Feast From the East
Circumstances cause a renowned French restaurant to offer an Asian delivery menu—with positive results
For many years, Bistro à Table has been a go-to place for fine French cuisine in the Klang Valley. The award-winning restaurant, helmed by chef Isadora Chai, is renowned for its ever-changing roster of acclaimed French delights.
The restaurant surprised many recently after adding an Asian delivery menu in early May. Now, customers could order nasi ulam and herbal organic chicken as well as cheese platters and lobster thermidor. While this new food was delicious, this seemed an unusual change for a French restaurant.
According to Chai, who’s been in the business for 23 years, this stemmed from the closing of Antara Restaurant, a Malaysian fine dining eatery she had previously operated.
“I continued to get a lot of inquiries and requests from my regular clientele, who still hankered for Antara’s menu. I continued to offer it only for deliveries because, well, I did not want to confuse Bistro à Table’s French cuisine identity, neither would I ever serve it in my own restaurant,” quips Chai in an email interview.
In the Asian delivery menu, new dishes include Chai’s famous Sarawak lobster laksa, which she used to serve at Antara. Another highlight is herbal ginseng chicken, cooked in Chinese wine, ginseng, tong kwai, red dates and a slew of Chinese herbs for at least six hours, until the meat falls off the bird.
“It’s one of those dishes that you can serve to your picky mother-inlaw with confidence,” Chai laughs. “On a healthier note, we also have a quinoa alternative to the muchloved nasi ulam, with herbs grown in my own vegetable garden.”
Response to the menu has been good so far, the chef says. In particular, many customers have been ordering it for their parents during lockdown. She considers this a great honour.
Would the chef continue offering this Eastern delivery when the pandemic is over? Well, yes and no.
“I will most definitely continue to offer the Eastern menu by delivery or takeaway, but as mentioned earlier, I would never serve this at Bistro à Table during dine-in service because it confuses the identity of my French restaurant. Also, nobody wants to have the smell of belacan wafting through the air while digging into your lobster thermidor!” Chai quips.