectly complement it in delivering exquisite flavor.

Baked Scallops stuffed with Shrimp Paste & Home Made Bean Curd in Barbecue Sauce (IDR 168k)

Another porky dish, the barbecue which people rarely wanted to miss in any Chinese meals, Crispy Roasted Pork!! And for Jia's version, I could clearly state that this understood me best, serving the roasted pork with less fats and greasy parts of the pork which I typically hated. Not to mention, the crispy skin which was wonderfully executed, ended up dry and flawlessly crunchy; certainly the part that you would keep till the end of the meal to 'save the best for the last'.

Crispy Roasted Pork (IDR 98k)

Finally, we arrived at the signature dish from Jia, which was perhaps the key reason why people came here, the Signature Pecking Duck! Being prepared from the whole shape to the sizes which were ready to be enjoyed, right next to the guests' table, it was such a short entertainment for the eyes, before the taste bud was finally pleased. Before having a try on this dish, when the chef was still busy slicing the duck and we're busy capturing those moments, looked like we created another show to other guests as they started to ask what we're actually doing. Knowing that we're food bloggers/Instagrammers, some of them started recommending their champion dishes from Jia and this duck seemed to be the superstar. Finally having my premier trial, wrapping the sauce-dipped roasted duck together with the scallion and cucumber with the pancake provided then trying to enjoy it in 2 versions - with the duck skin only and with the mixture of skin and meat, I had no single doubt why this roasted duck turned to be everyone's number one. It was excellently seasoned that the flavor reached even the center part of the duck. Once you put it into your mouth, the only thing you wanted to do was wrapping another portion.

Signature Pecking Duck (IDR 398k for whole / IDR 218k for half)

Alternatively, another duck dish was the one came in chopped style, which was then cooked in sweet sauce. The wrapper for this one was actually healthier, merely using lettuce. The sauce was actually the same, besides there's additional Chinese mustard. My palate did fancy this second one though the prior still owned the winning position.

Duck Meat - Wrapped in Lettuce

Having had like tons of dishes, all my friends and I were literally bloated that we could no more take anything into our belly, not to exclude the La Mian. Regardless it looked and smelled so alluring, there's no space left anymore in the tummy. It's just my sister who finally ended up trying the beef shank only and immediately fell for it as she said it was so tender and flavorful. Sorry La Mian, but I couldn't go beyond taking your pictures only, and this of course has just given me another reason to come back here to Jia, to come back home *giggling*.

Lan Zhou La Mian Noodle Soup with Beef Shank (IDR 68k)

La Mian Noodle Soup with Xiao Long Bao (IDR 65k)

Final sayings, big applause to the stunning jobs executed by Shangri La team. A remarkable transformation from Shang Palace to Jia has been completely landed. Keep up the terrific performance and all the best. One more thing, just like the tag line, 'take me back to jia, pretty please!' ;)