Basilico

Located right in the North main street entrance of GandariaCity mall, Basilico has garnered a lot of attention because of their arresting and casual venue but also because they serve an overall decent range of Italian dishes that are ranging from seafood , chicken, beef and of course pasta and pizza.

The ambience is really pleasant as they have a modest indoor area with wooden chairs, high ceilings and comfortable seatings. As for the outdoor, a comfortable rattan sofa is perfect when you want to enjoy the sun while having your lunch.

We recommend that you start with a fresh salad, and the speciality at this venue will be the octopus and potato salad accompanied with garlic flat bread. The creamy mustard sauce with the savoury and zesty sauced octopus is surely a gleeful start to a meal. The crunchiness of the celery and shaved carrots gives it a good hint as well.

Carpaccio is also available and of course some authentic Italian soup such as creamy asparagus and mushroom soup or the Zuppetta Di Pesce which is the Italian seafood soup with tomato and a hint of chillies. For vegetarians they offer fresh rucola and pear salad or the apple salad with the Italian gorgonzola blue cheese.

A special treat you can find at Basilico is the Gnocchi. A rare find in any commercial Italian restaurants in Jakarta, Potato Gnocchi dumpling in rich Podomorosauce is simply toothsome mainly because of the fresh tomato based sauce with the basil oil emulsion is magnificent.

However Thepièce de résistance would have to be the roasted dory fish oven baked dory fillet with a top layer of breadcrumbs with a creamy lemon sauce accompanied by delicious potato pesto and stuffed tomato. Dory fish is a bit �fishy to cook� cause you never want to overcook it as it cooks really fast but at the same time it can�t be undercooked as well. Basilico surely got this one right down the tee. Even with the presentation and portion of their servings.

For you steak lovers, the Filleto AL Funghi , pan fired Australian tenderloin with mushroom sauce could be a good choice. You can taste the robust flavours of the oven roasted garlic in the thick mushroom sauce. They also serve lamb chop with peperonata sauce and sautéed potatoes.

With almost 20 array of pizzas available it�s hard to decide which pizza to pick. So we decided on the house special, the Basilico Pizza which is a very thin pizza with fried zucchini, thick slices of potato, tuna and basil. The Diavola could be a good choice for those opting for a fiery lookout as its got beef salami with roasted chillies.

For desserts get your hands on their panacotta and crepes or end it with their original Basilioco signature cocktails.

Italian food very generic in some sense but ay Basilico they give their own little �signature� in terms of presentation and also the side dishes. Little hints of their originality are evident in the way they serve their side vegetables, char grilled not chopped up and sautéed. Or even the stuffed breadcrumb tomato or the thick chunks of potato in the pizza. A Must try!