TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Looking for a good steak to have dinner? Try the Super Steak restaurant on Jl. Dempo, Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta. This simple steak restaurant is located in a green tiny house only 700 meters away from Pakubuwono Residence. Despite the location, the restaurant is always crowded with visitors.

Windu Suryanto Mashud (37), the owner, had renovated his garage into a restaurant that accommodates 25 set of seats. Whenever there's no rain, additional seats are provided along the entrance at the front of the house. Even when the restaurant is too crowded, guests are invited to enjoy meals inside the owner's house.

The restaurant had a simple design with no decorations on its walls except for hundreds of visitors' photos as commonly found in other popular restaurants. The kitchen was located just at the right side of the house's verandah, so anyone could peek into the kitchen to see Yoni Mulyana, the chef, cooking the steak.

Windu is said to treat his visitors like his own friends. He is also happy to share the recipe of his steak. However, when we visited the garage-restaurant, Windu was away in Seminyak, Bali. Windu's mother, Maria Mashud, and Yoni the chef were the ones who kept us company.

While Wagyu is the common beef used in steaks, Windu's restaurant uses premium steak beefs such as Angus, Super-Black Angus, and Local Prime, which are imported from Australia. Yoni claimed that Angus beefs are more delicious than Wagyu.

Unlike Wagyu that rich of fats, Angus has more solid textures and the fat is spread across the meat. "Angus beefs are in competition with Wagyu. The difference is that Angus cows are not 'spoiled' like Wagyu cows because they don't undergo massage process. The fats are lesser because Angus cows moves often," said Yoni. A way to distinguish between Wagyu and Angus is by looking at the fat spreads on the raw meats. Once they cooked, both are difficult to be distinguished.

Only a few restaurants in Jakarta serve Angus beef because of its expensive price. Most of the restaurants are located in expensive hotels. According to Yoni, the price could be three-time higher than menus served by Super Steak, which is around Rp600,000.

To have your steak ready at Super Steak, you just need to decide the beef type, whether it is tenderloin, sirloin, or the rib-eye. After that, you can choose among nine available flavors: butter garlic, beerloin, cajun delight, honey herbs, and lemon herbs. Finally, just say how well you would like the beef to be cooked.

We decided to order three menus: Angus Sirloin Beerloin (for Rp148,000), Angus Rib-Eye poured with lemon herbs part II (for Rp195,000) and Super-Black Angus seasoned with butter garlic (for Rp240,000). We also ordered Potato Wedges of which the potatoes were originated from Dieng Mountains in Central Java.

Yoni allowed me to watch him cook as he got the steaks done. The Angus Sirloin Beerloin was immersed in a bowl full of beer for 10 minutes. Then, the 200-gram meat was roasted for five minutes to make a medium-cooked steak. The beer inside the meat surprised me at the first bite. The tender reddish meat was in sync with the beer that felt like "popped" inside the mouth. "The immersion of beer inside the meat makes it tenderer. You can also have the meat immersed in a stronger beer, such as the black beer, but you have to make reservation in advance first," said Yoni. What captivated me was that the beer aroma remained around until the last slice.

The Angus Rib-Eye was cooked using European seasoning, the lemon herbs part II. It only need five minutes to have a medium-cooked steak. Maria said that this menu is favored by foreign visitors as it matches well with their tongue who likes sour taste on their steaks.

The Super-Black Angus Tenderloin, which was seasoned with butter garlic, was not less attractive in its appearance. The garlic sautéed with butter and olive oils were poured on the meet once the meat was roasted. The aroma of the garlic spread across the room once the Super-Black Angus Tenderloin was served in front of us. The meat was roasted for seven minutes and was thicker and tougher but easy to slice. The pink medium-cooked meat was tender and crunchy.

"If Angus is well known for the tenderness, the Super-Black Angus is even tenderer," said Yoni.

ISMA SAVITRI