Expatriate Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Jakarta

I came craving pasta and with high expectations. Ordered one CLASSIC SPAGHETTI CARBONARA and one INSALATA ROMANA. Expected a REAL, AUTHENTIC, CLASSIC carbonara (egg yolks, parmigiano, at least a pancetta if u can't do guanciale, salt and pepper).

Out came the carbonara first. Weird, but okay maybe it was faster to make pasta dish than antipasti? The carbonara tasted off right on the first bite. It also smelled and tasted a little bit sweet, had me thinking they used cream. Had the staff check with the kitchen. They only used egg yolk, they said. And then i found it,

ONIONS.

(what kind of CLASSIC carbonara uses onions? 😭 they should change the menu name)

And came the caesar salad. Also tasted off but whatever. The dressing I later found out was not home made. Disappointing. Not worth the price.

The first staff I asked to make sure to ask the kitchen about the pork in carbonara, they said it was Parma Ham. The second one said it was pancetta. It was a little thin and smelled a bit sweet, so I had doubts it was actually pancetta. For the cheese, they used regular parmesan instead of something more specific and artisan like parmigiano (or grana padano at least, it really isn't hard to get). For the price, you can get a more authentic carbonara with guanciale and parmigiano anyplace else.

Went home full of disappointment. I hope they sent the utensils back as I left it as a message to the chef. Won't be eating pasta...

Going to Expatriate with my family because my brother knew the owner, Chef Carmine and said some good things about the restaurant.

It's a bit disappointing at first knowing that the owner is out on vacation but all is not that bad, the maître d' is also capable of handling the kitchen in the absence of the owner.

The restaurant itself definitely have an Italian vibe to it, you don't have to dress formally as in other fine dinigs restaurant.

I went with the Omakase set 5 Chef selection.

Omakase is like gacha in real life but you always win, you don't get to choose what you get but you can say your allergies and they won't prepare food that has your allergies.

I had a bunch of things that i said i don't want such as seafoods and veggies, hence with the lack of greens in my orders.

In the end i was quite satisfied with what i get on the gachas and it was good enough, definitely recommends this restaurant if you want to have a fine dining experience with the lowest cost.

The restaurant currently has 20% off on wines and also offers wine pairing that combines the best wines for certain meals to make the best out of your experience.

And also buy 1 get 1 on pizzas.

Would definitely come back to this place and i hope to experience it with the owner in the kitchen.

Would...

Came here without reservation for their Valentine's Day event. Needless to say, I was quite disappointed, and expected much better standards from Expatriate.

In total, we spent close to 2 hours with the majority of the time waiting. Our orders took so long to complete, and the order of the course is all mashed up; main course was served even before the first course arrived, etc. They even delivered the wrong food to our table.

The waiters seem unorganized, although they apologized, and asked our table (3 times!) - which ones were not served yet. The food was quite good to be honest, but the bad service ruined our mood for the evening.

I visited Expatriate 2 years ago for the same Valentine event, and the service was astronomically better than this year; the waiter delivers the dish in order; and they waited until we were done with our dish before serving another plate - and with minimal delay. They were also very courteous and knowledgeble about the wine pairings.

I am expecting better from...