So many of us go chasing after minimalistic cafes serving cold-brews and fusion pastas. Instagram-worthy dining interiors, and beautifully plated pastries.
Often, our dining experience has become so focused on how aesthetic our meals look, how gorgeous the place looks, and perhaps even how gorgeous we ourselves look in photos we take of the place.
But here at Enjoy Eating House (30 Stevens Rd, #01-07), Chef Joel takes his own spin on your restaurant experience. We visited the flagship outlet at Stevens Road, where Joel ventures into one of Singapore’s first Chef Table concepts, also taking us a couple of decades back into his own childhood.
Two of my dinner companions for the night. Dawn (SG Budget Babe) & Deanna (DollarsAndSense)
For this one evening, we were momentarily transported to the good old days, when aeroplane chess was still a popular choice for children, country erasers were modified with staple bullets to prepare for battle and haw flakes were still a popular snack.
But let’s not rush into that yet; Let’s first talk about what makes up a ‘Chef’s table’.
Chef’s Table Is Exactly What It Sounds Like
Scrap what you thought restaurant meals are about.
It’s no longer about ordering only the dishes you want to eat; Chef’s table is about being served dishes the chef wants you to taste.
It’s no longer about only interacting with other guests at the same table; Chef’s table is about interacting with the chef too.
It’s no longer about just eating and then leaving when everyone is done with food and talking; Chef’s table takes you on a longer and more personal journey with each dish that comes by.
What makes a Chef’s table experience different, is the way you get to be closer to your chef. Not just physically, but personally too; your dining area is located nearer to your chef’s preparation area, you’ll find yourself being immersed in conversation with your chef and most importantly, you’ll get to understand the story behind each dish they serve up to you.
The intimacy involved in a Chef’s table experience is overall, much more elevated than a typical restaurant dining experience.
And if you want a taste of what a Chef’s table experience is like, read on to see what Joel has created for his diners.
Here’s How Joel Does It
Let’s start from the beginning.
When the glass door slid open to reveal the interior of the restaurant, my mouth dropped into a small ‘oh’.
Enjoy Eating House was… friendly.
Strangely familiar.
Oddly comfortable.
And mind you… I’ve never been here before.
Here, you’ll find warm orange light casting down on curious shades of blue, pink and green walls. Wooden tables in different orientations scatter throughout the restaurant, with wooden slates working hard to segment different parts of the dining area.
We were led to an area in the restaurant specially carved out for us and our upcoming experience. The tables and surrounding panels were effortfully designed with items meant to tug at your memories. A set of aeroplane chess, a game of SNAP; little plastic toy soldiers positioned next to a helicopter, some ready for combat and some already aiming fire at us as we made our way into the space. Old-time favourite snacks like Mamee and haw flakes hung teasingly in front of us, invoking back memories of the good old times.
Our table decor sets us up for a nostalgic evening
Now, may the dining experience begin.
Experiencing Chef’s Joel’s Table
Our meal started with a stream of appetisers and starters, before serving up 3 main courses and finishing off with 2 dessert courses.
STARTERS: [Yu Sheng], [Rojak] and [Poori]
For appetisers, we had ‘Yu Sheng’. A dish known to only appear in the month of the Chinese New year festivities as long green and orange strands tossed in sweet sauce, this was a pleasant surprise! ‘Yu Sheng’ turned out to be a bite of sliced Hamachi fish sandwiched within a mini taco-shaped cracker. Topped with a dash of Caviar, this appetiser blew out what we would expect to see and taste in typical Yu Sheng.
Chef Joel’s version of ‘Rojak’ caught me off guard too; a clever pairing of flash grilled baby squid and fermented prawn paste overturns my understanding of what Rojak can look and taste like, while still keeping to the roots of its flavour.
Then, we have ‘Poori’. Comfortable and familiar, the elements of cauliflower, potato and curry paste come together in what seemed like a dinosaur egg at first glance. And just like the previous 2 appetisers, Chef Joel’s magic comes through in how he elevates the flavour profile of these regular ingredients.
