Take sushi japanese restaurant

Best sushi period? Not quite. But impressively high quality ingredients are at use here.

Even if you don't like sushi there are plenty of other foods here. What keeps me going back are the sea grape salad (it is a kind of seaweed) called Umi Budo here.

They have a surprising amount of fresh (live) shellfish here including abalone and crabs if different species.

Good care of the ingredients and the cooked shellfish I had such as the cockles and some kind of clams (venus clam i think) were done to perfection.  The clams were done with butter shoyu sauce. Definitely get that...the resulting sauce is more of a thick broth that you shouldn't waste even a drop.

The fried little shrimp is a better popcorn than the best theater popcorn. The flesh is still juicy and briny while the head and the skin is perfectly crisp. No plasticky left over of the shell/head.

Not much more need to be said of the tuna trio that includes the otoro and chutoro. Just look at the photo (sorry it is missing one piece each of the otoro and chutoro)

Better than mom's

Kawana sushi - block m

Location:
When you come in from the gate next to the papaya supermarket on melawai, immediately turn right. This is the T junction at the big hotel that is on your left. Sushi kawana is on your right side.

Price:
On the pricy side but not outrageous. A sashimi moriawase was Rp 250k consisting of 14 pieces.

Food:
But everything was fresh, very fresh. Even the surf clam that is usually chewy was not. It was just crisp and has a great texture. Nothing was fishy smelling.

I also ordered a couple of grilled skewers. The cooking level was dead on if a little under seasoned for the chicken skin one. For the garlic, it was inconsistent. One was perfect and the other skewer was under seasoned as well as undercooked. 

Last, I ordered okra skewers. While the flavor was there, it was served room temperature. And it was limp. 

Service:

Pretty good and attentive if a bit overbearing. 

Recommendation:
Special occasion only. Kaihomaru provides a better value but the food here is definitely better.

Caprese - Kota Kasablanka

Burger - dry, flavorless and in general not too good
Pizza - flavor wise it was okay, thin crust, but it's soggy by the time I came to have a bite
French fries - pretty good, crisp on the outside and creamy on the inside
Tuna nicoise - pretty good, the dressing was a bit too mayonnaise heavy/oily

Verdict - not better than mom's

El Gaucho's - Kemang Village

I ordered a large nachos to begin with...it had some sour cream, pico de gallo, bits of cheese, jalapeno and little else.  Not recommended for 85k.

Then I ordered a sirloin steak, medium rare.  Not recommended at any price.  The salad was drenched in dressing, and even worst it was some kind of "Asian" dressing (I didn't have a choice of dressing) with tons of ginger.  The steak was as thin as paper, came barely warm (the plate wasn't heated), didn't have any flavor despite the wood fire.

Verdict: Not better than mom's

Cowboy's Bar - Kemang

I ordered a sirloin steak, I'm not sure what I got, but it sure isn't sirloin.  It was tough, gristly, under seasoned, and in general not so good.

Verdict: not better than mom's

Shabu Nobu - Kemang

We ordered the shabu shabu, some Yakitori sticks and a tempura moriawase.

Shabu shabu: the ingredients are fresh and high quality (as it should, they're not cheap).  The broth is just so so.  And the sauce was a bit too vinegary.

Yakitori sticks: juicy chicken thighs, perfectly done grilled garlic, decent wings.  The sauce was a bit too sweet for my taste, but again the ingredients seem to be quite top notch

Tempura moriawase: no different than the gorengan/fried stuff you get on the side of the street

Verdict - Not better than mom's

Chili's @ Sarinah

Food:
The chili was good.
The southwest egg roll was way too salty
The chicken fingers were soggy (see pictures); the batter wasn't fully cooked...actually not cooked at all
The chicken wings had good flavor but it was very skinny and tiny

The coke was bottomless

Verdict:
Not better than mom's