Birthday #3: Bistro A Table, Petaling Jaya, Selangor

Other than Japanese, I also love French cuisine. For my birthday celebratory dinner, we visited Bistro a Table, a restaurant serving modern French cuisine with a local twist, which we have been wanting to visit for a while. 

Opened on the auspicious date 6 June 2011 at restaurant no. 6, Bistro a Table is helmed by owner-cum-chef Isadora Chai. Named after the central common table in the restaurant, Bistro a Table literally means "to the table" in French and welcomes complete strangers to eat together within the same vicinity. On one side of the restaurant, tables are set for 2 to 4 pax with curtains in between tables, giving diners privacy, if required.  Suspended glass globes containing orchids make up part of the decor here, giving the place a casual yet romantic ambiance. 

Seasonal ingredients play a huge part in the menu here, hence the menus change on a regular basis.  They do maintain a few signature dishes such as the coddled maple syrup egg, cannelloni with seared scallops and prawns with keluak tapenade topping and Ode to Newton. 

Complimentary bread

Many of her dishes are inspired by local favourites, such as her signature coddled maple syrup egg (RM16). The inspiration comes from the soft boiled eggs at local kopitiams served with a sweet and savoury soy sauce. She uses only free range chicken eggs, and serves it with crouton dust, fleur de sel and a single asparagus stalk (instead of soldiers). The maple syrup and fleur de sel creates the desired sweet-savoury taste. To eat this, we were advised to mix the maple syrup with the egg and then pour over the crouton dust and dip the egg with the asparagus. This was a really nice (fun) way to start our meal (we ordered one each).

Mixed and ready to eat!

Just wish there was one more asparagus to dip into the egg.

We were feeling greedy, so decided to order a second starter each. Hubby had the Avruga caviar cold pasta with soy mirin and white truffle oil (RM65). This dish was inspired by Chef Gunther Hubrechsen of Gunther's in Singapore, which is restaurant we have visited before. It tasted really fantastic, with a strong truffle aftertaste (we like!). The portion though is really small, we wish there was more!

Since it's my birthday (it's ok to splurge, Hubby says), I went for the most expensive starter on the menu - the goose foie gras Liverpop (RM72). Rich and decadent, and what an eye-candy too! So pretty to look at. The goose liver terrine is made to look like a lollipop... a very posh one, I say! The foie has been steeped in 30 yr old Armagnac and then coated with spun maple syrup, served with a soft bun and some apple chutney. It tastes just as nice as it looks... 'nuff said.

For mains, I ordered the stuffed saddle of rabbit with Trompette de la Mort & Morel mushrooms with parsnip puree (RM68). The rabbit was moist and the mushrooms gave it a nice texture. I like the sweet and smooth parnish puree, which goes well with the rabbit.

Hubby had the truffled Trompette de la Mort & morel mushroom risotto (RM48), which was fabulous. It was so well-executed, by far the best risotto we've tasted in KL. Hubby also ordered a side garden salad (RM8) to go with his risotto.

Ode to Newton (RM37) is a dessert I have been wanting to try since I interviewed Isadora for an article while I was freelancing last year. The way she described it certainly got my interest piqued. This is a precisely timed dessert - start with the candied ginger souffle and by the time you finish that, the cinnamon and nutmeg ice cream on a lemongrass hemisphere would have fallen into the warm ginger beer to form a ginger beer float. There is a waiting time of 25 minutes for this dessert and usually, you can only order it after 9:30pm, but since it was a quiet service in the restaurant, we got to try this. The souffle was really good, and we both sat there like kids, with our eyes glued to the ginger beer.. waiting for the ice cream to drop into the cup. Oh, we managed to capture it on video too. Certainly a dessert worth waiting for.

This dessert got a mention the Wall Street Journal too

Ready for the drop

Watch the video here:

Hubby had the Caramelised apple tart tatin with creme fraiche ice cream (RM22) which also has a 20 minute wait. He found it to be slightly too caramelised for his liking, however he commented that the ice cream was nice.

Verdict: We had a very enjoyable meal here at Bistro a Table. The food certainly has the wow factor, in terms of taste and creativity. A great place for a celebratory meal.

Pork-free.

Service: Good.

Price: Total bill RM456, including a glass of wine.

Location: Bistro a Table, 6 Jalan 17/54, 46400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.

Tel: 03-7931 2831

Website: http://www.bistroatable.com

GPS Coordinates: 3.12599, 101.637093