Saturday, October 26, 2019

Casual Fine Dining with A Twist of Live Music at Motion Blue

Oh geez! I just couldn’t believe I survived the week. It’s still very clear in my memory how terrified I was last Sunday knowing what I was going to face in the upcoming week. Super hectic weekdays with stacks of deadlines haunting! But yeah yeah yeah, I made it and as always, what doesn’t kill you make you stronger, pal!

As much as I wanted to pass the weekdays, I was also looking forward to my exciting weekend agenda, back to my restaurant-hoping routine! Yes, my source of energy and my spirit booster for facing other new challenges in the coming days. 



This weekend’s a bit distinctive as I didn’t go for my regular cafe hoping, but I was visiting a restaurant instead. The restaurant itself was pretty special as it came with the concept of live music. Well I knew it’s not a new thing, but I felt it’s somehow different as they brought this concept as their core competence. Finally I understood why they put high emphasis on that, as they indeed taking it seriously, partnering with Blue Note, Tokyo's number one jazz music venue. 



Exactly as I pictured in my wild imagination, the venue had its huge stage right at the center, where all attention would surely go to as they served brilliant performance. Huge space, dim lighting, and classy elegant touch in the design pretty much described the ambience that got me hooked at the first sight. Beautiful chandeliers hanging on the high ceiling and the long-standing red curtain next to the stage perfectly landed the exclusive feel. 






To accompany the spoiling ambiance, they served the unique fusion dishes, invented by the house. It’s beautifully handcrafted by the chef’s talented hands and creative ideas that the twist presented was kinda uncommon yet looked appealing!





Ebi Furai Pineapple Rujak (IDR 185k)


If I said the opening to my big feast was rujak, you might say it’s just rujak. However, hold on till you saw the other ‘main actor’ my dish carried, which was breaded tiger prawn. The two just made nice duo as the crunchy-outside-chewy-inside fresh prawn was flawlessly complemented by the fresh pineapple. The sweet and sour peanut sauce blended in well, and made the dish being such refreshing starter!

Bibimbap Wagyu Sirloin Steak M5 (IDR 270k)


I bet my bibimbap was better than yours, knowing the protein I had was wagyu! Yes, awesomely juicy and tender sirloin steak M5, which gave that heavenly melt-in-your-mouth feeling. Mixed it with the runny yolk from the fried egg and savory gojuchang and bulgogi sauce, this bibimbap might be one of the best I’ve ever had. Not stopping there, I was also impressed by the idea of featuring short grain rice and quinoa as the carbo instead of plain rice like what I commonly found. This made it turned much healthier, especially it’s also accompanied by baby carrot, zucchini, and shiitake mushroom. The touch of Korean got even stronger as they also added steamed veggies with red wine sauce, just like the kimchi you usually met in other bibimbap. What a rich mix served in a single bowl! At first I did think the dish was a bit pricey, yet looking at how rich the mixture was and the decent size it carried out, I guessed it worth the bill paid. 

Black Truffle Soba Noodle (IDR 180k)
Appearance wise, it looked pretty similar to pasta like angel hair, just prolly in slightly bigger size. It’s actually soba noodle cooked in black truffle sauce. Yeah, you could already guess how nice the smell was when the dish first landed on the table. I was like right away drooling and could wait no longer to give it a try. 


The noodle came in just the right texture, and the 8-hour roasted beed belly truly took over the spotlight with its scrumptious teriyaki glaze. Yes you heard me right, it’s BEEF BELLY! If you thought pork belly was heaven on earth, wait till you gave this a try and have yourself blown away by how delicate it was. I personally would dare to say that I loved this better as it seemed to have less of that fat layer as in pork belly, and my taste bud indeed couldn’t take such fat that much. If previously the Korean dish got me pampered, this Japanese one was another top notch. 

Oxtail Pizza (IDR 250k)


Oh wow, another truffle! My source of weakness when it came to dishes. As always, the smell was just always being number-one distraction. Nonetheless, now it seemed there’s another attention-stealer, that bone marrow, put right at the center of the thin crust pizza! Being very peculiar, the way you enjoyed this oxtail and black truffle pizza was by putting the bone marrow as the ‘spread on top’. 



Honestly speaking I firstly kinda doubted I would like it, but just being obedient following the direction, I got astonished that the dish turned out being the one bringing the trophy home from the menu set. The oxtail and black truffle were abundant and so tasty, and that bone marrow made it even more delectable, adding a lil bit salty flavor into the pizza. Not only being generous with the ingredients as it’s rich of the main proteins and the cheese, the taste indeed got me tied tightly and this dish would surely being my most recommended one for any first-timer in Motion Blue <3

Deconstructed Es Podeng (IDR 90k)


Finally, we came to the last meal of the day, the sweet ending to the super satisfying dining set. What’s served was surely something most of you were already super familiar of, Es Podeng! As the name mentioned ‘Deconstructed’, I was once again fascinated by the brilliant idea of the chef in presenting this simple dessert. Now it became a sophisticated one as the coconut ice cream was served in chocolate bomb, which would melt as you started pouring the warm salted caramel sauce on it. 




Just like the ingredients you would expect, you would have the tapioca pearl, avocado, roasted peanut, bread chunk, and crumble to be enjoyed together with the first trio I called out earlier. If you wondered that I just missed the sticky rice, you needn’t worry as it’s also there in sauce form, which was just as nice as common one. The fancy dessert had played its role super well in giving impeccable ending to the show. 

Night and Day (IDR 175k)


Just like I hadn’t had enough, Blue Motion crew completed my weekend self treatment with their signature cocktail. A mix of gin and peach liqueur, rosemary, ginger, blueberry and lime juice; further topped with red cherry and sliced orange, adding more playful colors in my cocktail glass. As I was super full with all the dishes enjoyed earlier, the refreshing cocktail was so lovely, especially as my palate could get strong flavor from the lime and also because it’s not overly sweet. 

Having my gigantic feast in Motion Blue, I was a happily bloated customer, which surely couldn’t wait for my next visit to the place. I even already started to think of what events I could have here, imagining it would be so nice to have the place closed for my private event with the live music of my choice performing on stage!


Taste: 8.5/10
Place: 8/10
Service: 8.5/10
Price: 8/10


Thanks for reading! :)


MOTION BLUE
Fairmont Hotel 3rd Floor, Jl. Asia Afrika No. 8, Jakarta
Phone: (+62 21) 2903 9189 / (+62) 8118 690 690
Operating Hours: Mon - Sat 6.00pm - 0.30am