Vasco da Gama @ Hotel Royal
This photo doesn’t do justice to the environment. The decorations and settings are stylish and bright. Due to some rather large columns in the restaurant, the size can be deceptive making the place seem more intimate. Sitting here is a relaxing and very pleasant experience.
There are many window seats providing a spacious view out over Vasco da Gama park and onto the Macau skyline.
The tables are tastefully set and the wait staff makes sure that everything is available to you at the table.
Before our meals arrived we were treated to a nice assortment of bread. One of the real treats of many restaurants in Macau is surprisingly good bread.
Since this was our first time to dine here, we tried to select a variety of dishes from the menu. The menu is broad enough to satisfy everyone’s tastes. Prices are appropriate for a restaurant in a 5 star hotel. Here’s what we got for lunch.
We started with a mango & shrimp salad. The salad is very attractive and quite tasty. The only thing lacking is a great dressing for the salad. The salad comes with either Thousand Island or oil & vinegar. What might be really nice is a light honey mustard dressing. Still, for a light salad, this one can’t be beat. The salad costs about US$7.50.
Next we tried a baked seafood spaghetti dish. It is served with a white sauce and a fried egg on top. Mixing in the over-easy eff provides for added richness to the dish. Loaded with shrimp and mushrooms, this dish is tasty with and rich without being fishy tasting. That is a key for me. This dish costs about US$8.00.
Next came a dish called African Spring Chicken. African Chicken is a dish unique to Macau. It combines flavors from Africa, India and China to create a somewhat spicy baked chicken. Supposedly, the dish was created in Macau as a celebration of the places that the Portuguese seafarers visited along their journeys between Portugal and Macau. This chicken was amazingly tender and succulent. Notice that there is a side of mixed greens and baked steak cut fries. Plenty to eat for 2 people. The chicken costs about US$10.00.
The last dish we tried was the black pepper steak - French style. This is a delicious dish. The steak - a piece of fillet - was prepared very well and the pepper sauce is great. This is the most expensive of all the dishes we ordered, costing about US$10.50 but it was worth the money. Very highly recommended.
Overall this was a very nice dining experience for us. The atmosphere was quiet - due in part to the restaurant only being about a third full over the lunch hour. The service was excellent and professional. The view over the park and out over the city lends a spaciousness that is very welcome here in Macau. If you need a place to go where the food is great and the atmosphere is suitable for conversation or business, you can’t go wrong here.
Vasco da Gama is open for breakfast with a generous breakfast buffet and lunch daily.
Japan Hokkaido Food Complex
Here’s the main entrance to the restaurant complex. They call it a complex because there are actually 3 different restaurants inside - one on each floor. On the first floor is the Sushi-Sashimi restaurant. On the second floor is a traditional Japanese set menu style restaurant. On the third floor is a teppanyaki restaurant with private rooms with your own chef. This is the most expensive of the 3 options.
On this night we chose the Sushi-Sashimi restaurant. The above plates indicate the price range (in MOP so the light blue plate costs US$1.25) of different dishes. You will notice that each plate is a different color. At the end of the meal the wait staff stack up all the plates and prepare the bill accordingly. Knowing the price range is important as the bill can add up pretty quickly if you choose too many of the higher end plates.
Here is our friend Sadie. We have known her for about 3 years. She did a great job helping us order. The food was truly delicious and we owe our thanks to Sadie for her service and help in ordering. Keep reading to see some of the great stuff we ate.
Here’s some of the sushi and sashimi - salmon, california rolls, scallops, others.
Not having a lot of experiences with eating this style, I was surprised by the different salads available. The salads mix fresh vegetables, cold noodles and seafood in a delicious blend of flavors.
Here’s another salad in the foreground with a bowl of noodles and some California rolls in the background. And of course a cup of green tea on the side. One of the fun things about the tea is that there is a hot water faucet at each table so that you can add water to your tea leaves at any time.
This photo isn’t that great but hopefully you can get the idea. These snow-cone shaped rolls are stuffed with fresh fish, avocado, tofu, rice, etc. Very colorful and delicious.
At the end of the meal we were treated to chilled gelatin. The yellow one is mango based with a chunk of fresh mango and the clear ones are lichee based with a whole lichee in the middle. Very light and clean tasting.
Here we are with Dave and Idy. The back end of our booth faces into the kitchen so we can watch as the sushi and sashimi is being prepared. There is also a conveyor belt running at all times, continuously tempting us with fresh plates of different dishes. It’s very important to pay attention to the plate color. I also noticed that after a while the prices change - due to the length of time between preparation and consumption. If you wait on a dish for a while, it just might be cheaper - but it will also not be as fresh.
As always, while the food is great, we went here to see our friend Sadie and several other friends we know at the restaurant. We also had a great time getting to know Dave and Idy better. It might seem that the restaurant would be too noisy because it is so open to the kitchen but actually we were able to comfortably carry on a conversation. Because of the serving style and expectation that people will eat small dishes over a period of time, there was no rush for us to leave.
This type of dining is not cheap. It is an event and should be seen as such. The food is very high quality, fresh and clean. The atmosphere is friendly and open. The staff are attentive and quick. If you are in the mood for a fun and interesting food experience, take some friends and head to the Hokkaido Food Complex.
Hong Kong Cafe
The reason we chose to eat here is that our friend Jen works at this restaurant. Here’s Jen and Sarah in the restaurant.
