There's no such thing as a free lunch...Or is there?

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It's official. The next president of Indonesia is former army general Prabowo Subianto. Quite how the next five years will pan out is anyone's guess but hopefully the foreign pundits who always bring up his dodgy human rights record will be proven wrong. Nonetheless, on policy making, Prabowo's popularist move to literally offer the poor 'a free lunch' every day of the week does not augur well for the future. Such a policy - if it ever came to fruition - would cost a phenomenal amount of money and likely lead to huge inefficiencies (food waste) and poor incentives (make people lazy). Another concern is Prabowo's strong nationalist bent. Thus, in the possible event that he finds himself with his back against the proverbial wall in the face of stern economic challenges, there is a big chance that he will simply scapegoat foreigners. But he will have to be careful. Construction of the new capital city, Nusantara, for example, is highly dependent on foreign in
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Q Smokehouse (Senopati)

My favorite animal is steak.
~Fran Lebowitz

 You can get the man out of the jungle but you can’t get the jungle out of a man, so the prospect of a trip to this tidy little restaurant in the affluent tree-lined district of Senopati literally left me drooling in anticipation of sinking my teeth into some succulent raw steak.

 Verdict

 The Restaurant: Nice laid-back rustic vibe to the place with brick walls, soft lighting, modern seating and a few sofas chucked in for good measure. No vines to hang from but apart from that it was fine (not vine!)

 The Taste: We ordered four steaks for three people – two for me! – and as you can see in the picture below they looked superb. The taste did not disappoint either – the steaks were juicy, tasty, mercifully free of fat and very tender, albeit a tad salty (not that I don’t like that). The steaks were served with the obligatory French fries (shame they weren’t potato wedges) but a nice touch was the excellent watergrass with olive oil.


Q Smokehouse (Senopati)

Vietnamese coffee

Vietnamese coffee makes a change from the usual es teh manis!

The Service: Not too bad although the waiter’s rather lacking communication skills would (hopefully) rule him out of a job as an air traffic controller.

 The Price: Most steaks are in the Rp100k-300k range. Certainly not cheap but this is quality fare so what do you expect? Drinks cost Rp20k plus.

 The Verdict: A very good steakhouse in the mid-price range. They also do Mexican foods which I’ll have to try on my next visit…

 Q Smokehouse
Jl. Suryo No. 20,
Kebayoran Baru,
South Jakarta
Telp: ( 021) 723 5728

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