Enfin by James Won

In April 2016, I moved from Brasserie Enfin at Oasis Square to Menara Hap Seng in Kuala Lumpur, and the room became Enfin by James Won. The French enfin — at last — held the standing the new room would carry: a fine-dining house earned through three years of preceding work at the original venue, and ready, by 2016, to take the conversation further.

The Menara Hap Seng era is the Enfin most extensively recorded in the Malaysian luxury press. Tatler Asia, Robb Report Malaysia, FirstClasse, Harper’s Bazaar Malaysia, BURO 24/7, The Peak, Options / The Edge, and FoodForThought all carried the years; Sin Chew, Oriental Daily, Enanyang, and UFood held the room in the Chinese-language press. Across the four years of operation, the room earned the two distinctions that placed it in a category of its own: the Krug Chef’s Table — Malaysia’s only — and the Hennessy Salon — the only restaurant in the world to host the Hennessy Salon during its operating period.

What follows is the work as the press preserved it.

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The move and the Krug Chef’s Table — April 2016

In February 2016, Oriental Daily recorded the relocation from Oasis Square to Menara Hap Seng — and the addition of the Krug Chef’s Table (Krug 香槟名厨尊桌), a 20-seat dedicated Krug salon within the new restaurant. In April 2016, Time Out KL carried the formal opening — Now Open: Krug Chef’s Table at Enfin by James Won — and the room that placed Malaysia on the global Krug Ambassade map began.

The Krug Chef’s Table operated through the Enfin years until the room’s closure in 2019/2020. Bespoke menus designed for each seating, paired with Krug Grande Cuvée. RM 25,000 minimum spend (RM 1,250 per person, twenty guests). It was the first dedicated Krug salon in any restaurant in Malaysia.

Those familiar with Brasserie Enfin will understand the ambition: the Krug Chef’s Table at Enfin is the natural progression — a dedicated salon for the Ambassade work.

Time Out KL · April 2016

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The Krug Degustation series

A series of degustation evenings staged in the Krug Chef’s Table — bespoke seven- and nine-course tasting menus paired across the maison’s Single Ingredient cuvées and Krug Grande Cuvée editions. The series ran across the active years of the room.

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The Hennessy Salon — the only one in the world

In November 2016, Sin Chew Daily carried Hennessy XO 荣誉呈献·2016 年极致赏宴之旅 — the feature that named me Malaysia’s first Krug and Hennessy Ambassador, and Enfin as the only restaurant in the world to host the Hennessy Salon during its operating period.

The Hennessy Salon is the maison’s most prestigious accolade — a single distinction awarded to a single restaurant at a time, anywhere in the world. Enfin held it from 2016 through to closure. There was no second Salon in Malaysia. There was no second Salon, anywhere, during the period. Star2 / The Star Online (29 October 2016, Suzanne Lazaroo) and The Edge Options (7 November 2016) corroborate the world’s first claim at primary-source depth.

The Salon held ten guests at its private table — bird’s-eye view of Jalan P Ramlee through floor-to-ceiling glass; cellar of Hennessy Cognacs dating to the 1930s; bespoke wood panelling and shelved cognac display.

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The Tapestry Malaysia × Hennessy series

Across the Enfin years, Tapestry Malaysia and Hennessy produced a series of six-senses multi-sensory immersive dinners staged in the room. Robb Report Malaysia, Options / The Edge, Prestige Online (Indonesia), and lifestyle blogger Ivy Aiwei (August 2018) each carried a part of the series.

The Robb Report coverage of lobster bisque with ice plant under glowing digital fireflies and the Prestige Online framing of just like a movie […] paired with a peg of Hennessy XO are the most photographed moments of the entire restaurant arc.

A lobster bisque with ice plant […] complete with glowing digital fireflies.

Robb Report Malaysia · Tapestry × Hennessy

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Five plates that tell the room

The room was known by what it served. Five plates carry the memory most clearly — scroll the row below to walk through them.

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Reviews and critical reception

The press treatment of Enfin’s degustation work coalesced across four years of coverage. Tatler Asia carried the Grand Launch and the New Menu Built Upon Mature Reflection features; Harper’s Bazaar Malaysia ran the First Taste of the new degustation menu; FirstClasse held the Palates Bubbling With Glee review; FoodForThought published the Enfin by James Won review. BURO 24/7’s Won-drous feature captured the room in three words: In a realm of […] savoury, sweet, sheer brilliance.

In a realm of […] savoury, sweet, sheer brilliance.

BURO 24/7 · Won-drous

*The Peak*'s July 2019 piece — *James Won Takes Malaysian Ingredients to the Next Level* — recorded my growing confidence as the work matured. *What2See* documented the dinner-degustation menu (RM 578, five courses, June 2019). *Options / The Edge* tagged the room under its dedicated *Enfin James Won* outlet tag with multiple feature articles across the years.

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The 18-course photography collaboration — June 2019

In June 2019, Enanyang documented one of my most distinctive single sequences: an 18-course photography series produced with a Malaysian food photographer. We worked over a two-day shoot, with extensive creative discussion; the breakthrough moment of mutual recognition arrived on the Mushroom Tartar (course six), the dish that produced the conversation’s resolution. Specific dishes from the series: The Egg (capturing Malaysian work at scale), and a fermented bean curd preparation infused with French elements. The series remains one of the strongest archival demonstrations of the culinary storytelling discipline I held at Enfin.

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The Chinese-language press footprint

The Enfin years carry an unusually deep Chinese-language press footprint. Beyond the Sin Chew November 2016 Hennessy XO feature and the Oriental Daily February 2016 relocation coverage, Enanyang documented the 18-course collaboration (June 2019); UFood / Oriental Daily carried multiple profile pieces across the years. The footprint placed me on the public record of the Sinophone Malaysian community as one of the named representatives of French cuisine in Malaysia.

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The video record

A video record was kept through the active years of Enfin — service detail, course-by-course explanations, maison collaborations.

Open the Enfin by James Won channel on YouTube →

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The archive

A wider photographic record of Enfin — drawn from the working archive across the four years.

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The closure and the transition

Enfin by James Won closed in 2019/2020. The Krug Chef’s Table, the Hennessy Salon, and the Tapestry Malaysia × Hennessy series passed into historical record. Bouchon Enfin opened at Pavilion KL in late 2020 — a different form, a casual format, a different room — and the work continued in the Enfin family until the COVID closure of 2021.

The closure of Enfin (Menara Hap Seng) is, in retrospect, the inflection point of the wider Restaurant Legacy arc. Everything before it was the building of my mature voice. Everything after it was the application of that voice to new circumstances — Bouchon Enfin in pandemic Pavilion KL, Shin’Labo at Lalaport, MeatMore at Bukit Bintang, and the cultural-diplomacy turn that arrived in 2025.

The room earned its name. I earned my voice.

Closing reflection — the inflection point of the wider arc