Thursday, June 12, 2014

KOGI KOGI Korean Restaurant Jakarta

Got invited to try this new Korean restaurant joint that's soon to be opening for public on July, and I got the exclusive sneek-peek (more like spoiler) cover for eatandtreats readers! Say hi to KOGI KOGI Korean BBQ!

Kogi-Kogi which by the way means 'meats' in english, is a new Korean restaurant opening in the happening Wolter Monginsidi area with along with Korean BBQ Buffet as their concept, special thanks to bobobobo for inviting me over to the HOT BBQ dinner and since I freaking love korean food, especially the grill, it was a straight yes and I couldn't wait to NOM over the glorious food!

Typically, Korean restaurants in Jakarta are hefty and not so many of them are good, most are just common and kinda lose its authentic Korean sense and flavor, sometimes some which claimed to be 'authentic' ended up to be very crappy and "one and done" for me, just because you serve Kim Chi doesn't mean you actually serve Korean food, if I could I just wanna tell them upfront that their Kim Chi tasted like rotten vegetables and they're SUX while there's a thin line. However, knowing that this happens to be a buffet restaurant, I was already happy enough just for their existence, but was the food happen to be glorious enough for me? Keep on reading.

Sikhye, a traditional korean beverage made from rice. This was not my thing.
Sorry for the lack of interior pictures, how come I forgot to snap some T.T, starving tummy could control the empty mind, fact be told!!! 

Anyway, they have pretty decent range of meats for you to choose: beef, pork and chicken variants!
- Galbi (beef short ribs)
- Galbijjim (braised pork short ribs)
- Bulgogi (thin sliced marinated beef)
- Dwaeji Bulgogi (spicy pork)
- Dakgalbi (spicy chicken)
- Gungjung Dakgalbi (sweet marinated chicken)

Along with the raw meats, they also provide white rice, soups, salad, raw vegetables, condiments and sauces (Samiang, Suyu, Kogi-Kogi and Tokkochi Sauce).


The Korean rice rolls wraps were not exactly sushi but they were wrapped in vegetables or meat, the one which was very close to the sushi was called Kimbap or Korean sushi but they didn't have it here, according to the owner who is a Korean, best tip to eat the rice roll (Ssambab) was to dip it in the Tteobokki soup (more info below) and yes it changed the entire flavor and texture in a good way! Along with this, as for the cooked items, they also have Jap Chae (fried vermicelli) and Buchu Jeon (Korean chives pancake).

Thought the topping was some kind of beef chili but it was actually sauteed veges with sour flavor and tasted almost like Ratatouille, wasn't a big fan.

They claimed the veges to be organic.

'war' essentials!

Fat chee-kun (chicken) NOMNOM!

Grilling begins!
I was quite stunned when I realized that they didn't need to use any fat as the oil for grilling because most of the times when I happen to eat at a Korean restaurant that provided marble pan as the grilling plate, instead of the iron net based, they usually layer the pan with fat first, and plus it kinda help to cook better and to rise that aroma and flavor I believe, and yes my assumption of the cooking went right as most meats were sticking to the pan causing it to burn easier. Generally, I think the meat needs to be marinated with stronger bolder flavor, probably the marinated sauce needs to be thicker in consistency so that it could stay along with the meat while absorbing to the meat itself, as in for the spicy flavor, I couldn't really find the hint of spiciness.

Owner's tip to grill: make sure you cook the meat NOT at the center, but at the side of the pan for better distribution of heat and to prevent the meat from being burnt easily.

ALA CARTE!
They currently have four ala-carte menus and I got the privelege to taste EVERY ONE of it! *happy*.

Haemul Tteobokki Soup - Tteobokki is Korean language for rice cake.
I personally think that the soup was slightly sweeter than my expectation, I was expecting something that's a little more savory like Sundubu Jigae soup. This was my first time to ever try Tteobokki in soup form and I didn't think it's bad at all, the rice cakes (tteobokki) was chewy and I love the sweet tofu as it gave a little flavor play.



Sundubu Jigae
Hands down, for me this was one of the best Sundubu Jigae I've ever tried and it came from a restaurant that wasn't even launched yet so it was pretty surprising! The soup was very tasty and I love the proper level of spiciness, you know, that kind of addicting spiciness... The seafood was also fresh but they should be more generous.

Bibimbap
As much as how I am very fond of Bibimbap, this one was love and hate. Love because the ingredients were generous enough for the portion, hate because I think they're lack of sauce, but you can always ask for it - me judging on the original portion.


Steamed Egg
The steamed was nothing special, just common steamed egg with light seasoning.

As for desserts, they have Korean Rice Pudding in Vanilla and Chocolate flavor and fresh fruits to clean the palate. I found the chocolate one to be more interesting and the texture of the rice pudding was just good!

Fresh fruits, also to clean the palate!
I was pretty shocked when I found that each person will only, yes, only charged IDR 199k++, if you are a korean food enthusiast in Jakarta, you must know that one portion of meat in most Korean restaurants in Jakarta could range up to hundreds of thousands and here you can pretty much have anything you want, all you can stuff! As in for overall flavor, I must say that most of them were just okay, not really stood out but you get what you paid for and yes, you can still be hungry and fulfil certain percent of your Korean food craving!

(IDR 199k++ not included the drink).

KOGI KOGI
Jl. Wolter Monginsidi No. 85
South Jakarta
021 - 726 4999
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FIND ME HERE

Map for Kogi Kogi

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