Bricks Kitchen and Lounge, Jakarta

What do you get when a breathtaking view is paired with fusion cuisine? Enter 'Bricks Kitchen and Lounge' (BKL).

BKL, along with its sister restaurant, Skyview Terrace is strategically located at the top floor of a mall and provides diners with a view of Jakarta's skyline and an aerial view of the macet (local lingo for 'traffic jam').

The management of Plaza Semanggi has converted its rooftop into a food emporium and offers a mixture of various cuisines and food establishments, one of them being BKL. We were part of a spillover effect as the initial restaurant that we wanted to patronize was full.

The view from the other restaurants were better as it offered the 'Kuningan' skyline, but enough about the view. Let's eat.....

The ambience was great, had it just rained and the air was cooler than usual. It was a tad hard to see what was offered on the menu as the only lighting provided was from a table top candle.

Prices were reasonable (about Rp25000 to Rp80,000 per main) and the menu offerings ranged from local Indo delights to pasta to steak.

Rp1000 = Rm0.30+-

I ordered the Prawn Balado while Mary ordered their 'Custom pizza', containing ham, roast chicken, salami and sausage strips.

The pizza was a medium-sized portion was still too big for Mary, giving me a chance to try a slice. It was well worth the Rp30,000. It was juicy and oven-baked to perfection. Definitely one of the best I've had and a must-try, if you ask me.

Then came my order, 'Prawn Balado.' The presentation was simple and nice. There was a '1 chilli' rating for this dish, indicating that this dish was 'spicy'. I literally cried when I ate this dish as the amount of chilli used was just too much to bear. I had to abandon the dish halfway and down a glass of ice-water. Good thing Mary couldn't finish her pizza and lucky for me, I didn't order dishes that had 2 or more chilli ratings.

Great place to bring a date but it gets extremely packed on weekends. But I went with my mom and wife...

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