[REVIEW] Attarine Jakarta: A Party of Spice

Souk El Attarine: a souk (market) in the medina quarter of Tunis, capital of Tunisia, that is filled with with perfumes and beauty products. 

Which supposedly, inspired the restaurant's heavy use of spices and fragrant ingredients. Fair enough.  Although I think the owner has been to the place and likes the name because it has a nice ring to it.

Either way, I finally came down to the restaurant, owned by one of the main players in Jakarta's lifestyle constellation, The Potato Head group.

As always, the restaurant that seats about 100 (give and take) has about six parking spots, and almost non-existent bike parking. This is not, the restaurant's fault, obviously. I am simply re-stating my frustration of Jakarta's ridiculousness when it comes to parking space. 

The restaurant occupies a partition-less open space that seats about 100 people, seating elbow to elbow.  As with a lot of Potato Head's design idea, the eye feasts on a mish mash of decor, floating plants, an antique micro-car centerpiece, artworks (most sourced from the owner's personal collection), colors, and energy of people. Great start.

No, finally, this is not just a decoration

After being seated, I took quick look at the menu and was happy to see both a reasonable price (for Gunawarman-Senopati area, at least), and one page of food menu. It is such a remarkable relieve to not have to flick through pages and pages of menu that you just didn't want to be bothered with. Attarine also as a completely different set of menu for lunch (11 am-4pm) and dinner (6pm-11pm). 

For appetizer, we were served with two of their sourdough rye toast variations; the first batch has a mixture of (nondescript) fish, beetroot, cashew and dill. Tasty and undoubtedly healthy, I wish I had this for breakfast instead.  The cashew gives it a creamy & nutty texture that reminds me of hummus, and the beetroot gives nice sweetness in addition to that beautiful bright pink color. 

The second batch has a mix of (nondescript) 'veggie' & (nondescript) 'fresh white cheese' (I would assume ricotta), with radishes, cucumber and herbs. This one was not my favourite, a little to bland to my liking. 

Fish & Beetroot Sourdough toast (left, 85k) Veggie & Cheese Sourdough toast (65k)

Third appetizer was one of the few items that was on the 'menu of the day' board--which changes every day--:cooked Brussels Sprouts liberally mixed with homemade aioli and katsuobushi or 'bonito flakes', an intensely umami condiment that is liberally sprinkled on many Japanese comfort food like takoyaki or okonomiyaki, which interestingly has made the Brussel sprout taste exactly like. Intriguing! 

Brussel Sprouts (95k) 

For the mains, we were served another Menu of The Day of wood-fire oven snapper fish, served with roasted zucchinis, sea salt, and Mediterranean tomato spread (that may or may have been made with sun-dried tomatoes, they couldn't really tell me). The condiments are clearly Meditterannian, yet the whole fish on the table will remind you of a Scandinavian family dinner. "We don't want to classify our food to certain regions; it's about all that mix of herb and spices.", Deri Jendhar, a representative of the restaurant told me. 

Wood fire oven snapper (395k) 

Most of the mains are also to share, such as the next food we tried: the skillet shrimp curry, cooked a la massaman, with just a hint of strong spices like clove, star anise, and cinnamon, and more use of tamarind and palm sugar, the sauce is both sweet, sour yet refreshingly fragrant. This is probably one of my favourite dish in the table. (Oh I know how Southeast Asian of me) 

Cast Iron Skillet Shrimp, with chili, tamarind & coriander (135k)

Another mainstay is the braised and deep fried lamb ribs, topped with whipped garlic aioli and pink radish pickles. The deep frying has made the meat slightly crisp on the outside, and the braising rendered the meat tender. This one was OK, but really not my favorite. There's something missing with the balance of this dish. A feeling I feel a lot with Middle Eastern/Mediterannian dish. But the radish did help a bit.  

Fried Lamb Ribs (180k) 

We were also served with two different meat balls: one that is mixed with cumin and topped with white sauce, served on a cast iron pan, and another that is mixed with rice, and stuffed into onion, slow-cooked, and topped with spicy sauteed kale leaves. With that, a spiced biryani butter rice was served to our table.  

(Stuffed onions, 115k)

After all the protein-rich mains, I was still looking forward to their Desserts options. Three plates (for our table of 5) came at once, tickling my taste-buds at once. First a deconstructed bannoffee pie: with salted caramel base, butter cookie crumbs, topped with Chocolate ice cream, with a side of caramelized banana, whipped cream, and Bali Tabanan chocolate ganache. This was my favourite. It was such a decadent medley of taste and texture, of sweet and salty, of soft and crunchy, perfect. 

Second dessert was a very moist carrot cake, served with walnut (?) ice cream. I am honestly not all that gung ho about carrot cake anymore, just remembering how easy it is to make it. But this was OK. 

Lastly, I finally tried what's the hype-y Australian lamington cake is all about, petit-four like squares of sponge cake coated in an outer layer of raspberry sauce and rolled in desiccated coconut. This time served with strawberry ice cream. Aside from the strawberry Ice cream (I love ice cream. but who doesn't. Seriously), I don't really see what's the big deal with this cake. I guess it's 'Australian', and makes it buzz-worth for Jakartans, who are desperate to make everything looks and taste like Melbourne.  

Two weeks after it's opening, the restaurant has created a great wave of energy around the clock; with long tables, tall ceiling, with large tropical plants afloat, it's like a big merry dinner party at an artsy friend's car garage. That's why probably the food is 'all over the place', meaning it breaks the boundaries of where, and focuses on what. 

I guess what they lack in balance (it is hard to pull off some of their menu, I give it that), they pull off in ingredients quality (nearly everything, including the condiments, is made on site), and novelty. 

Attarine Jakarta 

Jalan Gunawarman No.11 A, South Jakarta

Phone: (021) 22771256

Hours: 11AM–4PM (lunch), 6–11PM (dinner)

Facebook: attarinejakarta

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