Having made a name for himself in Bali for his much beloved Sarong and Mama San restaurants, consistently sighted as two of the best eateries on the island, Will Meyrick brought his unique brand of refined Asian street food dining to Indonesia’s capital with E&O, which is short for Eastern and Oriental. Located in the posh Mega Kuningan business district, E&O exists somewhere between Sarong and Mama San, exuding a trendy, lively vibe that is a perfect fit for Jakarta’s increasingly sophisticated F&B scene. The restaurant’s brassiere decor is inviting without being intimidating, while white-linen topped tables are spaced close enough to create an appropriately boisterous atmosphere.
The attentive servers carefully guide diners through the dense menu, which is built around the idea of communal eating. Mains come in huge portions which would be almost impossible to finish one-on-one. As with his other restaurants, Meyrick is not interested in fusion cuisine or putting his own unique spins on the Thai, Vietnamese and Burmese dishes he serves at E&O. Rather, he hopes to create an ideal version of each, using the best ingredients he can source and balancing the heady mix of herbs and spices in each dish to achieve maximum impact.
Many of the menu’s most impressive dishes come in the form of immense curries. The roasted duck curry with lychees finds a fine balance between the luscious, slightly gamey duck meat, the delicate spicing of the red curry and the sweetness of lychee. The massaman curry of slow-braised lamb shank is thick and unctuous in just the right way, the fierce spiciness of the dish managing not to overwhelm the flavour of the meat. (www.eandojakarta.com; Menara Rajawali, 1st Floor, Jl. DR Ide Anak Agung Gede Agung Lot #5.1, Kawasan Mega Kuningan, Jakarta; +62 21 2902 3418)
