August Restaurant — Restaurant in Jakarta

4 out of 5. On the flavor-wise only it should be 3 out of 5. But i mark it 4 stars because of the creativity and originality of the menu. Its not a fine dining establishment so adjust your expectation before come.

We tried "Chef Tasting Menu" the excerpt of the standing ala-carte menu and off-menu "Omakase style". Its a 12-courses dish consist of 3 entree snack, 3 appetizer, 3 mains, and 3 desserts ( if my memory serve me right).

Lets start with a the positve: -Service is good.; Staff knowledge is limited ( no in-depth knowledge). -Time between each dish is on-point. The sequence of the 12-courses dish is neatly arranged to make orchestra of flavor from intro to climax and closure. Plating is "so-so" not a woww factor. But not bad also. Price to value is good, perfectly priced not under nor over, after judging from the quality, time, effort and level of service.

Not so good: In overall the dishes lack of character, light taste doesn't mean lack of character. In most dishes the flavor is good, but that just it. Nothing special, certain dish are bit unbalance (i will detailed it below) in term of the flavor resonance with each element within it.

Overview of each dish (not all, but has significant affect) The olive bread snack appetizer is quite unique but not magnificent. Its just like a fancy garlic bread afterall. A more hint in olive is advisable.

Octopus is the worst; octopus is all about texture (chewie), that perhaps most local not fond of it. The octopus in the dish is very soft almost like fish-cake. That alone already killed my appetite.

Cobia fish dish (Cobia is local sea-fish). The sauce kill the fish instantenously, we cannot taste the fish at all, only the sauce.The lingering after-taste is bad (its almost like msg. But i know its not that)

Pork Belly is diasspointment; its like chinese style roast pork belly (siobak in local chinese). skin still crisp which is good. 90% fat almost no meat in mine. 1-2 bite is ok after that big no. The sour herb salad did not give any woww factor not enough to balance the fattiness. Overall its just a boring dish for me.

Foie Grass PB&J; this for me like foie grass decontructed with peanut-butter & jelly as oppose to traditional french style type. The foie grass itself is a muse. We cannot taste the foie-grass properly in the dish. In essence, its a confusing dish of what is the star of the show, the foie grass or the PB&J?

The Striploin steak is average, dont expect a steakhouse quality here. Made into more to medium doneness rather to rare-or medium rare. the velvet potatoes is killing the beef. A suggestion is to ask the customer for the desired doneness. A suggested input for the dish is the salt. A herb salt using lime or spice is sufficient to keep the dish simple and elegant.

The 3 dessert IMHO, is the savior, They are very good, has unique character and balance flavor. The tea ice cream and the coffee dessert is top-notch. This alone is worth the try just to come to August. The smoke vanilla ice cream still need a bit fine-tuning to tune up the smokiness and tune down the cookies intentisity.

In conclusion, its a good place to have new quite creative dish outside of typical dishes. At the end the flavor is just so-so and nothing special or strong point to keep me...

We love this place so much that we've visited twice in a span of a month. I really appreciate the simplicity of the menu, it's not too abstract that you need to really think how you feel about the dishes. Nothing too foreign to our tastebuds, and always an enjoyable meal.

Some of the reviews I've read have said it's nothing special and perhaps that can be quite true to some, especially those who do not appreciate the art of cooking. To read August's pork belly being compared to Pluit/PIK's is rather outrageous, but to each their own.

I think August really stands out in the techniques they use to cook each dish. Each and every dish is cooked to perfection and when I say this, it's not just about the taste (Egg that's half cooked yet not a runny yolk? Come on!), but also the presentation of it. Though I agree some of the dishes aren't TOO out of the ordinary, August never fails to deliver a fantastic experience each time.

I highly suggest not going in big groups to fully enjoy each dish. Not to mention, it is not kid friendly so leave your little ones at home. Whenever my husband and I visit, we mostly sit in silence and savor each bite, never wanting it to end. If you love seeing all the action, request for the tasting counter.

This is not where you come to catch up with friends, this is not where you come as a huge family, this is where you truly enjoy every bite of your meal, preferably with a good glass of wine/cocktail. (Psst, my favorite is Agosto. My husband also claims that their Negroni is the best in Jakarta.)

Their service is top notch. Super hands on and very high touch service, those you get in 5 star establishments. They greet you by name, they would even remember if you've visited before and which dishes you'd had -- in my opinion, this is on another level.

I'd like to disagree with some of the reviews that said that their steak wasn't good (or anything special), to me, it was perfect, especially with how they paired it with the king oyster mushroom. Though I would say the portion is pretty small, but just enough so you don't get bored of the dish.

My favorite dishes would be the black cod, their scallops with Lembang corn (the corn is amazing), and their tartares are so good. The desserts have always been very lovely and on my second visit, I was SO excited for dessert the moment I sat down. The green apple dessert was just nothing like you'd get in Jakarta.

I would say because of how close my two visits were, there were a lot of repetition in the menus served -- not that I mind but something to take note in case you were planning your next visit.

All in all, in my humble opinion, this is currently the best restaurant in Jakarta. I am already planning my next visit.

Thanks Budi for always saying hi to us and making each conversation like a catch up!

Lastly, to quote from the movie The Menu, “Do not eat. Taste. Savour. Relish. Consider every morsel that you place inside your mouth....

One of the most highly rated restaurant in Jakarta that even need some time to do reservation. Even they asked 500K per person when you reserve. When we were there, there's no ala carte menu. Only 2 menus available. Chef's tasting and Chef's Journey. There were 5 of us and we all order Chef's Journey for 1.650K per person not including drinks. Expect to add another 100 to 300K per person when ordering non alcoholic drinks, and lots more when you order the alcoholic ones.

There were 17 menus in total. Some are really hit the mark. Some we don't really like. The octopus all of us in the table don't really like it. The other is good.. Not the best food you've ever tasted... But its good nonetheless.

The lamb is super tender, the service is excellent, the ambience is on point. And both chefs/owner of this place actually came to our table several times to mingle with us for a bit while telling what food that they served. Really appreciate they taking their time to go to each table randomly.

One thing for nitpicking though, as we were just came from Nama*z Dining like 2 weeks before, we are comparing the two resto naturally whether we like it or not. Yes Its different concept I know.. Price also different so the comparison is not apple to apple 100% but because we spent more than 1mil per person you will compare them naturally.

Well just one thing, overall experience Nama*z can't be beaten, and I'm actually really full after 16 courses there. After go back from here? I actually still ate Indomie again at home 😂😂

However... The overall food, August is better. The best food from N**z can't beat even the 2nd best course here. Some of the courses really slap you in the face with flavor. So why I gave food 4 stars? Well only because of the octopus. For us in the table its just taste a little weird. All the other courses hits home though.. And they HIT HARD!

So in conclusion, you want experience? Nz is better.. Definitely better, but if you want damn good food overall, you may try here. The service is better that Nz, the chefs who comes to table is really appreciated, and the ambience is better than N**z. You gotta at least try both rhen...