Kira-Kira Ginza - Authentic Japanese Food

My wife is a great fan of Japanese food especially Japanese home cook. Once in a while she will ask me to bring her to her favourite Japanese Izakaya the Kira-Kira Ginza at Blok M to enjoy authentic Japanese home cook. The authenticity of food served in Kira-Kira Ginza always bring back her nostalgic while she lived in Japan 13 years ago.

It's not any elegant classy Japanese restaurant that we usually see in the mall. Kira-Kira Ginza is an izakaya. Izakaya is a Japanese informal drink house that usually serves drink and some home cook dishes. Don't judge the book from it's cover, Kira-Kira Ginza serves one of the best authentic Japanese food in Jakarta and it is inexpensive!!!

Once you step into the izakaya, you will feel as if you are in Japan. The interior and decorations are all traditional Japanese style which is dominated by wood furnishings.

 

Kira-Kira Ginza provides private tatami room for 4 people, 6 and 10 people. We are usually sitting at the private room for 4 people if it is still available. It is more comfortable for my son to wander around and we won't  feel too guilty towards other customers if our son make too much noise lol.

My other half and our son

Aisle with private rooms at both the left and right side. 

 Free Manga (Japanese comics) but of course not to be brought home.

larger tatami room

What we ordered on that day were:

Konnyaku Piri Kara IDR 25,000. This is my wife all time favourite. She likes to sprinkle some tougarashi on the konnyaku.  

Wakame Salad (M) IDR 33,600, Fresh veggies, tasty dressings and generous portion

 Shougayaki Don IDR 62,000, it's a set menu of rice with pork, soup and other small Japanese dishes

 Close up look of the pork rice

Ume Chazuke IDR 45,000. Rice with plum pickles and soup poured over the rice. It has a little bit of sour taste of the plum and salty taste of the hot soup. Very authentic and tasty!

They actually offer two choices of Chazuke. Another one is Sake Chazuke, the rice with salmon flakes. The salmon fish were served fresh on the top of the rice bowl and we will be given a tiny teapot of soup (yes a teapot!!) to pour on the rice and cover the lid for a few minutes to let it cooked. Sorry, I couldn't show you the picture of Sake Chazuke, because we didn't order that on that day. But we will share with you the picture next time we visit Kira-Kira Ginza again. 

 I tried this out of curiousity, Bintang with lemon, unique and fresh! with mild alcohol level. IDR 31,000/bottle

A complimentary dessert coffee jelly

The staff were all very friendly and helpful. There was no difficulties to get them to assist you. And the most important was they did not discriminate their customers like some restaurants and hotels where the staff tend to treat expat customers better. I am Indonesian and they treated us just the same like the other expat customers.

 This tiny bell is used to get the staff's attention and available in all private rooms.

Kira-Kira Ginza is located at the opposite of Blok M Square Mall. Even though the sign board is a little bit small and somehow covered up by a tree, but it is not difficult to find them.

The full address is:
Kira-Kira Ginza
Jl. Melawai IX No.30
Ph (021) 7262611

 See you again!

Everything written here is based on my own personal experience and genuine opinion without any negative intention to discredit any parties. I have not been offered any incentives or payment to write this review.

Instagram : tac_travelandfood
TripAdvisor : AdeHilman

KADO - Japanese restaurant

Saturday evening is a time for relaxing and unwind after a long and tiring working hours, yes I work on Saturday if you wonder. We usually go out and try new place(if we can) to freshen up a bit. And this Saturday our destination is the Intercontinental MidPlaza Hotel, Jakarta Pusat.

At first, we intended to only just hanging around in the lounge and sip a glass of squash, but unfortunately hunger creep over our stomach and mind again despite we have had our meal already 2 hours before departing. Therefore, we checked-in to this interesting looking Japanese restaurant, KADO, located at lower ground level of the hotel near the entrance from the parking lot.

Japanese style entrance hall

After a quick browse over the menu, we decide to try their specialty Kushiyaki (Japanese skewer or "Satay" in our country). We called the waitress to place our order, but I have to say that the waitresses were quite ignorant. We called them like 3 or 4 times, and nobody responded to us. I noticed they might be lack of staff, for 12-13 tables there are only 3 waitress serving us and it was pretty crowded last Saturday. There were one customer walked away because of waiting too long for his food to be served. He was sitting there for 30 minutes and nothing was served yet. We were quite shocked, but we decided to give it a try.

When finally we were served, here are what we ordered :

 Wakame Salad - taste quite good with a generous amount of Wakame (sea weed)

 Beef Hamburg with cheese. I think the meat is not finely chopped or ground, so it is pretty hard to chew. The taste of the sauce is just so-so.

 Their recommended kushiyaki "Momo Ume Shishomaki" taste pretty good

Negima (chicken leg with leek) taste better with the red pepper

The red pepper

 Compliment dessert..pretty good taste similar to our "Sop Buah"

Their recommended dessert Cream Anmitsu (Vanilla ice cream with red bean paste and fruits). This one I have to say the red bean paste is not fantastic. 

 the Kushiyaki chef behind a glass separator, but the whole dining area was still very smokey. Something wasn't right with the exhaust system.

 Not a very spacious dining area but quite homey except for the smoke!!!! 

current offer

My overall comment on the taste of the food is medium. I would give it a 3 out of 5 stars. However the best part is that the pricing is very pocket friendly, even college students can afford to enjoy Japanese cuisine and ambiance here. The price of the skewers start from only IDR 12,000@ (min order of 2). Ocha (green tea) drink is free flow. 

Suggestion :

• Fix the exhaust system
• Train the waitresses to be more alert or maybe hire two more staff

These are all just my personal opinion and comment (not commissioned). They may be differ from other reviewers. Follow me for more reviews, have a nice day!

Find them here:

1. Address: Inter Continental MidPlaza hotel, LG Floor, Jalan Jend. Sudirman No.10-11, Jakarta Pusat, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta 10220

   Phone:(021) 5732030

   Business Hours:

    11:30 am – 2:00 pm, 6:00 – 10:00 pm

Review on Trip Advisor : Adehilman