A Letter for Dining
Unlike other restaurants with single themes for their cuisines, Letter D Cuisine & Bar offers a modern twist on Asian food with mostly Indonesian and Thai cuisine on the menu. The price range is quite humble for such a pretty venue.
Owned by the famous Degan Septoadji, known for his role as a judge in Master Chef Indonesia, Chef Degan proudly presents his new restaurant in Gandaria, Jakarta. The Letter D Cuisine & Bar represents his culinary journey. Each dish is an expression of his extensive travels around the globe, coupled with wave upon wave of exposure to different cultural culinary influences, adding up to a world of unique, palatable local and international tastes. He is determined to absorb all that he can of both the culture and cuisine of every country in which he cooks. That’s why this restaurant has so many varieties on the menu. At Letter D Cuisine & Bar you will find Western, Asia, Italian and Indonesian cuisine.
Humbly greeted by the chef himself and Nike Kurnia, his wife who manages the place, they explained about Chef Degan’s creations. As an Indonesian, Chef Degan has been around the globe to learn and explore the culinary world, yet his calling is to make Indonesian cuisine well known. Through his dedication to the culinary world, he opened Café Degan in Bali, which offers true Indonesian cuisine. Five years later, he opened Letter D Cuisine & Bar in January 2015.
One of the must-tries is Chef Degan’s signature creation, the flavourful Salmon Lodeh, a super-moist slow-roasted salmon fillet on a bed of vegetables in coconut broth. Lodeh is an authentic Indonesian cuisine with coconut milk and vegetables, sweet and tasty. The savoury, slightly sweet coconut milk is blended perfectly with the delicate salmon, taking this traditional dish to the next level. It is such a brilliant dish. There are a few more selections from the grill that will suit your taste buds.
The refreshing Seared Prawn Avocado is a nutrient-packed salad with a tomato-parsley salsa, quail egg and a citrus-honey vinaigrette. Talay Pao is another one to try. It’s a dish from Thailand containing assorted pan-seared seafood with garlic, chilli, coriander, fish sauce, lime, asparagus and green beans. It was beautiful to look at as it is quite colourful on the plate and tastes fresh. This dish is served with a bowl of hot steamed rice, which makes it just perfect. As for the dessert, a cake would be perfect! They offer a different cake each day and you can also find Tanamera coffee here. Or if you love Indonesian cuisine, you can order Bubur Sumsum.
This two-storey restaurant is quite spacious. The first level is dedicated for dining and is non-smoking, while the second floor is for the bar, serving cocktails, beer and wine until past midnight on weekends. This floor is a smoking area. You can also dine on the second floor. You can see their semi-open kitchen as you enter the main door.
Unlike some restaurants that prefer to have different concepts or themes on each of their floors, the Letter D Cuisine & Bar has almost the exact same setting on every floor; the restaurant keeps it simple, yet unique, with a bit of an edgy style. The room is dominated by wood and the floor with a classic pattern. The service was very polite and friendly and very well trained. This restaurant surely controls the quality of food and all the ingredients, with the chef himself making sure of that. What a wonderful dining experience!
