T

here is no better place to celebrate Christmas than at home. But if you are far away from home, you can celebrate it at The Apartment, which is offering a Holiday Feast menu until the end of the year.

The seasonal menu consists of two appetizers, five main courses, three desserts and two beverages. For starters, there is Lobster Cappuccino - a creamy lobster soup served with homemade garlic bread.

The lobster soup gets its name because it has a layer of creamy foam swirling on the top like a cappuccino. Another appetizer is Foie Gras Salad, a mix of mesclun, roast pumpkin, capsicum and foie gras, seated on crusty bread.

Main course meals include Lamb Loin, which is a tender chop, grilled to order, and served with saut*ed vegetables, garlic mash and topped with mint sauce; Baby Back Ribs, consisting of tender ribs topped with homemade barbeque sauce and served with fries and coleslaw; and Rib Eye Steak, a 500 gram US rib eye steak char-grilled to the customer's liking and served with a mix of roasted vegetables.

"The Rib Eye Steak is perfect for those in a sharing mood. Some people may question why we have more expensive prices, but our treats are worth the price," Tito Andhika, the restaurant's general manager, said.

There are also white meats on the menu; Mom's Chicken Pie, made from chicken pieces and vegetables stewed in creamy white wine sauce, enclosed in golden short crust pastry and topped with mashed potato and gravy; and Seared Salmon, consisting of seared Norwegian salmon served with mashed peas and pepper coulis topped with mesclun salad. The salmon may be an interesting dish to try, because mashed peas uniquely complements the fish.

For desserts, there is Banana Mousse, chilled smooth tangy tropical banana mousse laced with dark chocolate; Strawberry Millefeuille - layers of puff pastry filled with custard and fresh strawberries; and Apple Tart Tatin - gently stewed apples seated on puff pastry topped with French ice cream and treacle crumble.

Feeling thirsty? There is the non-alcoholic Berry Christmas, a mixture of pomegranate and apple juices, soda water and ice cream topped with grenadine; or the alcoholic Green Snow - a blend of fresh kiwi, kiwi syrup, rum and Triple Sec.

While most restaurants change their menus after one or two years, The Apartment renews its menus every two to three months. Tito said if there were best-selling dishes, he would keep them on the regular menu.

Guests coming to The Apartment may feel they have come home, because the restaurant has an interior like an apartment, with a living room, bedrooms, pantry, library, bar, terrace or Jacuzzi, and bathroom, all decked out with Scandinavian home d*cor and adorned with photos of regular guests, known as "the residents", on tables or shelves.

Guests can have their meals anywhere they want. The only drawback is that probably not all tables are proper for formal dining, as some are coffee tables.

"Most guests usually prefer the bedroom. Sometimes they hold arisan *club meetings*. But of course, each guest has their own favorite," Tito says, adding that because of the limited dining tables, guests wanting to them should make reservations.