Sutbul PIK
Sutbul is a new contemporary Korean dining restaurant that just opened in Golf Island PIK February this year. Focusing on traditional menus with a modern twist, Sutbul offers a variety of unique menus that are different from the dishes one usually find in a typical Korean restaurant in Jakarta. They also prided themselves in their meat cooking techniques where they use imported meat grilling rack from Korea with Binchotan charcoal, the purest charcoal on earth that burns with constant heat bringing out the best flavors in the meat it cooks.
The traditional meets modern concept also extends to the design of the interior of the restaurant. Although the choice of furnitures and fixtures decorating the space feel modern, there’s a certain air of nostalgia exuded by the burnt amber ceramic tiles and the beautiful Korean folklore traditional prints adorning the walls. This two-story restaurant feels stylish and modern but still warm and welcoming at the same time, making it a perfect place to go to if you feel like dressing up for a special occasion or for a casual meal with friends and family.
To start off the meal, they provide you with complimentary corn tea and seven different kinds of banchan. The banchan selections change from time to time but some of the permanent ones (at least the ones that I always got during my multiple visits to this place) are the sweet potatoes, fishcakes, pajeon/pancakes and the pickled onions. And I can say that their banchans are really good.
🍞 Makgeolli Bread 막걸리빵 (59k) | 10/10
Korean Rice Wine Bread, Charcoal Butter
Served in a steaming bamboo container, the Makgeolli bread is warm, soft and chewy. The texture reminded me of Indonesian’s Kue Mangkok, but softer and fluffier. The Makgeolli taste in the bread is subtle and not too sweet. For me though, as delicious as the bread is, the best thing about this dish is the charcoal butter. You got to dip the bread into the charcoal butter and get that combination of sweet and salty from the butter and salt. It’s soooo good. Easily one of my best new food finds this year and I’ve been ordering this on my subsequent visits to Sutbul since my first time I’ve had this. Although instead of having this as an appetizer, I now have this as a dessert.
🐟 Salmon Jang 연어장 (30k/slice) | 8.5/10
Soy Marinated Salmon, Onion
In Korean cuisine, “Jang” (장) refers to a family of traditional fermented sauces that are fundamental to Korean cooking. For the salmon jang, they are using Korean fermented soy sauce (ganjang 간장) so the taste of the soy sauce is different than the ones usually served with sushi or sashimi in a Japanese restaurant (don’t expect it to be the same flavor). The sauce tasted closer to the Korean soy marinated crab (ganjang gaejang 간장 게장) if you’ve ever had one of those. Taste wise, I think they really nailed the Korean flavor profile on the soy sauce. And the salmon pieces were fresh and thick with generous portion.
🥩 Yukhoe 육회 (Wagyu Picanha MB7 80g 250k) | 8/10
Raw Beef, Pear, Seaweed
The raw beef is fresh and cut nicely. The flavor of this dish is on the bolder side since they use soy sauce to marinate the beef (thus the slightly darker color of the meat) and the fresh yolk also added to the creaminess of the overall taste after being mixed together. The pear slices were sweet and fresh and worked really well to add a brighter note to the dish. I do wish the beef tartare is slightly colder than the room temperature that it was served on (but also, I was taking pics of the food for a while so it may contribute the temperature of the meat. Not too sure about this).
🍜 Perilla Cold Noodles 들기름 국수 (110k) | 10/10
Capellini Pasta, Perilla Oil, Perilla Leaves, Perilla Seeds, Seaweed
This is their signature menu that I haven’t seen anywhere else in Jakarta (at least as of now when I’m writing this post. If there’s other restaurant that’s serving this, I probably haven’t heard of it yet). Just like the name suggest, the flavor of this dish screams perilla, but in a nice refreshing way. The pasta is cooked al dente and the dish is really nicely seasoned with earthy, umami and creamy (but not too creamy and more on the lighter end of creamy) flavors. The seaweed powder also added a nice savoriness to the dish. If you like sesame oil or black sesame, roasted soybean, Korean mugwort flavored things like me, you’ll probably enjoy this dish. This is also a perfect dish to have during one of the hot days in Jakarta when you want something light and refreshing and it has become one of the menu that I always order on my every visit.
