diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index b3fdcbd5576..7be1df291d4 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 
 **Bug fixes**
 
+- Tables now default to `table-layout: fixed` to avoid some collapsing cell problems. [#398](https://github.com/elastic/eui/pull/398)
 - Wrap long lines of text within the body of `EuiToast` instead of letting text overflow ([#392](https://github.com/elastic/eui/pull/392))
 - Fix dark theme coloring of Substeps ([#396](https://github.com/elastic/eui/pull/396))
 - Reorder selectors to fix fixed progress bar in Firefox ([#404](https://github.com/elastic/eui/pull/404))
diff --git a/src/components/table/_index.scss b/src/components/table/_index.scss
index 94cb0820040..e2be7c70978 100644
--- a/src/components/table/_index.scss
+++ b/src/components/table/_index.scss
@@ -1,8 +1,4 @@
-/**
- * 1. Prevent cells from expanding based on content size. This substitutes for table-layout: fixed.
- */
 @mixin euiTableCell {
-  max-width: 20px; /* 1 */
   vertical-align: middle;
 }
 
diff --git a/src/components/table/_table.scss b/src/components/table/_table.scss
index 7975be9c18e..db6ba654174 100644
--- a/src/components/table/_table.scss
+++ b/src/components/table/_table.scss
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
   @include euiFontSizeS;
 
   width: 100%;
+  table-layout: fixed;
   border: none;
   border-collapse: collapse;
   background-color: $euiColorEmptyShade;