Fixed tasting menus are a mainstay in fine dining for a reason — no other format allows chefs such complete control over a diner’s gastronomic experience. They eat, drink, smell and taste what the chef tells them to, when the chef tells them to.
The ebb and flow of the meal, the richness of the flavors and the tempo of the courses are all carefully calibrated to represent the purest expression of the chef’s culinary vision that season and, sometimes, that very evening.
But there are days where you don’t feel like having quail, or rhubarb, or herring, even if they’re at the peak of their season. You might not want to sit through 12 courses over three hours, even if there’s a delicate push and pull that makes it all worth it.
Sometimes, you just want to sit back, reach for the à la carte menu and share a good meal with friends and family — ordering with your heart and gut, even if it means getting a plate or three of that hit entrée. On those days, you’d want to head to these MICHELIN establishments for à la carte delights that offer the best of flexible, delicious gastronomy.
MICHELIN Guide Abu Dhabi 2025
Although Erth means legacy, it’s anything but a traditional restaurant. For starters, the One-Starred eatery boasts a modern, comfortably appointed dining room, despite being situated in Abu Dhabi’s oldest stone building, the historic Qasr Al Hosn. And then there’s its food — a nouveau blend of old-school Emirati proteins and techniques, uplifted with modern-day flair. This includes the braised lamb machboos, which features a sweet-savory teriyaki sauce in lieu of the more classical spice-heavy marinade.
MICHELIN Guide Hong Kong & Macau 2025
Two-MICHELIN-Starred Ying Jee Club in Hong Kong’s Central district is Cantonese fine dining to a tee. The dining room, the furnishings, the silverware — everything screams elegant and sumptuous, down to the tastefully elevated à la carte offerings including Ying Jee Club signatures such as the crispy salted chicken. Yes, the humble chicken, here poached in a rich broth, air-dried for an entire day and deep-fried until glassy-skinned and mouth-wateringly delicious.
MICHELIN Guide Tokyo 2025
Nodaiwa Azabu Iikura Honten is a centuries-old eel specialist now in the hands of its fifth generation. You come to this One-MICHELIN-Starred establishment in the shadow of Tokyo Tower for one thing and one thing only — freshwater eel, repeatedly dipped into a sweet-savory tare (base) and charbroiled until deliciously smoky and packed with umami, served in a beautiful lacquer box.
MICHELIN Guide Hong Kong & Macau 2025
Unlike many Chinese restaurants, Two-MICHELIN-Starred Chef Tam’s Seasons keeps its à la carte menu lean, with a selection of less than 50 items, including dessert and dim sum. This gives the team enough breathing room to continually update the restaurant’s arsenal with bold and exciting flavors — though that’s not to forget its signatures, which include the local favorite, baked baby pigeon with sand ginger and salt, as well as the indulgent Chef Tam’s iron pot rice with fresh crab roe pork patty.
MICHELIN Guide Kuala Lumpur & Penang 2025
Georgetown in Penang is a haven for scrumptious Nyonya restaurants, and one of the establishments that dishes it best is One-Starred Auntie Gaik Lean’s Old School Eatery. The charmingly unpretentious restaurant serves up the matriarch’s recipes with unerring authenticity and commitment to time-tested practices. Everything is made from scratch, down to the vegetable-stuffed shells of the signature pie tee and the herbaceous, hard-to-find nasi ulam (rice mixed with herbs and vegetables).
MICHELIN Guide Singapore 2024
MICHELIN-Starred Candlenut pays homage to the culinary traditions of the local Peranakan ethnic group with curries, braises and wok-fried sharing plates galore. The meal is communal by nature — and the à la carte menu duly notes this — so bring friends and an empty stomach. Modernized mainstays from the Peranakan canon include the Chef’s Mum’s Chicken Curry (adapted, as its name suggests, from a treasured family recipe) and the Candlenut’s buah keluak fried rice.
MICHELIN Guide Taiwan 2024
In a way, Golden Formosa in Taipei’s bustling Shilin District is a victim of its own success. Though the MICHELIN-Starred restaurant’s à la carte menu boasts over 200 items, most of its ravenous guests zero in on the same dish — a succulent, laborious, ridiculously addictive platter of deep-fried pork ribs, first conceived in 1954 as a way of elevating the humble pork rib to upmarket banquet status. Choice pork belly ribs are marinated in 15 spices overnight before being battered and double-fried, resulting in a divine crunch backed up with flavorsome, yet tender, meat.
MICHELIN Guide Taiwan 2024
Home-style cooking is the name of the game for Taipei’s Ming Fu, a bijou one-MICHELIN-Starred restaurant hidden in a nondescript Zhongshan District alley. Bookings are almost mandatory here, as the dining room only has space for six family-sized tables laden with dishes including the (also mandatory) Buddha Jumps Over The Wall, featuring chicken, pork, abalone, matsutake mushrooms and pig stomach stewed for over five hours.
MICHELIN Guide Thailand 2025
MICHELIN-Starred AKKEE specializes in resurrecting ancient Thai dishes that have faded from modern memory, looking back to long-lost recipe books and forgotten practices — including the consumption of edible insects — in search of authenticity and sustainability both. A highlight from its à la carte menu that best represents this philosophy is a red curry pairing hand-selected pumpkin and fresh Phetchaburi crabs — though you’re also free to feast on the restaurant’s seasonal ant’s egg.
MICHELIN Guide Thailand 2025
Saneh Jaan, whose name refers to a traditional Thai dessert served on auspicious occasions, is dedicated to keeping things authentic and deeply local. Thai poetry adorns the walls, as do pictures of classic locavore ingredients including holy basil, garlic vines, eggplants, ivy gourd and roselle. These, too, can be found in à la carte signatures like the fiery beef Massaman curry hewn from slow-cooked Kamphaeng Saen beef.
MICHELIN Guide Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City & Da Nang 2025
Chinese furniture, handwritten signs and an antique gramophone give you an idea of what to expect when you waltz into Hanoi’s Tầm Vị — Northern Vietnamese cuisine, unadulterated by modernities and brimming with nostalgic flair. The restaurant boasts an à la carte selection with around 100 items, drawing from central and southern influences to cater to a growing tourist crowd. Nevertheless, you’ll want to focus on the bounties of the north — particularly, its take on cá kho yộ (Vietnamese braised fish), or the subtler canh cua mồng tơi (Vietnamese crab soup with Malabar spinach).