🥩 Thick Cut Ox Tongue 우설 150g (425k) | 6/10
The Ox Tongue cuts were nice, thick and well seasoned but the texture was a bit tough and too chewy for my personal taste.
🥩 Beef Platter (1,450k) | 8/10
150g Sirloin, 150g Chuck Flap, 150g Rib Eye
The meat were nicely cooked although some pieces are a bit burnt on the outside so I took some point off for that. The thickest one has more fat and the juiciest of the three cuts. I enjoyed this one the most. The other two are more on the leaner side but still enjoyable.
🍰 Hotteok Ice Cream 호떡 아이스크림 (79k) | 8/10
Glutinous Rice Pancake, Brown Sugar, Cinnamon, Walnut, Vanilla Ice Cream
Pretty good dessert although it’s a tiny bit sweet for my personal taste. The portion is pretty generous though so make sure you leave some room in your stomach if you want to order this dessert or share it with the table.
Other dishes that I’ve tried during my subsequent visits (when I didn’t bring my camera so I have no pictures of the individual dish other than this one below) are:
🍽️ Sogogi Gukbap 소고기 국밥 (130k) | 9/10
Beef Bone Soup, Beef Shank, Shimeji, Shiitake, White Rice
A comforting bowl of soup with generous toppings of beef chunks, mushrooms, radish, zucchini (I think. Cmiiw), green onions and eggs. Unlike the usual white/clear soup gukbap that I always had, the soup on this one is red and reminded me of jjigae (Korean stew) style soup, only less concentrated and lighter. It is a bit spicy for me who can’t handle spicy food well, but for people who does, this is probably not spicy at all.
🥩 Pork Belly 200g 삼겹살 (168k) | 9/10
One of the better pork belly in this price range that I’ve had in a Korean restaurant around PIK area. Nicely cooked pieces of meat that were crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside.
🥩 Pork Jowl 200g 항정살 (168k) | 9/10
Their pork jowl is also delicious. Same comment as the pork belly, nicely cooked pieces of meat that were crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside. And this one is more tender than the pork belly.
🥩 Marinated Pork Collar 200g 양념목살 (168k) | 7/10
This one’s a bit tricky. The marination of the meat was really delicious but the texture of the pieces of meat that we got were not consistent. When I tried this, I went with two of my friends and the pieces of meat that I had were good and nice, but they got the tougher pieces so it was not as enjoyable for them as it was for me (I took some points off because of this). But we all agreed that the marination sauce is really good.
After my visit, I also recommended this place to a couple of my friends who went and ordered this menu. The result was 50-50. Half of them got great pieces of meat, half of them got tougher meat. I ended up asking about this to the manager during one of my subsequent visits and he told me that as of right now, they’re still continuously trying to address the inconsistency of the meat. So if you want to try this menu, maybe ask the server first if you’ll be getting a good piece of meat or not on that day before ordering (they could probably tell you by seeing the meat they have in stock that day). Honestly the dish is pretty good, it’s just if you got tougher pieces of meat, it won’t be as enjoyable so I just want to put it out there as a disclaimer.
I have been back to Sutbul numerous times for dine-in and take-out since my first visit and I have to say (apart from the pork collar) their food is consistently good. My go-to menus usually are: Perilla Cold Noodles (you got to try this if this is your first visit to Sutbul), Sogogi Gukbap, and the Makgeolli Bread. For the meat, pork jowl and pork belly are probably the top two meat options right now since I haven’t tried the rest of the beef cuts just yet and their pork meat prices are pretty affordable.
Service at this restaurant is also really good. Super friendly staff (for introverts it could be bordering on too friendly though since the staff’s energy level is pretty high. Just an FYI) and prompt service. The place is also pet friendly so if you want to bring your fur friends with you, you definitely can. If you’re looking for a Korean restaurant with less than traditional menu, I would totally recommend this place to try. And with how frequent I’ve been to this place lately, who knows, you might bump into me too (say hi if you do!).
Sutbul PIK
Address: Golf Island, Jln Rukan Jl. Pantai Indah Kapuk No.12 Blok J, DKI Jakarta 14470, Indonesia
Telephone: +62896 0371 5091
Hours: Everyday 11:00 - 00:00
Instagram: @sutbul.jkt
