Ramen 38 Sanpachi, Melawai — Restaurant in Jakarta

Really disapointed. Details as below.

We just came back from a Christmas Eve celebration and would have something special for a late dinner so we decided to go to Sanpachi which is around one-hour drive from our place.

The restaurant is pretty crowded so we had to wait for around 30 minutes to get a seat at around 11.30 pm. We ordered buta bara, aka ramen (pork) , grilled gyoza (chicken) , and some egg with chive dish (forgot the name). We also ordered a bowl of white rice.

11.45 we got our white rice and the egg and chive dish. Around 5 minutes later we got the aka ramen. We finished these dishes at around 12.05 and ready for the gyoza and buta bara, which would be really nice if we had it earlier with ramen and white rice. But its okay we waited and asked the waiter on these dishes since we have been waiting quite a while The waiter came back checking if we are waiting for our gyoza and we responded saying it was gyoza and buta bara. It seems that they did not register the buta bara yet and said that it may take a while to prepare both dishes.

Around 12.15 we got the gyoza but not the buta bara. 12.25 we asked again and they said it is still not ready. So we waited for another 5 minutes but we were already full and had enough waiting. So, after 1 hour we decided to leave at 12.30 am with our white rice not even finished (we waited for the buta bara!!)

To be honest, we came for the buta bara and even decided not to have our dinner served during the christmas eve celebration to really enjoy it. This is why we were utterly disappointed. We have come many times before and perhaps will not come back again in the future.

To be fair, the food is fine. Quick review as below.

*Aka Ramen: the spicy soup is quite earthy but do not have that mant flavour. Which is good in a way, but slightly underwhelming. The shocking part is it only come with one thin-sliced pork! Idk if this has been like that before or they forgot to put another one or two slices more. It has also a little pieace of pork in it (the size of a small thumb), which I'm not sure if it was intentional or not.

*Grilled Chicken Gyoza: this is a must-have! It is tasty, crispy on the outside and juicy in the inside. Truly phenomenal! Would even be nicer if we had it when we still had our ramen.

*White rice: it was normal white rice which was already cold after 1 hour.

*egg and chive. dish: its okay, nothing special. It got the salty soysauce flavour.

Overall, the food is fine but the service isn't. Funny how easy it is for a customer to detest a restaurant by this kind of incident. We had also experienced similir experience in the past when we needed to wait for a long time for a dish, but never this long. Hope no one else got the same experience as we did. I know for sure we won't have to experience it again, as we won't ever come back.

(NB: did not even take a picture...

RAMEN AT MELAWAI🍜

This is one ramen that you should try when you are visiting Blok M. It is Ramen 38 Sanpaichi, located at Melawai, Kamome Building. I think they have already had some branches (1 cabang yang aku tau di Sarinah). I am trying to review the one at Melawai ya. Dulu sih dia terkenal karena buka 24 jam, but now mungkin karena covid, dia buka sampai jam 1 pagi. But, it’s good though you can have decent ramen at 1 AM in the morning, right?

So, these are what I ordered: Tonkatsu Ramen 💰IDR 75,000 I ordered the pork one at that time. The broth is thick enough, tapi bukan yang bold gitu. Terus tonkatsu nya tebelnya pas, so decent. I do appreciate all the condiments were completed at the table. Overall, the ramen is good, but I haven’t found yet ramen in Jakarta that I am craving and definitely will come back.

Curry Ramen 💰IDR 77,000 At first, I thought it would be weird to combine this 2 foods (I don’t know whether it is a common thing in Japan or not). Tapi, it’s a good options juga kok. I may say it is almost the same with hokkien mee. Kuahnya yang kental bikin sensasinya sedikit berbeda. Ini cocok banget buat orang yang mau coba ramen dengan kuah kental 😁.

Gyoza for 8 pieces 🤩💰IDR 55,000 I like this! Gyoza nya aku cocok sih. Isiannya pas dan savoury banget. Keringnya juga pas jadi ada sensasi crispy nya. You must dip it with black vinegar to make the overall flavor rich🫰🏻. They also have the 12 pcs portion.

Overall, it is a good ramen place to come. Though it is not authentic one (I do need your recommendation to find the authentic one guys! 😅), rasanya udah oke kok. This can be your destination for good...

I came here at afternoon along with some friends, we all ordered ramen and shared gyoza. I ordered the Buta Kakuni Tonkotsu Ramen.

For the ramen, the broth itself was creamy, though it tasted a bit more like chicken. The noodles were cooked perfectly, though the star of the show was definitely the pork, it was cooked until tender and seasoned perfectly.

The gyoza was also great, generous amount of filling with crisp and thin skin, though it was a bit dry inside.

Service was around pretty good, the staff was helpful on helping finding seats and recommendations on the menu. Food arrived at a decent time as well for a restaurant that packed.

The main issue with this place is the atmosphere, half the ACs seem to not be working properly so it was quite hot inside, especially with how hot the weather has gotten recently. There's also no separation between smoking and non-smoking room, so we had to deal with the smell for as long as our dinner.

Overall good food, just needs improvements to the...