Smoky Jack

Went out last Saturday with Lina and Mei Ling for an early celebrating of my birthday. We went to Smoky Jake, which is at Upper Penang Road for lunch. I read quite a lot of good reviews on them, especially for their steak, so I thought that we gave it a try.

Greeted by the bar counter once we opened the door and stepped in. I can imagine it would be crowded with people at night time. But since it was noon, so obviously no one was at the bar counter.

We walked into the dining section through an another entrance. This time we were greeted by a big 'container'. There are 2 openings on the 'container' which are the doors and inside a few sets of tables and chairs. Hmmm... eating in a 'container', wondered how it would feels like.

We decided to walk further inside and were more surprised by the decorations and table setting. It was very alien like. I actually seen some of the deco from other blogs so I had an idea of what to expect. But even so, it still came to me as surprising.

The deco came to me as very alien-ish. The design is somewhat like what you can see in the alien movies. There are table settings where the chairs look like cocoons and some other which look like a err... nicely peeled orange's skin =x The ambiance is quite relaxing, lightly dim with yellow light. The place is not very big, and with the 'unique' kinda decoration, it was kinda a bit cramped.

We chose the cocoon's setting. Special looking but not comfortable to sit in -.- The chair is not movable so when I lean back at the chair, I was so far out to the table =\ We only managed to snap photos of the cocoon's setting. The rest were occupied and it would be a bit rude to snap a photo.

The waitress passed us the menus and told us that there are set lunch available. And there is also a promotion where when you ordered 2 sets of lunch sets, the second sets would only be half the normal price. The lunch set comes with either a salad or soup and a dessert. The sets are separate into 3 sections. Set A are mainly those pastas and other Italian food. Set B consists of fish, chicken and pork. Hmm...non-halal food, nice xD Set C is where all the ribs and steak are.

I decided to try the steak, since it is their specialty afterall. The waiter that took our order asked me if I want it medium rare or medium done. I told him I want it medium rare. The waiter then said, medium rare is almost cook while medium done, the meat is still pink and 'yummy' taste. No idea what he meant by 'yummy' though -.-'' Anyway, I always thought that for medium rare, the meat is not almost cook but still red (not pink), sometimes can still see the blood and least cook than medium done. Well, he's the waiter so I just assumed I was wrong and changed it to medium done.

When I got back home, I googled and this is what I found in Wikipedia.

The amount of time a steak is cooked is a personal preference; shorter steak cooking times retain more juice, whereas longer steak cooking times result in drier, tougher meat but reduce concerns about disease. A vocabulary has evolved to describe the degree to which a steak is cooked. The following terms are in order from least cooked to most cooked:

* Raw - Uncooked. Used in dishes like steak tartare, Carpaccio, Gored gored, tiger meat and Kitfo.
* Blue rare or very rare - (37.8°C/100°F core temp) Cooked very quickly; the outside is seared, but the inside is usually cool and barely cooked. The steak will be red on the inside and barely warmed. Sometimes asked for as 'blood rare'. In the United States this is also sometimes referred to as 'Black and Blue' or 'Pittsburgh Rare'.
* Rare - (48.9°C/120°F core temp) The outside is gray-brown, and the middle of the steak is red and slightly warm.
* Medium rare - (52.2°C/126°F degrees core temp) The steak will have a fully red, warm center. Unless specified otherwise, upscale steakhouses will generally cook to at least this level.
* Medium - (57.2°C/135°F degrees core temp) The middle of the steak is hot and red with pink surrounding the center. The outside is gray-brown.
* Medium well done - (62.8°C/145°F degrees core temp) The meat is light pink surrounding the center.
* Well done - (73.9°C/165°F degrees core temp) The meat is gray-brown throughout and slightly charred.

I was right =\ Oh well, will try to remember next time another waiter make the same mistake.

Complimentary breads were given after our orders were taken. 3 different kind of breads with 2 sweet butter and 1 garlic butter. The breads were nice and soft, not like those normal breads some other shops usually served.

Lina said the knife is nice and asked me to snap a photo of it. It does looks nice =D

Our food took quite long to arrive, so we decided to make use of the waiting time. I snapped some of the decorations there.

This colorful lamp is hanging at every cocoon's table setting. Snapped this from the hanging at our table. Nice isn't it? =D

This is actually the ceiling. They are stacks and stacks of wooden doors, overlapping each other. Very creative and really not bad at all xD

Some of the different type of lamps. The branches are practically all over the place, make the place into some kind of alien food lair, blek.

Next, the arrival of our food xD

The salad. Looked nice, but too bad I am totally not a veggie fan. Both my friends opt for the salad.


Both enjoying their salad. *munch* *munch* *munch* Only complain from Mei Ling is the orange syrup that they used is a tad too sweet.

Mah soup!!~~ Thick, creamy and yummy mushroom soup. Very nice, I gave this two thumps up xD

Mei Ling ordered the Baked Seabass. The portion is quite small and the slice of the fish was very thin. My friend said it tasted very nice. I tried a small slice and the stench of the fish overwhelmed me. Can't say I like it and it only taste ok for me.

I ordered the Grilled Tenderloin. A generous big piece of meat on the plate. Nicely grilled. The taste, very nice =D It was grilled perfectly medium done, with the pink meat soft and tender. I actually enjoy it, but would have enjoy it more if it was done medium rare and much more juicier.

Lina ordered the Grilled Ribeyes. Scored the same point as the tenderloin. Equally nice, thou I felt the tenderloin was a bit softer.

And for our dessert, hmm... nth much to say about this. A small piece of cake, and 3 pieces of fruits. Well, nothing to shout about for this one.

The photos below were taken when we were waiting for our food. There are a lot more from where these few comes from, so you can at least guess how long it was before our food was served.

Mei Ling was trying to act 'dead in the cocoon' for this photo, but failed miserably. Can't blame her thou, the 3 of us kept laughing. Can't remember what was Lina trying to do. I think it was 'trap in the cocoon, calling out for help (happily)' =x

Took this photos with the help from someone sitting next to our table. Initially we wanted to wait for the waiter to come back with our change and ask him/her to help us take the photo. But somehow just waiting for our change also took quite a long time =\

Snapped this when we came out from Smoky Jake. Lina called it 'kepompong'

Overall, it was a good lunch. Only complain is the waiting time of course. I would recommend anyone that take beef to this place for a nice steak. Wouldn't mind coming some other time myself either xD