Moe's Place is an American-style grill joint located in Kemang and opened on September 2011.
We went there on a saturday evening and found the place busy but not full. Clientele was mixed, partly expats and partly Indonesians, mostly families. There is a terrace outside to sit and dine which faces the parking lot and the street and there is also an upstairs room which we did not check-out. Downstairs inside offers enough room for approx. 40 diners.
The atmosphere was relaxed, a tad on the noisy side but still ok, and the staff was friendly and very attentive; there was also a manager of sorts around who kept an eye on everything.
The menu of Moe's place is fortunately quite small; a fact I came to appreciate in restaurants. They specialize in ribs, both pork and beef, hamburgers, steaks and pasta.
We ordered the following: one big garden salad (85.000), one full serving of baby-back-pork ribs (230.000) , one serving of beef ribs (180.000), both meat dishes with coleslaw on the side. Drinkwise we had two Bintang (25.000 each), one Heineken (29.000) and a small bottle of water.
The good thing was definitely the pork ribs, which were nicely cooked and seasoned and the meat actually fell from the bone. The portion was – sizewise – generous, even for my carnivorous husband.
Unfortunately this is where the good things end: My beef ribs were almost ridiculous; sizewise as well as qualitywise. Those ribs were not what you usually get or would expect whe you order beef ribs. No rib bone with a chunk of soft meat around it (as in the pork ribs or even iga sapi), but slices cut transverse to the bone. Those slices were very thin, certainly less than a centimeter and very dry and chewy and not even remotely what I had expected (and what I have been served before numerous times in other places). I’d say the fraction of this complete dish being actually meat was like 60-80 grams max!
The Marinade, by the way, was the exact same than the one they used for the pork. Big disappointment from Moe's Place!
The coleslaw was anything but tasty. What is supposed to be a very creamy yet crunchy, sweet and sour and slightly tangy affair was in fact just a handfull of threads of dry raw shredded and absolutely bland cabbage with no carrots and no dressing whatsoever. I love coleslaw, so this was: Big disappointment number 2!
The fries, which I had ordered as a side dish were ok but the portion was again very tiny (exactly 11 sticks!). So, two slices oft thin, dry and chewy meat, 11 sticks of fries and a spoonfull of raw cabbage set me back IRD 180.000,- This is almost 15 Euros. Definitely not worth it.
The garden salad we shared as a starter was somehow ambitious (some croutons, some slices of cheese on top) but it also disappointed - apart from looking very tired - with blandness and a serious lack of taste and/or dressing (except for very few spots of something very sweet). So, definitely no salad people here. And sadly no one around to be asked how a coleslaw or a salad dressing is supposed to taste or to be prepared. Shame! Another downside was the fact that the place (inside) was infested with mosquitoes and we were hardly able to eat undisturbed; other patrons even sported one of those battery-driven fly flaps in an effort to keep their kids mosquitoe-free.
When the bill came there was one item on it which we did neither order nor eat. No big deal, it was removed right away. Overall we paid slightly less than IDR 700.000 (almost 60 Euros) for one good and one bad meal, a very ordinary salad, three beers, and legions of mosquitoes. Given the qualitiy of the better part of the food we consider this heavily overpriced.
Overall:
Would we go back to Moe's Place? Dunno. If nearby, the husband might go back fort he pork-ribs only, which he liked, or try the hamburgers, which looked good from afar, but considering the overall experience (and my empty stomach even after dinner) it is not very likely.
Opening Hours:
From 11am to 11pm on weekdays
From 11am to midnight on weekends
Moe’s Place, Kemang
Jl. Benda Raya No. 1B Kemang Selatan
Phone (0)21 7883339
Note: This review is a guestpost by Doris. Picture taken on Moe's Place twitter account.
