Black Sugar Senopati

The Taiwanese dessert scene in Jakarta has been ongoing for quite some time now, in a sense it's getting overwhelming and... mainstream, but still, no matter how mainstream it could be, a part of me still couldn't fight the curiosity, and that's the exact case with this particular brand, finally the first Taiwanese dessert brand in Senopati! clap your hands say yeah to:

BLACK SUGAR!

Black Sugar is located just beside the famous Korean restaurant, Arang 22 (located right before the left turn to the area where emm... Publico is). As a regular customer of the Senopati area, I've been passing and checking this out excited for their opening and just a couple days ago, I did my first visit to this place for a report purpose with one of the most happening online magazine in town which is... keep on reading ;). Beside the exterior and the inviting black color (don't know why black seems inviting), the inner venue had nothing special and outstanding, it's just the proper place to have your dessert and clearly NOT a bad place to hangout with your fellas. I did count and approximately the whole venue can accommodate around 50-60 people and I LOVE how they managed to separate the smoking and non-smoking area!

Lamps hanging all over the ceiling.

Sneakily taking pictures of the production process, one of the owners happen to be real Taiwanese and will that actually guarantee the dessert to be a potential mazor-yumster and wear the others down?

If you're wondering why the photos are so CHIO, it's because I came with the amazing people from ShoppingMagz and they brought extra lamp for food photos. I am contributing for their issue next month so make sure you read it! BTW I bloody love the photos here!!!

Pudding Lover
IDR 46k
One portion of this dessert consist of pudding, grass jelly, vermicelli, douhua, vanilla ice cream topped with black sugar and condensed milk. First of all, the photo looks good (I know), but it's just that this dessert needs major improvement. It felt so bland with lack of sugar, before I started mixing everything, I tried each of the elements and eventually left with mixed impressions: the Douhua felt too milky for my liking, the grass jelly was a little bitter and the pudding was just okay. I honestly expected this portion to be a little 'wet', in a sense they could pour a little more syrup because even after mixing everything, the amount of shaved ice was a little more than the rest, and turned out a little 'dry'. Sorry to say but this one left nothing impressive for me.

If the previous one was a little disappointing, then this one was much better than the previous one, maybe because I am an avid fan of Matcha ice cream as the extra topping. I rarely found a dessert with condiments like real taro chunks and I was glad that they're using it plus the glazed the taro chunks with sugar so they were a little caramell-ish, the red beans and mung beans had this proper sweetness and I found no problem with them. Honestly, I was expecting the flavor of the Matcha ice cream to be sort of like what those other Taiwanese dessert brands in Jakarta are using: intense Matcha with a hints of creamy and milky flavor (kind of hard to explain it but if you've been having Taiwanese desserts, you'll know what I mean), it's just that the flavor of the Matcha ice cream they're using was a little light (couldn't really find the intensity), when I thought it should be tuning up the flavor and made a difference, however I still got to give them credit for their concept and preference.

Spicy Chicken Katsu Rice
IDR 35k
I was having love-hate relationship with this particular dish, the meat was a little dry while the seasoning was great. The portion of rice given to one bowl was pretty generous and in a way balance with the amount of chicken cuts given, the texture of rice was also lovely, I like the short-grain rice they're using, kind of reminded me of Japanese rice, only this one wasn't as sticky as Japanese rice. As in for the salad side, a little glimpse of mayonnaise should be good to add a little play of flavor and to give a little texture to the whole dish as I found it to be a little dry.

I hate to say this but I guess I must say that with the quality of desserts I tried in Black Sugar, they didn't pass my standard, I better stick with the already famous ones. I do think they need serious improvement for both desserts and staff, I didn't have personal issue with the staff but it's just that I overheard something that wasn't really pleasant for the ear of a customer and I do hope this review could be one hell of a smash of a feedback for the management, it just irks me when I know they have potential, but it's either they open too sudden and spontaneous when the preparation wasn't 100% 'mature', they just need better management, chances are always there :).

To be fair, I'll come for another 'secret' visit probably few weeks from now to see how they're doing and WILL update!

GOOD LUCK!!!

黑糖 Black Sugar
Jl. Tulodong Bawah No. 1
SBCD - Senopati, Jakarta Selatan 12190

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Map for Arang 22 (Black Sugar located just beside Arang 22)