Third pit stop of the day! After a few hours of coffee break, we were ready for another big meals. Bring it on, baby! We don't even feel full at all. This time we decided to go middle eastern all the way, thus we decided to go to Al-Jazeerah restaurant at Cikini. This is the first time I visit the restaurant. I usually order their food via telephone and have them deliver it to my house. Since my foodies friends and I want to explore the whole Cikini/Pecenongan/ Menteng area, so why not?

You won't have a hard time finding this particular restaurant as they have this huge signboard in front of their restaurant. The interior brings up a middle eastern feeling in every corner. They even have a separated room for man and woman. Oh by the way we also heard that they provide camel meat. When we ask about it to their manager, he said the meat came about twice a month and you have to preorder it way before the day.

Famous for their HUGE portion of rice, we chose to order the Mandi Laham and also the Arayes. Mandi Laham is a marinated rice with a big piece of grilled lamb. Meanwhile the arayes is a grilled pita bread filled with a lamb, tomato and onion.

I've always been a huge fan of their Mandi or Briyani. My family always order it whenever we held a buka puasa bersama in my grandma's house. The portion was huge and enough for the whole family, the seasoning of the lamb (or chicken) blends nicely with the rice. I love the rice just by itself too. It has this oily but yumm taste and perfect seasoning all the way. Yes. I'm not good with words so you have to try it by yourself. But if I have to choose between the Mandi or Briyani, I would prefer the Mandi since it has more flavor, more fragrant and somehow made me feel like I was somewhere in middle eastern. Just kidding. I never been to middle east so I don't know how does it feels to be there. Hey! Maybe one of you could buy me a ticket ... hehe :)

As for the Arayes, we ordered the lamb and cheese arayes. Since I'm not a cheese eater, I can't really tell much about this food. I think it was just okay but I don't really fond of it. From the pictures on the menu, I expect the arayes to be more crispy but I was wrong. It was kinda chewy but still good. But as I said before, I don't really fond of it.

However the Mandi Laham was nice as always. So you better go grab your car keys and drive yourself to this place cause you really really really don't want to miss this one.

-------

Al-Jazeerah

Jl. Raden Saleh no 58

Cikini, Jakarta

(+62) 21 391 4444

(+62) 21 314 6108

Food          : 3,5/5

Ambiance  : 3/5

Price          : 3/5

Service      : 3/5