AMBER CHOCOLATE AND BAR SENOPATI - JAKARTA

This week, so many new places (I mean dining and hangout places) are opening in town and being the kiasu byotch I’ve always been, I managed to visit most of them! HAHA NO! Totally kidding, I am not kiasu nor a byotch (or probably half true), I just love the excitement of visiting new places and the joy to publish them first to let people know certain places exist here and there! This was one hell of a fetish and in this case, just like this one... earlier today, I visited this new establishment in Senopati called Amber Chocolate and Bar. Located just across Cacaote and actually looks pretty much like it, Amber specializes in chocolate crafting selling their own-produced artisan chocolates.

Amber will start operating on the December 28th, but eatandtreats got the early cover for you! Hope you enjoy the reading *smooch*.

Amber is another venture from the giant, Mount Scopus Group which by the way also managed their earlier establishments such as Harvest Chocolate, NEGEV Restaurant, Balboni Ristorante and many more. Amber’s exterior was pretty fancy and eye-catching with the artificial plant set on the building making it (almost) impossible not to notice! Unfortunately, I didn't manage to snap any pic of the exterior because Jakarta was raining very hard :(. When you first step your feet in, you’re basically going to be greeted by the classiness of Amber, the center POV was this table with chocolates, flowers and "handbags" and chandeliers hanging above it. It only took less than 5 seconds for me to go “dang this place is real fancy”. The whole Amber building was divided to these three-floors and each floor got its own function. The first floor was the chocolate and pastry boutique, the second floor was the library themed diner and the third one was the rooftop bar, in a sudden Amber felt like a very functional house for me.

Okay, enough yakking, let's do the Tour de Amber!

1st floor: Chocolate & Pastry Boutique

The first floor was the chocolate and pastry boutique. In a glance, this particular venue rang fancy and classy with Victorian details, I love the fact that they're actually made the effort to mix vintage with minimalist! The walls and the floor were concrete and cements and FYI I've always loved the smell of new houses or buildings HAHA!

Amber and Harvest are the chocolate specialist, but you can say Amber as this more upscale version of Harvest, the ingredients, the setting, the design and the service felt a little more exclusive but in a joyous and polite way. There was this huge glass display where they put the chocolates and pastries at and they were very catchy for the eyes I got hungry!

These are the handbags that I talked about, the amazing thing about it is that when you actually purchase their chocolate set or hampers, the bag is actually the outer packaging and you can bring this gorgeous leather bag back with you! If I'm not mistaken, I think the hamper was worth around IDR 700k, which is very worth it.

I first thought it was someone's Hermes bag.

The first floor featured the live oven, so you can see when they're actually baking their pastries!

Heaven is closer than you think it is.

They have 13 flavored macarons and each was IDR 15k, they also had (from what I counted) 9 chocolate pralines creations and each was IDR 20k/each, I must say it’s pretty hefty for a piece, but since it’s artisan and premium... there you go!

Proclaiming themselves as the chocolate specialist, one of Amber's most fascinating creation was this Hot Chocolate made from very-very premium ingredient! I paid attention to the creative process and the result was the best hot chocolate I've ever had in Jakarta! The hot chocolate was creamy and very rich but didn't leave that "spiky" aftertaste on the throat. It was just the perfect companion on the rainy day like that.

2nd floor: Library Themed Diner

It’s not literallylibrary, it’s just the concept of the floor, it’s still a part of the dining area, mostly covered in wood materials with racks of old-vintage books and wines. For some reasons, especially when you already see the luxurious first floor, this particular floor seemed very humble and lacking of that fanciness that I expected, it's probably because the area wasn't that spacious so it's lacking of that drama. However, not bad at all.

3rd floor: Rooftop Bar
Since the rooftop bar will start operating on the 28th (which is tomorrow), by the time I was there, it did not operate, even though it might not be the most spacious rooftop bar there is in Jakarta, but I honestly quite like the ambiance of it. Rooftop bar is trending like mad right now, well I like the idea of rootfop bar it’s just that I don’t go there a lot since they mostly sell alcohol and a lot of smokers (I just don't drink nor smoke), but this rooftop bar consist of this area covered in glass, allowing the direct showcase of the 360 degree view of SCBD area. They also have the indoor and outdoor area. Didn't show you a lot of photos because it was raining very hard I couldn't go out and snap pics!

