UNION

Last Saturday, Mom and I went out to Pondok Indah Mall to enjoy a lovely dinner at UNION. Mom has been to UNION before with Dad, but this time was my first time ever to dine at the oh-so-hype bistro. We had to wait in line for us to be seated even though we made a reservation for two people beforehand because the restaurant was crowded. And when we finally got our table, our stay at the bistro was timed. Approximately two hours. 

We only had a couple of hours to dine

For starter, Mom had a plate of Romaine Salad. Accompanied with Parmesan Chicken, and Truffle Soft Boiled Egg, the salad had a mountain of crisp greens topped with potato chips and pork bacon. The waiter asked us beforehand about what kind of bacon that we would like to have on our salad. "We have beef bacon, pork bacon, and turkey bacon," he said. It only took a second for us to make our choice. 

Romaine Salad, Parmesan Chicken, Truffle Soft Boiled Egg, Potato Chips, and Bacon - 85K

Just look at that runny yolk

I decided to go out of my comfort zone by choosing neither salad or soup for starter. I went for the Escargot. Yes, Escargot! The Parisian style land snails on a plate, fancily cooked with butter and bread crumbs - which explains why the dish reminds me so much of Pizza Hut's garlic bread - and not like the local land snails named Tutut that I had a few years ago. 

It was my first encounter with Escargot, so that explains why I was completely clueless regarding the proper way to indulge on these delicious looking land snails. I had no idea how to eat it. Like, seriously no idea. There were a couple of relish fork on my Escargot plate and, still, I had no clue what to do with them. My head was filled with options, more like questions, and it gradually became more like a battle between me and myself. 

"Should I use both of them to scrape the meat out of the shell? Or am I supposed to use just one of them to dig out the meat, while my left hand is busy holding the shell? But, isn't that just stupid and barbaric if I were to do something like that? How on earth am I supposed to eat Escargot? Am I adopted? Wait, what?"

I noticed a thong gripping the edge of my plate. For a second there, I thought that maybe the thong is one of the utensils used to eat the Escargot. I hold the thong and tried to lift it up, resulting in me lifting the whole plate. "That's not supposed to happen," I thought. So, I put the plate down and decided to leave the thong be. 

In the end, I decided to use both of the forks to dig out the meat from the shell. Which was a dumb idea to do, because later on, I found out that the proper way to eat Escargot is to use the thong to hold the Escargot, then use the fork to scrape the meat out. I feel so stupid. 

Escargot, Garlic Butter - 95K

Now, the cooked snails were not slimy like how I expected it would be. It had the same texture like cooked oyster, a bit chewy and tender. On the entrance of each snails was a teaspoon of what it seemed to me like marinara sauce, which gave the meat extra flavor other than just garlic and buttered bread crumbs. All in all, Escargot tasted pretty delicious and not as icky as I imagine. 

They look adorable and delicious at the same time

Dinner rolls to accompany your dishes with

Instead of not ordering anything to drink like I usually do, I decided to have me a glass of Melon & Mint Smoothie. The smoothie consisted of watermelon, melon, honey, and mint, which was very refreshing and healthy. What I love the most about the smoothie is that the bartender didn't throw out my most favorite part of smoothies and juices: the pulps.

Melon & Mint Smoothie - 55K

And then we moved on to the Main Course. Mom had a plate of spaghetti smothered in truffle sauce, topped with pork crackers and bacon lardons, and garnished with parsleys. I had a bite of Mom's dish and it was delicious. The sauce simply stuck on the spaghetti, resulting in a rather thickly creamy dish, instead of the slight liquidy sauce that we usually encounter on spaghetti. The flavor was very bold, yet in one place, while the pork crackers and bacon lardons did a great job in adding an extra savoriness to complete the spaghetti.

Pork Crackling, Bacon Lardons, Spaghetti, Alba Truffle Cream - 80K

Salmon was what I had for dinner at UNION. It was a Crispy Skin Salmon with Mashed Potato, Orange, and Ginger Soy. I was expecting a large and thick cut of Salmon, but instead, I was given a rather small slice. It could even fit on my palm. 

On the side were three spoonful of mashed potato garnished with a piece of celery on top, three pieces of orange, garnished with ginger soy sauce. I love the sauce as it was full of flavor. Even though the ginger slightly dominated the flavor, I could still taste the sweet and savory soy sauce. 

My salmon was well-done. It went splendidly well with the ginger soy sauce, despite the fact that I'm not a big fan of ginger. Both mashed potato and orange made a great intermezzo, in case you get that fed-up feeling of chewing the salmon. 

Crispy Skin Salmon, Mashed Potato, Orange & Ginger Soy - 140K

A way to spoil your taste buds 

Last but not least, for dessert, we shared a slice of UNION's most famous cake ever: the Red Velvet cake. Four layers of red velvet cake, with thick cream cheese in between and topped with sugary peanuts, would make your knees weak. The cake itself was not that sweet; while the cream cheese was very heavy and thick, and at the same time cheesy and sweet. 

The highlight of the cake was the peanut on top as it completes the whole existence of the cake. Even though the cake tasted delicious, I would rather indulge on just the peanuts and cream cheese, because both blended perfectly with each other creating this explosion of flavor in my mouth. 

Red Velvet Cake - 55K

UNION

Pondok Indah Mall 

Street Gallery, Ground Floor

Jalan Metro Pondok Indah

Pondok Indah - Jakarta

Contact:

+62 21 2952 9781

+62 21 2952 9782

Opening Hours:

Monday - Sunday: 11AM - 2AM