Entertaining Jakarta’s increasingly demanding crowd becomes a renewed challenge for any restaurants in Jakarta, especially those that maintain special characteristics as fine-dining restaurants or as sky dining establishments.
Skye, being one of the best for the latter category, quite recently unveiled the appearance of Chef Hamish Lindsay as the head of the kitchen. As an NZ native, Chef Hamish unexpectedly prepared great surprises during a press lunch owing to his extensive experience. Let’s dig in!
While Skye is often associated as one of The Two Towers with Singapore’s Sky on 57, we must not neglect the fact that Skye has crafted its own fame and huge number of fans thanks to the breathtaking view from the top of current Jakarta, the vibrant atmosphere, the drinks, and its stern policy for dress code or taking pictures.
So what about the food? While I actually had heard from a few of my friends of their personal ups and downs with the dining experience, I was actually quite in awe with my very own experience of having the best from Chef Hamish.
Born and bred under the influence of Australian-NZ cuisines, where people would easily acknowledge it as another form of Western cuisine, Chef Hamish Lindsay is clearly not a person who satisfies himself with only just that. He travels through time and captivated by Thai cuisine during his stay in the country. Now with his Indonesian family, he’s more than excited to incorporate all his experience with the local touch as well.
During the press lunch, we sampled around three to four appetizers, mains, and desserts; which I have to highlight as highly balance, rich, and clearly an upgrade of quality under the reign of Chef Hamish. With the Thai touch that he gives, Skye’s current dishes become another interesting perspective especially with Jakarta’s peaked interest on the marriage between Western and Asian.
Once in while, let us do the highlight of the best meal on each course. I’d like to take sides also sometimes, mind you! 😀
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APPETIZERS
For appetizers, the highlight would be the double baked cheese souffle. Now, I have to be honest with you because I never had a souffle before for an opener and Chef Hamish proved that it does work. While the cheese factor was considerably decreased to allow us having the good feel of everything around it – such as the creamy sauce, the tomatoes, and the herbs; but all in all, it was a highly balanced dish that boosted me to start for the next.
The rest of the appetizers were also of good quality, but clearly the souffle won this round in terms of wholesomeness and creativity.
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MAIN COURSE
The mains, for me personally, were clearly dominated by the wonder of Asian flavor. Altogether with the white rice, I completely enjoyed the Thai-style stir-fried seafood. The crunchiness of the fresh vegetables, the balanced sour and spicy Thai sauce, and the seafood were more than I could ever ask. I’d like to have it all by myself next time and only with rice even though that might cost me more than IDR 150,000!
The contenders for this course gave a good fight as well and I’d pick both the seafood pasta and the sea bass for second position. However, as much as I enjoy the Black Angus tenderloin with the level of juiciness and the temperature level, I’d have it like steak frites rather than with mashed potatoes. Probably, it’s because that I like the whole meat feels clean when entering my mouth and with the mashed potatoes were all over the meat, it feels like everything got too mixed up.
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DESSERTS
Heading next for the desserts, it’s time for sticky date pudding to win the round. Call it my soft spot or being too whimsical about this pudding, but it was really highly enjoyable.
The mango cheesecake with passion fruit is also a good alternative for a refreshing end-note for the meals. The interesting part came from peanut butter panna cotta, especially those who enjoy their PB&J breakfast, but it proves to be too sinful for me although Chef Hamish strikes me as a person who came up cleverly with this kind of arrangements.
So, I think that’s it for now for taking sides. Overall, Skye has upgraded so much from its F&B department especially with this performance by Chef Hamish and I’d love to return back for more for his creations. Not only that you can enjoy the good view or the romantic setting, now you have more reason to come there. Justified!
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SKYE
Halal-friendly (some of the menu items contain alcohol and pork)
Suitable for vegetarians
Address:
Menara BCA, 56th fl., Jalan MH Thamrin, Jakarta – Indonesia
T: +62.21.2358.6996
Opening hours:
Everyday, TBA
Spend: IDR 250,000 – IDR 500,000 / person
RIAN FARISA 