The Gourmet Garage in Kemang is a specialty market which prides itself on a great selection of quality food and specialty items which easily translate into excellent dishes. As the name reflects, the interior has a thrown-together feeling, a rather cool and posh "garage" for a relaxed shopping experience to delight any gourmet.

The store downstairs is mainly a self-serve market of specialty gourmet foods, but it also offers a wine cellar, oyster bar and bakery. The garage features several small eateries, both upstairs and down, where customers can order various Western fare, such as Italian or Greek, and Asian food including Japanese.

Its cozy and casual atmosphere is a convenient meeting place for family members. If you crave Japanese food but your spouse wants a bite of burger, then Gourmet Garage is your safe culinary destination.

Open for lunch or dinner, the Garage counts among its best-loved items its Wagyu burger, Nigiri sushi and Wagyu fried rice.

Saba, the Western restaurant, makes its own burger buns for its fusion burger.

Another well-known item is Saba's linguini lobster pasta, which is smothered with a special pesto sauce of basil and cilantro.

Saba also offers Dungeness crab blinis, imported crab freshly baked in a light Russian pancake served on arugula leaves with Pommery mustard and light cream.

Its Mediterranean Greek salad is mixed green vegetables and feta cheese, tossed in olive oil and a lemon thyme vinaigrette, served with garlic bread.

The versatile fried rice can come with different complements. Customers can order it with Wagyu beef strip, Tasmanian diced salmon, Papuan mud crab or lamb.

The pan-fried opakapaka, a deep water fish, is a fillet served with lentils, roast tomato compote and a julienne of braised leek. Saba also offers a lamb cutlet, stir-fried beef in Hiro sauce with kim chee, duck leg confit and gourmet oxtail soup

Two principal chefs at the Gourmet Garage oversee operations; chef Rofik Maulana for the Western cuisine and Japanese chef Tadahiro Kobayashi for the Japanese dishes.

Hiro, the Japanese restaurant, has lunch and dinner menus. The Hiro lunch menu offers several dishes.

Besides sushi and sashimi, they offer several set menus served on a bed of steamed rice. Chicken Katsu Jyu is a breaded deep-fried chicken cutlet and egg, Ten Jyu is assorted tempura with Ten Jyu sauce and Tekka Jyu is tuna sashimi served on vinegar rice.

The Japanese grill offers selected chicken, beef, salmon or silver cod (gindara) prepared sioyaki or teriyaki style.

They also offer various kinds of noodles, including Japanese buckwheat or white noodles served hot, cold or fried.

For the adventurous, Hiro's dinner menu has fully planned dining experiences. Guests can order the four-course or six-course tasting menus, specially selected by Hiro's chef.

The tasting menu appetizers include tuna and white fish served with lotus root chips.

Entrees include tuna sashimi rolls or lightly grilled pressed tuna with spicy garlic sauce. Lighter dishes include salads of salmon skin or smoked tongue. Other popular dishes include braised cod in nitsuke sauce. and Japanese eel hot pot.

Besides the teriyaki platters, guests can order grilled seafood: grilled yellowtail cheek, sauteed prawns, or grilled Japanese mackerel.

-- Alvin Darlanika Soedarjo

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