HMT Gluttons Club: Ma Maison Japanese French Restaurant

I've never really fancied Japanese fusion and always was a purist until decent chains of affordable Japanese family restaurants became prevalent in our sunny island. There is no-place else that sells Jap food cheaper than Singapore.

I'm cool with a little fusion, but I felt that it was blasphemous to go to a Jap restaurant to have Italian or French cuisine that is 'bastardised' by Jap culture...until I tried Ma Maison...

My elder sister made me go early at 5pm just to queue, but when I was there, it was totally empty.
I guess they are still prepping up then. 6pm was around the corner and still no one around.

A very expressive Japanese lady enthusiastically welcomed me in. 

What appealed to me was the rustic cottage decoration and low, warm lighting.
It felt as though I was in the scene of the Little Match Girl, and was warmly welcomed in by the owners.

It was somewhat messy like a normal person's home, and yet it was not dusty at all.

No weird musky odor. 

Still, it wasn't enough to break the prejudice I had towards Eating Jap-French food.


While I sat around and waiting for my sister, I was never hushed to make an order.
There was also free wifi access for me to watch some youtube channels.

Their staff kindly refilled my glass of water although I have yet to take a look at the menu all these while.
I was not pressured at all until throngs of women came in like a gaggle of geese.

Then, I don't know what came upon me but I think I should order something.
Being a brat like I am, I decided to order dessert.

I started browsing their menus bound in thick leather. 

It had their crest etched onto the leather.

I was surprised that they didn't have any desserts, so I asked their servers.
They then handed me another menu that is red. It has all the detailed information of beverages, soju and desserts.
I love how they took sweets seriously.

The tablecloth was like something I might inherit from my great-grand aunt but it felt clean.

I looked through their menu and they had different variations to serving their matcha (Green Tea) Ice Cream.
I noticed the variety of tarts and custards on the clear-fridge display but it was not reflected in the menu. I guess it must be something new then

Well, I need to have something 'safe' but wasn't gonna have Matcha Ice Cream somehow, though I really love it, but something else caught my eye.

"Double-Chocolate Brownie with Ice Cream" 

That's it. It triggered.

And so I told the nice Jap lady that I want to have the Brownie.
Amused, she asked in her heavy and kawaii Jap accent:

"Don't you want to eat something first?" 

"Nope, I want dessert first!"

"Good! Just like me!" 

With that, she gave her winning smile of approval and pranced away.
(She's not a young girl btw, probably in her 30s or so.)

After some waiting, my brownie came...
It was a standard brownie, not too moist, not too dry. Ice-cream is definitely not home-made but still frozen to the right temperature.

Loved how there was a dash of icing suar and cocoa powder. The syrup is chocolate syrup unfortunately.
But it was merely $6+ so I'm not complaining :)

Near the entrance, there was a waiting area that had some decent collection of manga as reading material.
Right on top of it, is the different unfinished soju with a peculiar old fashioned skeleton key on their necks.

I asked the Jap lady what it was, and apparently the keys corresponds to the customers' index number' recorded in their office. So cute and totally random.
FYI: You get to keep your soju for 3 months if you cannot finish it. Way longer than your St James or Lunar :D


Did I mention how dainty their crockery looked? You can see it here. The porcelain with vintage patterns. I don't understand why I start to have a liking for them now, because I used to trash them when I was a kid cos I thought it looked extremely old fashioned.

So finally my elder sister reached and we ordered some Escargot baked with Garlic, Butter and Herbs. It was placed in a dish that had 6 indentations in it that kept the snails from rolling about. The thing with Ma Maison and Japs is that presentation is key, even if it's yucky snails. What you see on the right picture is large dosage of salt under the metal dish being lit up. It's like a 30 second salt lamp under our escargots. Not too sure if it made any difference to the aroma.

The result of escargot en flambé, totally devoured.

I love flaming stuff and food en flambé but not stuff like waterfalls and flaming Lamborghinis because they hurt my throat and stuff. Not this! :D 

Speaking of flambé, here comes the next dish...

Wait for it...

 

It's like food for the pyromaniacs.  

 

This is the en flambé Sizzling Hamburg Steak

The chef was heating the liquor, lit it up and then dousing onto my food. 

The liquor evaporated completely in the fire, but the leaves its aroma on my steak and bean sprouts that I usually hate. Did u notice that the bean sprouts are plucked both at the top and bottom? Do you know how much effort that takes? Well effort is commended even if they bought them wholesale ha! 

Next up!

Squid Ink Pasta

 

My sister was here solely to satisfy her craving for this pasta.

It has got a nice stir-fry, not wet like most,

pasta done al dente as well.

I personally feel that the squid ink has no taste to it and the pasta is great with or without the ink. 

I like how the funny Jap lady gave us tongs cos she knows we're doing this blasphemous act of sharing. 

Sharing is technically not a good table etiquette but in Singapore, most don't give a shit. 

 

On a separate note, I ate this on another day...

I was too hungry to remember that I was supposed to take pics.

This is Beef Stroganoff Omu-Butter Rice

VERY VERY NICE if you're not looking at something too fancy.

 

We also had some bubbly Rosé wine, not exactly a champagne so yea.

Cos we saw this: 

 

They really respect their customers. We were dressed super casually but the waiter who opened the sparkling wine opened it the right way! *GASP* I have been to high-class restaurants with their so-called high class 'sommeliers' and they all failed badly on the proper way to open and pour bubblies. 

He even asked who'd like to try it. Honestly, this is a considerably affordable wine so we told him we're cool.

Oh and I noticed that they have this ladies night special on Mondays, so if you bring a lady, you get 20% off. Simple and a good ploy to get this girl you like to go have a dinner with you! :D

The most amusing thing about this restaurant is that they don't pass you your bills, they'll give you this: 

 

You should go to the cashier with this and check out, like hotel.

In short, Ma Maison has taught me not to be so prissy and prudish on the ideals of food and dining. 

There is no such thing as 'bastardization' and sometimes different cultures just influence one another. 

So we should just try everything out with no prejudice. I mean, everything here are like home-cooked food! 

You could also check them out here: 

So yea there you have it.

Heavy Metal Tribune cares for your love life as well. 

♥

Ma Maison Singapore

The one I went>> BUGIS outlet
200 Victoria Street #02-51 Bugis Junction
Tel:(65)6338-4819
CENTRAL outlet
6 Eu Tong Sen Street #03-96 The CENTRAL
Tel:(65)6327-8122
PARCO outlet
9 Raffles Boulevard PARCO Marina Bay Stall P3-03
Tel:(65)6338-9391

©2010 Heavy Metal Tribune | CynnedCynner