The serving size for the appetisers was a tad little, or perhaps, I was briefed to come with an empty stomach and there were so good that I just didn’t feel it was enough. Our dinner group was joking about maybe going to Newton Food Centre after this if we were still hungry after dinner.
Then, we had the first of the 3 (sumptuous) main dishes for the night.
Each main dish came with a slice of Joel’s life, and he will explain the background and stories behind each of these dishes that complemented the excellence of the food. Let’s move through the course in a sequence.
Chef Joel explaining the background for each of the main course
MAIN: [Lor Ark], and Joel’s favourite duck.
The 18-Herb Braised Duck served with tomato (which was infused with plum wine), atop a spread of yam paste came with the memory of Joel’s favourite duck rice stall in Buona Vista, Lim Seng Lee Duck Rice Eating House which has unfortunately closed down.
MAIN: [Rochor Thai], where Chef Joel trained to be the chef he is today.
Then came ‘Rochor Thai’, Joel’s own take on Thai food presented in one plate. ‘Rochor Thai’ consisted of a cut of Patin fish topped with Hokkaido Scallop Foam, which was beautifully paired with these fermented rice noodles that was so well seasoned with his own special sauce (I’ll be openly biased, this was our part favorite of all 8 courses). Rochor Thai was the name of the restaurant where Joel worked at for 8 years straight, and it was also where he spent much time honing his craft as a chef.
Young Chef Joel
MAIN: [Quality Hotel Porridge Supper], where Joel turned 21
The last of the 3 main courses was created to honour Joel’s favourite supper buffet restaurant. Joel loved their porridge so much, he even celebrated his 21st birthday here! ‘Quality Hotel Porridge Supper’ transforms the familiar classic Taiwanese porridge we all know, into a sweet potato risotto served with a generous chunk of braised Nam Lu Pork Rib, a 63-degree egg and the one thing you must have with porridge… Cai Po.
Remember the earlier thought of heading to Newton Food Centre? By the time we were done with the final of the three main dishes, we were all sated.
But we were not done with dinner yet.
DESSERT: This was how Joel said [Good Morning] to his stomach back then.
In his younger days, Joel also had kaya toast for breakfast almost every other day. And thus, the birth of his first dessert course, ‘Good Morning’. ‘Good Morning’ had Kopi Gu You ice cream, served with an adorable pancake stuffed with Gula Melaka Kaya. 2 bites of pandan cake finish off the homely look of this dessert platter.
DESSERT: [Jiak Song] was a shiok finish to the meal.
The last of our courses for the night was a platter of Orh Ni Tarts, Pandan Agar Agar and Custard Puffs. Chef Joel didn’t disappoint even at the end, as each piece of dessert retained its authentic flavours while rising to the standards of what you’ll expect at a high-end restaurant in Singapore.
Joel’s Chef’s Table experience is a storybook. Each course brought us through different chapters of Joel’s life, speaking to us about the foods he personally enjoyed as he was growing up. Personally, it felt like we all shared the same grandmother who was lovingly preparing a meal for us.
So, this is what Chef’s Table really is about.
Towards the end of the eight courses, I silently sifted through my recollection of the experience so far and… I think I finally got it.
This is the true essence of the Chef’s table; all of us in this shared space, a space our chef creates through dishes that carry personal meaning to him.
Like any good host, Chef Joel will spend time chatting with his guests
A Chef’s table connects each diner to the chef, and each diner to one other via this shared connection with our chef. We end up with an experience that’s unique and novel, an experience that’s beautifully human because of how it leverages the intangible aspects; the way we connect with the stories behind the Chef’s dishes, the depth of connection we feel as we interact with the chef themselves, the nature of conversation within us diners ourselves as we journey through the chef’s courses together.
I now understand why they named this dining concept as such; it is a Chef’s table, because the chef is the true star of the show from start to end.
Cost of experience: $118 ++ per pax. All experiences are paid by DollarsAndSense unless otherwise stated.
At the time of writing, the Chef’s Table dining experience at Eating House And Bar is not open for booking for the public.
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