These small to medium sized restaurants are scattered throughout the city. They are normally open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The staff work long hours, on average 11 hours per day. Lately these types of places have been understaffed as the larger hotel based restaurants suck up more staff.
Here’s what we had for lunch this day:
Sarah had a Pineapple Ice Drink and I went for the Iced Coffee drink. It is common for these restaurants to serve a variety of hot and cold drinks. You pay more for the cold drinks. The Pineapple Ice cost MOP16.00 (US$2.00) and the Iced Coffee cost MOP12.00 (US$1.50). The coffee comes unsweetened but they provide sugar syrup so that you can sweeten to your own taste.
The menu here is very extensive. They serve every kind of rice and noodle dish you can imagine. And if you want some special combination, just ask.
Sarah orderd fried noodles with shredded pork and bean sprouts. The noodles are a bit crispy and there is a nice sauce with the pork and sprouts. The portion size is quite enough for one person. The flavor and presentation while not dramatic is still fine for a quick lunch. The quantity of meat to noodles here was just right and the noodles aren’t as oily as at some other places. The cost for this dish is about US3.00 (MOP24.00)
I had Tomato and Beef with Rice. This dish is also a local favorite. The sauce here was not the best I’ve had but the beef was very tender which was a pleasant surprise. Again the portion size is quite satisfactory. The tomatoes were a bit on the green side but this changes from season to season and place to place. This dish also cost us MOP24.00 (US$3.00).
We didn’t go here for the food. Our reason to eat here was so that we could visit our friend Jen where she works. As in most restaurants of this type, the atmosphere is a bit smokey. Smoking is not only permitted but is widely practiced in most Macau restaurants. And while there is a large secondary school nearby, we were surprised that very few students came in for lunch. On the whole you can’t go wrong if you are in the area and need an inexpensive place to eat for lunch.
Noite e Dia
Sunday afternoon Sarah and I went to Noite e Dia to visit several friends we know who work there. Donna, Jenny and Boey are three who have been participants in our English classes. Jenny was our hostess this day. The cafe is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Located right in the heart of the main floor of the old Lisboa Hotel it is easy to find. But don’t expect much privacy as most of the tables are open to the walking areas and within 50 meters of the Crystal Casino’s main intrance. But here is one of the real nice aspects of the place:
Yes! A NO SMOKING area. There are very few restaurants in Macau with no smoking areas.
After looking through the very wide ranging menu, we decided to take one of the set meals which you can get any time. For MOP100.00 (about US$12.50) you can choose one dish from the noodle menu and one dish from the dim sam menu. Here’s what we choose:
Roast Pork & BBQ Pork with Rice Noodles and Vegetables
Deep Fried Shrimp Spring Rolls wrapped in Steamed Rice Noodle
These dishes were very delicious. They arrived at the table in no time (we were at the restaurant on a Sunday afternoon after 1 pm.) although I should say that the restaurant was not busy. The presentation is very attractive and the dishes were well prepared. The amount of food was more than enough for 2 people to share. In addition to the main dishes, we were also served bread and hot tea or coffee. The breads don’t really seem to fit with the Chinese style dishes we ordered but they taste so good it doesn’t really matter. The large puffy breads are sweet and we saved them to eat like desert with our coffee at the end of the meal.
Bread and Jelly with the meal
The service was very good. The wait staff is well trained and very attentive. The atmosphere is relaxed and surprisingly quiet considering the open nature of the restaurant. If you want to sit and people watch, make sure you get a table that overlooks the hotel walkways. We noticed that there is a buffet that is open at night. Not sure the time for that service. But for my money, the set meals are the way to go. If you are visiting the Old Lisboa Hotel around lunch time, or I guess any time, don’t pass by the Noite e Dia without trying it out.
Enjoy!
Dak Hing Restaurant
Shots of the
Entrance to the restaurant
The atmosphere is
typical of local mid-level restaurants. The
dining room is filled with mostly smaller tables
providing seating for 4 to 6 people. Macau allows
smoking in restaurants and there were plenty of
people smoking today. Thankfully, the ventilation
is better than most here.
The service is attentive and quick. We had food
on the table within ten minutes of being seated.
We ordered a fairly standard variety of dishes
which arrived steaming hot in no time. One of the
real delights today was the Fried Turnip Cake.
Here’s what it looks like:
Fried Turnip Cake with Chives and Dried Shrimp
Other dishes we ordered were the standard shrimp
dumplings (the king of dim sum), steamed BBQ pork
buns, taro & spare rib with black beans, deep
fried cuttlefish patties, pork dumplings with
crab eggs and deep fried sticky rice dumplings.
To finish it all off we had a plate of dry fried
rice noodles with beef. I have to say that this
food is not the best I have had. Some of the
flavors were bland. But there was a freshness to
the dishes and they weren’t overly oily
which is a plus.
Cost wise the prices are fairly standard for
tourist areas in Macau these days. The whole meal
cost us about US$30.00 for 3 people. A service
charge of 10% is included in the bill.
Dak Hing combines good service, a pleasant
atmosphere and decent food, even if it is a bit
on the expensive side. The restaurant is open
from 8:00 am to Midnight. It is located across
the street from the Grand Lisboa Hotel, behind
Sintra Square. If you find yourself in the area
and want a taste of local Cantonese style
cooking, don’t hesitate to visit Dak Hing.
Sticky Rice Dumplings; Pork Dumplings; Taro &
Spare Ribs
Shrimp Dumplings
BBQ Pork Buns