Ma Maison (Bugis Junction)

This restaurant is at a corner of Level 2 Bugis Junction, so unless you know of it, else most people will missed it along their way checking out the different restaurants along the corridor. But it’s also one of the few that is in existence for many years, and still attracts a queue even for weekday dinner (although its partly due to the size of the restaurant).

I am attracted to this restaurant as it is one of the few (that I know), which has both decently-priced dishes and Escargot (yes, I meant the snails!!). Although I thought (if I remember correctly) the Escargot on my first visit many years ago, was served on a 6-indented-hole metal plate with or without salt laid on the serving plate beneath it; but now they are just served on a flat metal plate with salt laid on the serving plate beneath it – the current serving style doesn’t look as authentic nor appetising.

Both of my visits were in the evenings and the interior looks like a European (Scottish?) cottage with low-head lamps above each table. The cosy feeling, which makes you forgot that the whole restaurant is full of other people as well. During my last visit, we were so happily chit-chatting away, that we didn’t realize that it is already quite late, until the waitress politely left a big key on our table and tell us that’s the key to the little pigeonhole behind the cashier counter, where she kept our bill. It’s a way to remind us to “get out”, while still giving us a pleasant feeling to it. We could see that there are still other occupied tables around – they must be in the same situation as us: caught in the cosy feeling and forgot about the time, despite next day still a working day.

Most would say the hamburger steak is their signature dish, but I have not tried it. Instead, I have their beef omu-rice and like the beef gravy going with the wet egg and the rice beneath it. They didn’t have much dessert choices, except the different type of fruit tarts. There was a promotion when we went and the tarts were going at $4.90 instead of $8.90 a piece, and the taste was fine, so we felt money worth. Although we were a bit upset when the cashier didn’t charge us the promo price and we had to ask them to change the bill twice to make sure every slice of our tarts were charged at the right price.

After enjoying a wonderful plate of Escargots during my holiday, I've been wondering if it's actually possible to find reasonably-priced Escargots in Singapore. And when I saw Ma Maison, and how cheap the Escargots actually were, I couldn't wait to go there!

So when I got there, there was a rather short but slow-moving queue, so people: do remember to make reservations! However, if you didn't mind sitting at the bar, they'd allow you to do that just so you don't have to wait too long. And that was what I did. Nothing unpleasant nor special about that experience.

I understand that the place is a French-Jap fusion restaurant, but I personally didn't quite like the decor of the place. The dark lightings and wooden furnishing gave it a french/ country-style indeed, perhaps that explains the "French" part. However, I thought everything you see didn't quite blend well with the atmosphere and cuisine (so to speak) served.

Service was not too bad there, people were rather friendly and prompt in bringing up your food. We didn't have to wait too long for our orders. Additional plates and appropriate utensils were also provided to make it easier to eat the Escargots and anything else we ordered. We were also given this giant brass key that we would need when making payment. It was a rather cool idea and it was so huge that you can't lose it. But that chunky thing was kinda in the way too, considering how bar-tops were not made for big plates.

I can't remember the exact name of the things I ordered, but I remember there being a plate of Escargots, some Mexican (or spanish?) seafood rice and a bowl of Omu rice.

The Escargots had a fairly strong garlic and butter taste, and was very oily. Did not taste very fresh to me either.

The seafood rice, too, had the similar garlic and butter taste. Makes me wonder if they use the exact same wok/pan to cook everything. I didn't like the appearance of the dish. It gave me the feeling of being full upon looking at it. But apart from the abovementioned, taste-wise, it was still fairly decent.

My favourite was probably the simple tomato sauce-based Omu rice. I would advise anyone who orders that to finish it while it's still hot and tasting good.

In general, I have one comment for almost everything I had: being the worse fan of garlic, everything in the food had to have such strong garlic taste! So I guess I didn't really enjoy everything.. Nonetheless, I am sure if you share the exact opposite sentiments as I do, this place could be a place worth trying! And if you're on some sort of a budget, try to limit yourself to just one dish per person because the bill can come up to quite abit, including the GST and all. We paid $90 for two, unfortunately.