Red Tomato, Lippo Mall Kemang Jakarta
Noona loves going back to her hometown, Jakarta, but one thing has not changed from this bustling city. The traffic. Oh my gawd. No wonder Noona's mum is never willing to drive her (yup Noona got herself a license but she totally forgot all those driving lessons) far away from home. The traffic in Jakarta is pretty much fucked up. Noona's cousin has to bear the two hours drive to reach Lippo Mall Kemang in South Jakarta from the West side where both of us reside. Obviously the first thing that we searched for in the mall is a place to eat and our decision fell onto Red Tomato.
From a glance, Red Tomato seems to be specialised in Italian pasta and pizza although it has its fair share of fusion dishes.
Oh right, if you are not used to the dine-in habit in Jakarta, well, for a start there is zero restaurant in Jakarta serving tap water for free because after all, the city's tap water is not really drinkable and second, restaurants are earning money from the beverages so yea. Noona's iced lychee tea is pretty big though.
While she does not know why her cousin decided to drink hot mint tea like some english dude having a tea time. Hahaha. The restaurant serves Dilmah tea.
Noona and her cousin were feeling pretty much glutton-ish that night because they ordered three heavy dishes to share amongst only the two of them. First is the pizza. Red Tomato has interesting cream pizza named Cream Funghi. It is topped with fresh mushroom, chopped beef bacon and mozzarella cheese. Sounds simple but taste so yummy nonetheless.
The second and third dishes are all pasta dishes. This is the fried chicken bolognaisebut instead of the usual spaghetti, cousin decided to be a bit different and pair the fried chicken with penne instead. Not bad, but I personally think that bolognaise goes better with spaghetti. The chicken is so so.
The last dish that we ordered is the fusion pasta named Dancing Pasta. No, the pasta cannot really dance (and that's better because otherwise, it will be a messy affair trying to eat them). The pasta is cooked with homemade oyster chili sauce and it has squid, shrimp, and mussels topped by bonito flakes. Well, Dancing Pasta seems like a variation of seafood pasta but it tastes pretty good though.
I have to say the pizza is my favourite. Ambience-wise, Red Tomato is a pretty cozy place to have a nice chat with friend or date.