La Table D'Emma which means Emma's Table in French, is a huge space by Singapore Central Business District standards. It seats around 130.
The decor was casual, utilitarian yet elegant with a touch of class without being pretentious - I like.
At lunch it was bright, with lots of light flooding in through the full length windows with nice street views including the happening Club Street.
Emma's table with front row view of the huge open kitchen.
La Table D'Emma is named after owner chef Michael Muller's wife, Emma.
Chef Michael has been in Singapore for over twenty years! So, don't try to use Singlish as codewords - he knows! 😅
Chef started in France (naturally) with Michelin starred Le Jules Verne. In Singapore, he was Chef de Cuisine of Jaan, Executive Sous Chef of Fairmont Singapore and Director of Culinary Standards for Resorts World Sentosa.
Chef was in Jakarta for two years with the Raffles Jakarta opening team. He was also Asia Pacific Regional Executive Chef for Meta (parent of Facebook) before launching his love project La Table D'Emma.
We need to talk about Les Bouchées a la Reine D'Emma first. Chef Michael created this dish for his first date with future wife Emma. (Forgot to ask him when was that 😄 )
There's a lot of love in the dish of delicate puff pastry set on rich creamy mushroom gently savoury sweet velouté sauce with cubes of tender veal and chicken.
I asked chef Michael why there are butterflies in his dishes, hanging from the ceiling and pasted on the glass windows.
The romantic chef said it reminds him of the butterflies at his mother's house in the beautiful French Alsace region.
Hence, La Table D'Emma's homely tagline, Cuisine Comme à La Maison which means "food that tastes like home".
The Alsace is a French region which borders Switzerland and Germany, hence its unique cuisine reflects Swiss and German influences.
About those butterfly pastries in the bowl.., they blew my mind.
I couldn't resist those airy light, tissue thin, crisp, flaky layers that collapsed like a mini accordion when it crumbled audibly and melted deliciously in my mouth.
Tarte Flambee.
Thin chewy slightly crisp baked flat bread with layers of savouriness from white cheese (fromage blanc, if you like to sound fancy 😜 ), caramelised onion and toasted bacon toppings. It's a sort of Alsatian pizza.
Seafood Bun with Comté (cheese) Crust. Chef created this dish for the lucky folks of Meta when he was their Asia Pacific Region Executive Chef.
Creamy, foamy, savoury clam chowder.
It was like a kind of puffy seafood soup bun filled with rich scallop, prawn, and crabmeat in clam chowder.
Grilled Octopus Tentacle with Chimichurri Sauce.
Charred red capsicum sauce, cherry tomatoes and crisp toasted focaccia bread. Spongy, soft tender, thick grilled tentacles. Seafood umami wrapped in umami and savoury tangy flavours with a hint of spicy heat from the Chimichurri sauce. Eat with the crispy bread. Evilly addictive.
Soupe a L'Onion Gratinee with Gruyere Swiss Cheese or onion soup for short was unlike any that I have seen or tried before.
There's thyme, bay leaves, molten and melted Gruyere Cheese in robust beefy broth infusing the broth soaked croutons with intense savoury flavours.
There's lots of onion rich in umami and savouriness, and slight sweetness when you dig deep below the brown surface. It's an onion soup with a big beefy kick.
Binchotan Grilled Caesar Salad with Parmesan and Croutons.
There are Caesar salads, and there are Caesar salads - I have been having the latter till now 😂
This was a memorable Caesar salad. Crunchy romaine lettuce and tender squid (okay.. calamari) grilled over hot embers with creamy Parmesan cheese, anchovy sauce and crunchy garlic bread.
The grilled squid though just tiny pieces, was big on toasty taste and aroma that is akin to what the Cantonese call wok hei. Flavour and aroma grenades!
Pluma De Porc Iberique Au Grill or grilled Iberico pork cheek.
Superbly soft juicy, tender sweet, chubby fat and lean Iberian pork cheek grilled to perfection and served with ratatouille and a layered savoury red wine sauce.
Joue De Boeuf a la Provençale.
Beef cheeks slow cooked with cherry tomatoes, garlic, olives and Provençal herbs, served with buttered coquillette macaroni pasta (small macaroni).
The stew was beefy and rich with flavours from cherry tomatoes. I don't eat macaroni much but this is the best that I have tasted in terms of texture and flavour - tender firm pasta in a rich savoury tangy sweet stew.
Le Mille-Feuille Vanille Hazelnut Praline.
Crisp and flaky "1000 layer" puff pastry with vanilla crème pátissière and artisanal hazelnut praliné. The thousand layer crisp dessert was stacked with layers of sweetness with a bit of nuttiness from the toasted hazelnut praliné.
By this time, I had well fallen into food coma.
I was curious about the Frozen "Singapore Sling".
Grenadine and sour cherry ice cream, gin infused grilled pineapple and coconut dacquoise. Yes, I did taste a bit of fruity zest and bittersweetness that reminded me of the Singapore Sling at Raffles Hotel.
Buddy's treat. Looking at the menu, I feel the pricing is competitive and good value given the accessible location, elegant ambiance, and excellent quality of lovingly prepared food.
Those marked with a pink butterfly are the restaurant's signatures.
Oh... We spotted this offer at the table and shamelessly took advantage of it 😂 Deal is on till end of Sep 2024, hence I rushed out this article so that you can benefit from it too 😁 Very worth it for two.
Pro-tip: Espresso here costs S$4.50++. So, it's a good place to hangout in the city centre over coffee.
Restaurant name: La Table d’Emma
Address: 8 Club St, #01-04, Singapore 069472 (street level of Mercure ICON Hotel)
Nearest MRT: 3 minutes walk from Telok Ayer station
Tel: 8101 8691
Hours: 11:30 am - 2:30 pm | 5:30pm -10:30 pm
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