Monday, June 23, 2014

food review: holycow!

lately, surabaya is excited for new dining place in town. holycow! it's been famous in jakarta for their low-price but high-quality meat. i can't say about jakarta's holycow, but what i'm about to write here is surabaya's holycow. some of you probably knew that the owner and co-owner of the original holycow had split, but i have no idea which one of them started the surabaya branch. all i know, when they were just starting the construction, the big banner in front of the building said that it's domicile group new restaurant. so probably, they have some kind of coordination with domicile here.

okay.. back to holycow. as the new hype dining place in town, they didn't pick the strategic place (according to me). instead, they chose an office-house in graha family area, which is quite remote area in west surabaya. so, for those who live in central surabaya or other area, it is quite far for a steak. but some might say, it might worth the travel.. but, who knows?

the place: as i said, the location isn't strategic enough for me. the restaurant is located in two-story office house. it's pretty roomy, but for a new restaurant, it's quite small. they have separate smoking area, which is good. unfortunately, they only have 2 baby chairs! and their chair isn't that child-friendly.

the menu: i have to warn you that if you were hoping you can try something else other than steak, you might want to skip this restaurant. their menu 100% consisted with steak. the only menu that isn't steak is their wagyu salad, which still have meat in it. but, they have 2 kids menu, which unfortunately, when i ate there, both were sold out. (this "sold out" excuse pissed me off.. you can read it later).

the service: most of the waiter are quite responsive, and that's good for a new restaurant. but, they seem don't communicate well between themselves. my dad ordered a buddy steak with mashed potato, but then the server gave my dad buddy steak with french fries, and he had no idea when my dad complained about it. so my dad just gave up and accepted it. and.. this is what i found out on my second visit, on my first visit, the waiter forgot to give me the stamp card. 10 stamps for 1 free steak. you can get 1 stamp for 1 steak. but the other waiter just give me another 3 stamps for the steak that i've ordered before. you're forgiven for that cause! hahahaa..

the food: on my first visit, i ordered the prime sirloin (since everything wagyu is sold out, the tenderloin is sold out, the holy steak is sold out too.. seee... too many menus that's sold out, which is weird. you're opening a new restaurant, so for the first month you'll probably have people flooding your place. you're supposed to have twice the amount of the menu.. since everyone will be excited to try your best sellers. but if you're running out almost everything on the menu, how can we give you a good score? and that's their second week, so they were supposed to understand which menu is the favorite so they can prepare it more.) i asked for medium well, with mushroom sauce. my husband ordered the same but in medium and buddy steak + bbq sauce. my dad ordered well done and mushroom sauce as well. mine came more to well done rather than medium well, and my husband's more like medium rare rather than medium. and it's tooooooo salty for our taste. i kept gulping my drink to make the saltiness go away.

on my second visit, i ordered tenderloin, medium, mushroom sauce. this time, it's the right medium, but it's still to salty for me. my friend even said that the jakarta's tasted better. much better, he said.

overall, you might want to try this one if you're a carnivore, a curious food lover or food blogger, and have pretty much leisure time (since i believe travelling to west surabaya takes more time than it used to be). but if you want to try something like jakarta's holycow, you might want to skip this, as it might disappoint you.
oh, and they have various promo. if you posted them on instagram/ twitter / path or any social media, you can get free ice cream, just don't forget the hashtag. free steak on your birthday (proven by identity card). free drink for mom-to-be (i'm wondering how can they recognize mom-to-be who's still in their first trimester? there won't be any baby bump i supposed.., how can they tell?) okay then, for me, no more visit in the mean time. if you want to try, my friend in jakarta suggested buddy steak.
prime sirloin

prime tenderloin