American Bistro – Tin Pan Alley

Jul 20, 2012

eddydye ⋅ Restaurant Review ⋅ american, bistro ⋅ 4 comments

Tin Pan Alley, an authentic American bistro which the name came from collection of New York City publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the US in the late 19th century and early 20th century opened two years ago in Jakarta, September 2010. Back at that time, this restaurant was very busy and become a favourite place to hang out for many people, especially on the weekend.

Since their concept is American bistro, therefore you will find many type of dishes like burgers, sandwiches, steaks and many other foods that inspired by American tradition. The restaurant has a vintage interior, I can tell you that the ambience is quite nice there. Of all the good name of Tin Pan Alley before, and the concept and the ambience as well, I didn’t had such a great experience there a few weeks ago.

Well straight to my experience, it was when I’m trying to use the “DEAL” vouchers from one of the Deal-of-the-day company in Jakarta. The promo was quite interesting, and that is why I would like to buy the vouchers. Happy to get such a good benefit from the voucher by only paying less than it should be, will never result in a great experience without the support from the merchant / participant. When I was trying to reserve my table for using this voucher, They always said that they are already fully booked, even until the dinner time. Well I know I reserve for the weekend, and for lunch time only, it’s fair if they say they’re full on a specific time, but full house until dinner time? Such a big question mark in my head, since the restaurant is not an all-you-can-eat concept, yet even when I say, its okay if I couldn’t make any reservation, I would love to wait for my table when I arrived there. But they just keep “rejecting”.

Finally after arguing with their staff over the phone, they said they will make a confirmation in the evening (I was calling in the afternoon). But none of them has contacted me, and the day after, I have to call them again checking my reservation, and shorten story, finally I got my table for lunch time that day.

Well, the more disappointment is when I arrived at the restaurant, I can see a lot of empty table, not occupied, and even I can count the total guests there just using my two hands. So forget the service, and straight to the foods. That day I had a chance to try Chicken Wings with Red-Devil Buffalo Sauce, Grilled Orange Glazed Salmon, and Pork Chop with Homemade Cranberry Sauce.

As for the starter, the chicken wing was battered then deep-fried and finally tossed with the red-devil buffalo sauce, it was quite creamy, and they were using chilli powder to make it spicy. Interesting one, but the wings were not so crispy, yet it came after we finished all the main course.

The first main course that I tried was the Grilled Salmon, brushed with an orange glaze mixture and served with sauteed vegetables and mashed potatoes. This salmon was just okay, and so was the sauce, but the good point is the orange flavour wasn’t overpowering.

After the Salmon, we had a Pork Chop with homemade cranberry sauce. It was seasoned nicely, but the pork was too overcooked, so it was not quite juicy, but I have no doubt for the cranberry sauce, it was such a nice sauce, a right combination of sweet, sour, and peppery sauce.

Overall, we did not have a really great time there, maybe because we’re quite disappointing at the beginning, but actually the foods were not bad, and the ambience was nice. Been there lately? Anyway I just saw that they have another special “DEAL”, perhaps you want to try one =)

Tin Pan Alley Jakarta

021-30007881

Thamrin Nine Podium /UOB lobby lv #F,

Jl. Mh Thamrin No.10,

Jakarta, Indonesia 10230

Facebook.com/TinPanAlleyJkt

 

Chicken Wings Rp.55.000++

Grilled Orange Glazed Salmon Rp.129.000++

Pork Chop Cranberry Sauce Rp.115.000++