On offer the day we visisted Publik Markette – crispy pork belly (Rp 155k). Photo: Coconuts Media
Coconuts Critic’s Table – The Ismaya Group controls a big chunk of Jakarta’s nightlife and F&B scene. Their restaurant portfolio includes such multiple outlet eateries as SushiGroove, Pizza e Birra, Fook Yew, Kitchenette and Tokyo Belly. While I’ve eaten and enjoyed myself at each of those outlets, I’ve never had a really great meal at any of them either. My feeling has been that Ismaya values concept and branding over food quality, even at their higher end establishments like Social House and Skye. The group know the formula to make a place trendy and they’ve got the marketing machine to make it happen, but, for I’ve always felt like I could find better food for the same price elsewhere.
So my expectations for Ismaya’s latest venture, Publik Markette, located in the newly reopened section of Grand Indonesia, were not the highest.
But the Markette won me over. This is the first Ismaya restaurant where I feel like the food is the primary concern and everything else is in service to that. The concept (which is quite original, for Jakarta) is serving rustic, unpretentious dishes made with “market fresh” ingredients. That is to say, the focus is on creating a great eating experience rather than a place that’s cool to hang out at.
On of the most interesting things about Publik Markette does not have a printed food menu. Instead you pick from the restaurant’s centerpiece, a food gallery in front of the kitchen offering up a mouthwatering cornucopia of tempting dishes. The real kicker is that the food selection changes every day, depending on what produce is in season.
After you’re seated, your server will tell you about the ordering system. They give you little flags with your table number printed on them and then you go up to the display counter and order away. It feels a bit like going to a very fancy cafeteria, but you don’t actually pick up the food items as you order. In fact, the food in the display gallery, especially the main course dishes, are not always what you’ll get. That’s a good thing, since you don’t necessarily want anything that’s been sitting out too long – they’ll prepare your order properly back in the kitchen and then bring it out to your table.
The food gallery offers up a wide variety of baked goods, salads, vegetables, desserts and main dishes. Everything looks vibrant and vegetarians will be happy to know that Publik Markette has some of the best looking selection of veggies you’ll see in the city. Some of the dishes on display the day we went included beetroot salad, quinoa salad and roasted pumpkin.
Almost all of the main dishes are priced in the Rp. 100k- Rp 150k price range, which may result in a bit of sticker shock for some, but the portion sizes are reasonably big once you see them plated. For our main we went with the crispy pork belly, which came with a choice of sides and some salad. The skin on the pork belly was awesomely crisp and crackly but the meat underneath was a tad overdone. Like most of the main dishes, the proteins are served rustically with little adornment. In the case of the pork, a bit of sauce, either sweet or acidic, would have taken the dish to the next level, but overall it was still quite satisfying.
Although the mains are pretty pricey you can certainly build a light meal around some of the smaller items in the display. Probably the best thing we tried that day was the fruitti di mare foccacia (Rp. 40k). Topped like a pizza with mozzarella , marinara sauce and seafood, the soft, spongy, herbalicious foccacia underneath was the real hero of the dish. Bread is definitely one of their strong points here.
We also tried a serving of the roasted pumpkin (Rp. 40k), which I quite enjoyed but my eating companion did not because it was surprisingly spicy (something not indicated by its label).
In terms of service, everything came out promptly enough (though its not quite the instant gratification you would hope for after seeing the food display). There are chefs barking out orders loudly in the kitchen, which is a nice bit of culinary theatrics (if you’re into Hell’s Kitchen) but does detract from the pleasant, airy atmosphere of the venue.
Quibbles aside, we came away pretty impressed by what we saw and ate at Publik Markette. With a concept as ambitious as this there’s bound to be some early going glitches, but the concept is tantalizing and leaves us hungry to try more. Hopefully it will be successful, proving that Jakarta’s F&B scene is moving towards a more sincere appreciation of quality food over atmosphere and trendiness.
Coconut’s Critics Table reviews are done anonymously. We pay for our own meals – no freebies here.
Publik Markette
Grand Indonesia
East Mall, Ground Floor
0878-5258-2515
https://www.facebook.com/PublikMarkette
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