Hotel Mulia, despite not being part of a big international chain, is one of the city’s best-known and respected hotels and its popular Il Mare and Samudra Shark’s Fin and Seafood restaurant can mix it up with the best of them. Just over a year ago, these two top eateries were joined by Orient 8, a startlingly extravagant restaurant decked out in a French colonial style, serving pan Asian cuisine. Now, directly next door, a sister restaurant, Table 8 has opened its doors and is similarly spectacular.

Table 8 serves authentic Cantonese and Szechuan cuisine that ranges from home-cooked favourites to popular street foods to classy delicacies from both regions. Inside, Table 8 is just as sumptuously decked out as Orient 8. The decor and furniture are reminiscent of an opulent colonial European past mixed Chinese infl uences. This style is known as Chinoiserie, a French term signifying “Chinese-esque” which refers to a recurring theme in European artistic styles since the Seventeenth Century refl ecting Chinese infl uences. It’s quite breathtaking although some may fi nd it all a little over the top.However Table 8, like Orient 8 before it, also features a cheeky pop art touch. This manifests itself in the huge oil painting of Marilyn Monroe decked out in traditional Chinese garb that adorns the huge ceiling above the central dining area. Andy Warhol eat your heart out.

Table 8 also features its own Mao private dining room which sports huge windows that look out onto the Mulia’s waterfall garden. The restaurant also shares another two private dining rooms with Orient 8. 24 pagodas impressively deck the main dining area and there is a Chinese tea station available at the entrance.So what of the food then? Well it’s certainly worthy of the restaurant’s beautiful interior and there’s plenty to choose from. A buffet is available and there is some truly excellent dim sum on hand, however you should really delve into the a la carte menu for the full Table 8 experience.

Unusual traditional dishes such as Buddha Jump over the Wall Soup mix with creations such as Braised Superior Shark’s Fin with Crab Claw and Crab Roe Served with Clear Superior Soup (a mouthful to say an even more of one to eat), Stewed Beef Short Rib Wrapped in Lotus Leaf and the even more extravagantly named Double Boiled Dried Scallop and Snail with Chicken and Cordyceps Flower. All are truly fantastic and both prepared and presented to a fastidious degree of perfection with many of the ingredients used being imported directly from China.

If you can’t decide what to pick from the extensive menu then your best bet is to opt for one of the set menus for one which range from Rp.268,000 up to Rp.1,180,000. After a hearty meal, crack open one of the restaurant’s fortune cookies and see what the future has in store for you. As for Table 8, well its future is surely bright.