While it does not serve its signature roast goose like its Hong Kong restaurant, the new Kam’s Roast outlet in Jakarta offers a wide array of equally tantalizing meats.

While roast meat is commonly known as street food in this part of the world, when an all-time favorite is combined with only the best ingredients, special cooking techniques and the flavor consistency of decades-old recipes, that is when a restaurant is honored with a Michelin star.

Hong Kong-based restaurant Kam’s Roast has opened at Plaza Indonesia, a high-end shopping mall in Central Jakarta, to replace its Pantai Indah Kapuk location in North Jakarta.

While accessibility was the main reason for the move from the roomy shop-house, opening up the restaurant in a mall was seemingly intended to emulate what the Hong Kong location was famous for: its long line at the entrance.

Long lines were seen from day one, a week before its grand opening on Sept. 10, which was officiated by founder Hardy Kam.

“From our experience in Hong Kong, there were some shortcomings in having a restaurant in a standalone building by the street. There are traffic and parking problems. Here in a mall, people are already here for work or with their families on weekends, so they don’t have to wait outside in the heat or rain,” Kam told reporters and food writers.

The owner is related to the founder of the famed Yung Kee Goose and wanted to continue his family’s legacy. Notable is that Kam’s roast goose — its name in its home territory — was given a Michelin star within four months of opening in 2015. The restaurant has been recognized in the Michelin Guide Hong Kong and Macau for five consecutive years.

Well done: Roast duck and chicken are the mainstay dishes of Kam's Roast. The cooking method and consistency of flavors have earned the Hong Kong restaurant a Michelin star for five consecutive years.

The Jakarta outlet is the third franchise after Singapore and the Philippines, and the fourth one is in Taiwan, but only the Hong Kong location serves goose due to strict regulations for consumption.

“Instead, we serve duck as our mainstay dish and we also have chicken and pork dishes. Unlike other franchises that can only obtain frozen meat, we are praised because we can provide high-quality ingredients and fresh meat,” said Inge Sutrisno, one of the franchise owners for Indonesia, in an interview with The Jakarta Post.

The eatery features local roasts garnished with sauces brought from Hong Kong restaurant. The recipe for the sauce was developed by the Kam seniors while running Yung Kee restaurant since 1942.

Roast duck, according to Sutrisno, has been their best-selling item his year. “They seem to favor the sauce with beans inside the duck,” she said.

In a tasting session with reporters and food writers, the restaurant served its main dishes, which included sautéed vegetables, roast duck, soya chicken, crispy roast pork, roast suckling pig and toro char siu to be eaten with Hainanese rice.

As expected from a roast dish, it should be crunchy outside and juicy inside, but the sauce and the cooking method applied at Kam’s Roast adds a layer to the crunchiness and the juiciness, thereby enriching our dining experience.

Toro char siu is the most impressive dish. This is made with premium pork belly, seasoned with a secret marinade that showcases savory soybean and honey-sweet flavors down to each slice of alternating layers of meat with fat.

Another special dish is called pipa duck. The whole duck is flattened to make it look like the Chinese musical instrument — hence the name. It has a fruity fragrance and the glossy golden skin is extra crunchy, but the succulence of the meat is uncompromised.

The legacy continues: The grand opening of Kam's Roast restaurant in Jakarta was attended by franchise holder Inge Sutrisno (left), Kam's Roast Goose owner and Yung Kee scion Hardy Kam (third right) and the restaurant's vice international franchiser Robert Chua (second right).

Hot, fragrant jasmine tea was also served to help digest a heavy lunch while emphasizing the nuance of a traditional Chinese eatery.

“Our partner here is so creative in improving the service as you can see in little things like tea bags, the decorations […] Actually it’s much nicer here than the Hong Kong main branch where we only have 30 to 40 seats. Here are about 80 seats and they have a VIP room. As it’s roomier, they can be more creative.”

Kam said the head chef in Jakarta would have to fly to Singapore — the restaurant’s international hub for training — and return to train the rest of the staff. The head of the international training hub was the original roaster of the Hong Kong location.

“The training is time consuming. It’s important because we have to make sure the chef, the manpower will cook to our standards. They will also be carefully supervised by the international chef and my head chef from Hong Kong,” he added.

While the Indonesian franchise holder is considering opening more outlets in the future, the main branch, according to Kam, has set its eyes on Malaysia, the United States and Australia.

— Photos by JP/Rafaela Chandra