Bone Kettle recently opened its doors in Pasadena this Spring 2017 to introduce its exquisite Indonesian flavors in the form of simple beef bone broth and Southeast Asian fusion tapas. While their dishes are served family-style with shareable amounts in their tapas and protein, what they’re really special for are their bone kettle broth. Their beef bone broth is boiled for 36 hours in a kettle filled with filtered water, onions, dried spices of the Southeast Asia, garlic and ginger.
Each table gets a complimentary snack of roasted salted peanuts and pickled cucumbers. The peanuts are crunchy, salty and include the thin, crispy skin. The cucumbers are refreshingly sour.
Their steamed oxtail dumplings are one of their most popular starters. Inside these delicious dumplings are oxtail tips, mushrooms and San Bal Su sauce. Topped with sliced raw onions, the oxtail dumplings were extremely savory and packed with many flavors. The chili oil added a hint of spicy. THIS WAS SO YUMMY!
Here is their famous bowl of noodles topped with sliced raw onions, carrots and micro greens.
Right away, the waiter also follows in with a thermos bottle of hot beef bone broth and pours the broth into your bowl in front of you. I like that they give an extra presentation to make it more special than just handing out a bowl of noodles and broth. 🙂 Even as the waiter pours the bone broth, you can smell the comforting aroma of soup.
(There is a side of extra condiments to add to your liking: hot chili, fried scallions and vinegar).
There are also little mushrooms in the soup as you play around with your noodles! I found that I didn’t even need nor want to use any of the extra condiments provided. The broth was insanely savory and warm; similar to the Vietnamese pho, but sweeter. The noodles were al dente and firm and thick (similar to ramen noodles in texture).
The protein we chose for our pairing was fatty brisket. All of their protein dishes serve 2-3 people (meant for sharing). It doesn’t look like much, but to our surprise, we couldn’t even finish it!! I like the extra presentation in the vegetables and greens. What really impressed me was the bed of potato puree that the fatty brisket was sitting on! It was the most smooth and soft potato puree I have ever eaten! That extra touch of carbs added to this protein dish made the presentation extra special and over the top for me! Not to mention, the fatty brisket tasted exactly as how it was called: very fatty, savory and tender!
Oh we had such a good experience here! Sous Chef Alan Chang was awesome enough to hook us up with a plate of bone marrow! THANK YOU ALAN <3 The bone marrow was cooked in cream corn and included a side of toasted bread and citrus. I’ve had my share of bone marrow, but I never would have though that corn would complement the fattiness of bone marrow so much!
We also had the pleasure to meet the owner of this restaurant, ERIC. He was very nice, friendly and had a good sense of humor too! The experience we had from the service he provides, including the chefs and the waiters was remarkable and amazing. This dinner was over the top for me and I am definitely coming back to try the rest of the proteins and starters!
New go-to place for comfort food for me after work! 😀
