Indonesia has become a melting pot of budding ideas for new or the renewal of culinary concepts. New restaurants and cafes now can be found even in residential areas for Bandung and Jakarta with various genre. They featured modern, good-looking exterior interior plus equipped themselves with native chefs. Even local cuisine restaurants refurbished themselves to follow on with the trend and though resulting in increasing price for the food, they now seem to be more classy and ready to survive nowadays competition.

What they seem to forgot aside from the image is actually the nature of food itself. What matters here in Indonesia from what I know is actually not always the sense of the utter elegance of the establishments, the impeccable service, or even the price. It’s the taste that matters for most people. The concept of gastronomy is not always from one side only though but from every aspects that count. That’s my personal point of view, but most people probably not.

But if it’s really taste that matters, then Daisy’s Steak & Grill is utterly failing in that and falling into the abyss! I was actually sad to see this new establishment in Bandung, featuring a popular genre of Western and Steak, heavily invested itself with a good kitchen, modern utensils and kitchenwares, POS system, and of course, big capacity for customers but not in a shabby way like Abuba nor let’s say D’Cost.

It was a cloudy then rainy afternoon when I came there. From a short glance, this place was promising actually. Quite decently decorated, clean, probably quite nice at night, good kitchen like I told you, and a very helpful staff assisted us with adequate knowledge about the products. For a starter test, we headed straight to the main dish. I picked a medium-well local beef 200 gr Tenderloin Steak with BBQ sauce. A very original dish which makes it good as a preliminary examination for a steakhouse. My mom picked her all-time favorite everytime she comes to a steakhouse (Suis Butcher in this case), a Mix-Grill Steak dish, combination of a beef steak usually a sirloin steak around 100-125 gr, chicken steak, lamb chop, and a piece of sausage with mushroom sauce. This also proved to be a very good choice because you can taste almost everything a steakhouse has to offer.

Aside from the sauce which consists always of the Three Musketeers, BBQ; Mushroom; and Black Pepper, here in Daisy’s you also need to choose what do you want with your taters and they got a very extensive choice. Home Fries (the usual French fries), Wedges, Waffle Chips (hmmm…), Baked Potato (probably like Wendy’s), Mashed Potato, and Lyonnaise (stir fry diced potato with herbs and onions). I picked the Home Fries, again for the basic reason and luckily they cut their own potatoes so it’s not the supermarket type which I hate so much when they serve it in restaurants. My mom got the Lyonnaise because it seemed unique.

The waiting time was around 15 minutes so for the mean time I decided to stroll around the place. A quite vast place but quite nicely decorated, seemed friendly, and sofas inside plus the quite sophisticated kitchen with POS. That’s a start I guess. Then came along the steaks! The appearance of it was tempting and neatly decorated but no hotplates though. It’s okay though. With high expectations we tucked in the food and seriously speaking, it’s very disappointing!

First of all, the meat was cold. I didn’t understand why, but it must be something with the order of serving. Let’s say that they grilled the meat first but it took too much time waiting for the taters to be ready or the sauce perhaps or even the veggies. Luckily the sauce was warm enough to cover it up. Secondly, I didn’t feel the juiciness and the meat wasn’t even succulent. I even tried my mom’s chicken and lamb chop but they’re still the same. Bland and disappointing. Lucky for Daisy’s that the meats were tender, if they weren’t I’d be more than furious. Finally, it’s the sauce. I didn’t feel any passion in it. It’s thin and didn’t help at all except because the meat was cold and it helped to warm it up a bit but that’s not a good thing too right?

Again seriously speaking, wake up Daisy’s! You guys invested a lot in your good establishment but why can’t you serve good steak?! I wouldn’t dare to try the rest of your dishes just to humiliate you more. If it’s the amount of patrons you’re after then that’s a lame excuse because now Indonesians are more knowledgeable about food and I’m the usher of the standards and I gotta tell you that your steak is no good and you gotta fix it quick. No more excuses! Even my mom can differentiate a good dish or not and here, you’re dealing with an aficionado. So wake up okay!

I can’t blame people who wish to come though, because the place itself was nice indeed. But these days, gastronomy is not about the food itself, but it’s what surrounding it. Though it’s a shame that the very basic value of it, the tastiness of the food, was desecrated and in this case by Daisy’s. Learn more will ya? It’s not easy but it’s doable. Don’t just fret and be a local hero, but think globally today. You got competitors way better than you but they run more simple business. It’d be shameful if you couldn’t even serve a good fundamental dish like Tenderloin Steak. What about the rest? That’s why I really shouldn’t try unless you decided to provoke my rage and I’ll be like on my mocking spree mood. In short, fix the taste, hire new cook if must, and reconcile with me. Period.

DAISY’S STEAK AND GRILL

Jl. Ciliwung no. 23, Bandung

RSVP : 022 – 91509950

Email : daisys_bandung@yahoo.com

Dishes and Drinks: Sandwich, Burger/Hot Dog, Pasta, Steak, Butter Rice

Recommended Dishes: None currently. Really.

Reservation: Recommended for nights and weekend

Operating Hours: TBA (assume normal operation hours)

Methods of Payment: Cash, Debit Cards, Credit Cards

THE JUDGMENT:

1. PRICE (6/10)

Price ranging from IDR 25,000 to IDR 50,000 for either appetizers and main dishes and that’s for local beef of course. Still too much for Bandung and they’d prefer Suis Butcher who has better experience and taste of course.

For two people the total would range around IDR 100,000 to IDR 120,000.

2. INTERIOR (5/10)

Okay for me though you have to sit on a backless wood bench. Luckily they got rooms with sofas inside though surprisingly with low tables, definitely not a good place to eat except for drinks and desserts. But in a steakhouse? I suppose not.

3. SERVICE (6/10)

Quite helpful, knowledgeable, and surprisingly took quite long for the dishes to come. It’s quicker when I was in Alibaba and they serve hot steak on a hotplate. Not a cold one like here.

4. TASTE (4/10)

Terrible is probably too much, but ain’t good at all would be the best phrase.

5. OVERALL (5.25/10)

Better close it down unless you give some senses to what you sell, Daisy. Though I wish you luck on your endeavor.