I had dinner on the second floor (the library), I came on their pre-opening days so the menu was still very limited, but they're expanding the menu by the time this is opening for public and you're going to have many more to choose! The food menu here was dominated by French Bistro menu so you can find salads, entrees (appetizers), soup & veloutes, pasta & rice, mains and desserts. I managed to try several menu here so since I guess you’re probably scrolling down to the food pics, here you go!

Emperador Salad
IDR 90k
The Emperador salad consist of fresh Iceberg lettuce, anchovy, parmesan, tomato, poached egg and wagyu beef. I found this salad to be quite tasty! I love the proper amount of homemade sauce (tasted sort of like mayo and thousand island) given to this single portion, the seasoning was light but I believe since the ingredients were fresh, they kinda spoke for themselves! The poached egg wasn't this runny kind of soft-boiled but it wasn't a problem at all, the beef was quite tender and seasoned beautifully and somehow a contrary to the anchovy biscuits, but I kinda wish they would give more beef cuts tho. A lil' more wouldn't hurt.

Black Risotto
IDR 90k
It's written on the menu that the risotto should consist of wild mushrooms and I just realized it after I actually re-checked the menu as I am typing this, I couldn't find the wild mushrooms, wasn't sure it's blended in the risotto but I didn't feel any mushroom flavor or texture. Their risotto wasn't this creamy-runny risotto and the texture was a little sticky and all together just like sticky rice. However, flavor wise, it was actually quite tasty and FYI I love the presentation, look so atas!

13 Hours Pork Belly
IDR 125k
When I ordered this, I was expecting a very tender pork belly with juicy fats and salty flavor but I wasn't getting that (unless the salty savory flavor), their version of pork belly was this sort of "tenderloin" cuts with almost no fat, full meat and it wasn't tender enough for my standard even though it's been going through the 13 hour process. Taste wise, again the food here was generally tasty. I love the seasoning to the pork belly and the natural sweetness of the carrot puree blended well with the pork belly. If they could make the more tender version of it, this would be a freaking rockin dish!

Mashed Potato
Short to say, this was one of the best mashed potato I've had in life. Hands down! The texture was lovely, the flavor was appropriate with light base seasoning, it was simply creamy and smooth without any lumps without being over milky! YUM!

Pan-seared Tazmanian Salmon Trout
IDR 160k
This was the winner of the night and everything was very good on this plate: the salmon was perfectly cooked, silky, fresh and flavorful with semi-crispy skin, but I must give it to the amazing sauce made from parsley, edamame and wasabi, it was beautiful and brilliant! This simply is the MUST ORDER DISH in Amber. LOVE!!!

A little overview. Feast for the beasts!

Desserts: assorted macarons! (IDR 15k/each)

We basically order all of the macarons to try them, generally, the macarons' texture wasn't my favorite. I was very curious with their curry flavored macarons so I gave it a try, and oh, I think I forgot to mention this, but I was having lunch with Ivy and Cindy and I was glad that I was surrounded by the bottomless pits! I had a great lunch <3. The curry macaron turned out okay and sort of popcorn-ish, I was expecting the bolder spicier flavor but it was kind of covered by the sweetness of the macaron, they also have the "chili-pepper" one and it was a little more flavorful.

I have good expectations and good feelings about Amber. I had this belief that it's soon becoming one of the hippest places in Jakarta and everyone will be looking for it just like how it was with Cacaote even until now, but no, they're in a way, very different with Cacaote. Venue wise, I like Amber more than Cacaote, it's just classy and classy just how I like it (I am not arrogant but I freaking adore expensiveness *glasses on*) but for the food, both serves amazing food and price wise, it's very tolerable, just because I think most places has this kind of price range! BTW I am sure coming back for more of what Amber has in store!!!

Till the next post! Thank you very much for reading and in case I haven't greeted you all:

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!

Thank you for sharing the joy and all the good with eatandtreats. I hope you good people are blessed along the way! AMEN!

Amber Chocolate & Bar
Jalan Senopati Raya No. 61
Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta Selatan 12190
021 - 2904 4412
Opening Hours:
Chocolate and pastry boutique: 7 AM - 10 PM
Library: 10 AM - 11 PM
Sky Lounge: 5 PM - 1 AM (weekdays) and closed at 3 AM on weekends
Dresscode: sporty casual
Pricing: $$
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Map for Appetite (across and near Amber)