Uncle Pin's Seafood - Jakarta, Indonesia

Pluit, Muara Karang and PIK area in North Jakarta is popular for tons of restaurants. One of the popular seafood restaurant there is Uncle Pin's Seafood in Muara Karang. Located just down the road from HSBC bank you could find the location by the smoke coming out from the store front. Barbecue seafood is done at the kitchen in front hence the smoke has a natural outlet.

We were there on our last night in the country with my family. They have been there before and loved it. My dad likes the food and the decent price. Me and hubby just followed along curious to find out.

It was a weekday night so the place wasn't busy at all. Maybe just a couple of tables occupied. I let them order except I chose a squid dish since I love squid. In the end we got 2 order of vegetable stir fry and 2 fish dishes. Nobody wants to get their hands dirty with shrimps or crabs.

The veggie stir fry we chose were stir fry fiddlehead fern (pakis) with dry shrimp and chili. This veggie looked very foreign to me. Never had those during my years growing up in Indonesia. Or more like my mom never cooked those at home. The texture was fresh and crunchy, almost like morning glory. That's why it was stir fry almost the same way.



The second veggie dish was stir fry young corn with shrimp. This one was cooked almost the typical Chinese way with a bit oyster sauce but with lots of green and red chili. Though it looked lethal but it wasn't really spicy. The young corn was sweet and crunchy. I love fresh young corn which are hard to find in the west except in the can.

The barbecue squid was yummy. It had the barbecue smell but the texture was so tender it made me wonder how they prepared it. The size was pretty decent too so we got plenty of flesh to work on. Their popular dish is ikan tim nyonya (nyonya style steam fish). It's a grouper steamed with sauce that looked and tasted like light curry sauce. It had hint of spiciness but not overwhelmingly spicy. I can see why it's popular. It's a step up than normal Hong Kong style steam fish with scallions and soy sauce. Even my parents who normally would shy away from spicy stuff actually endorsed this dish.

Uncle Pin's Seafood
 Jl. Pluit Karang Timur Blok B8 No. 78-80, Muara Karang, Pluit, Penjaringan, RT.6/RW.12, Pluit, Penjaringan, Kota Jkt Utara, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta 14450, Indonesia
+62 21 22667451