Macau's Best Value Fine Dining Restaurants

Fine dining in Macau
Fine dining in Macau | Courtesy of Wynn Macau
Matthew Keegan

Macau is home to 19 Michelin-starred restaurants which cement the city’s reputation as a leading culinary destination in the region. Moreover, Macau is also known for being a city where fine dining is relatively more affordable – especially if you opt for the set lunchtime menus. On average, fine dining meals in Macau are said to be 10-30% cheaper than in neighbouring Hong Kong. Here’s some of our favourite spots in Macau to enjoy fine food for a relative bargain…

1. Golden Flower

Restaurant, Chinese

Golden Flower, Macau
Photo: Courtesy of Wynn Macau.

The two-Michelin starred Golden Flower located on the ground floor of Wynn Macau is worthy of all the hype. The opulent setting gives the feeling you are dining like royalty. Here they primarily serve Tan cuisine – named after the master chef who invented it, Tan Zongjun, a Qing dynasty official, it’s a blend of the best northern and southern Chinese cooking. Tan cuisine uses labour-intensive cooking methods to preserve the flavours of the food.
Try the speciality Michelin menu where highlights include braised “three treasures” (abalone, fish maw and matsutake mushroom) in a supreme chicken broth. Another highlight is the juicy, tender broiled beef, served hot inside a crispy, flaky sesame puff – the most authentic way to enjoy this Lu-style dish. Service is exceptional – all staff are attentive and knowledgeable about the origins and history of the dishes. The restaurant’s tea sommelier is also on hand to pair a variety of China’s premium teas with your food. Dining here is a real treat and the reasonable prices (lunch starts from just MOP$250) is a steal for a two-Michelin starred restaurant of this calibre.

2. Wing Lei Palace

Restaurant, Chinese

Fine dining in Macau
Courtesy of Wynn Macau

For restaurants with wow factor, Wing Lei Palace tops the list. Opened last year at the US$4.1 billion Wynn Palace, it’s a stunning setting – a theatrical three-tiered gold and jade green-toned dining room offering excellent views of Wynn Palace’s Performance Lake. You could say that dining here is as much a visual feast as it is a culinary one. However, the food is no less impressive than the aesthetics and they serve up Cantonese cuisine at its finest.
For a limited time, until 21 September 2017, the restaurant offers a one-year anniversary menu for the special price of MOP$1,111. The standout dish is the melt in the mouth barbecued pork with honey, known locally as (char siu). Local delicacies like abalone wrapped in lotus leaf and a delicious main of deep-fried marinated cod fish are worthy of mention. The restaurant also offers an extensive a la carte menu and over 40 different kinds of dim sum (small bite-sized portions of food) starting from just MOP$48. Given the setting, quality of food and impeccable service, dining at this palace is worthy of kings.

3. The Tasting Room

Restaurant, French

The Tasting Room, Macau
Photo: Courtesy of City of Dreams
The Tasting Room, a two-Michelin starred restaurant at Macau’s Crown Towers is at the helm of revered chef Fabrice Vulin and, given its exclusive French produce, serves arguably the finest collection of French cuisine in Asia. Choose between vintage rib beef steaks (yes, really, vintage steaks are made possible here by a special “hibernation” technique), Gillardeau oysters (considered the Rolls-Royce of oysters) and breathtaking risotto topped with Kaviari caviar (the world’s finest sturgeon eggs). The exclusivity and provenance of the produce on offer is second to none. What’s more is that the set lunches here offer extremely good value for its quality and setting – MOP$498 for a three course set lunch. Food of this standard doesn’t come much more affordable than this.

5. The Eight

Restaurant, Chinese

5. The Eight
© Grand Lisboa
The Eight, also located in Grand Lisboa, is Macau’s first and only Chinese restaurant to be awarded three Michelin stars. They specialise in contemporary Cantonese cuisine with an elegant and creative touch. The lunchtime menu offers over 50 different kinds of dim sum, and we recommend the beautiful goldfish-shaped dumplings and hedgehog char siu buns (BBQ roast pork buns). As the number eight is auspicious in Chinese culture, the number is found within the lavish Alan Chan-designed space. Dishes are made from the finest ingredients and are plated beautifully. Specialities include roasted pork belly with guava sauce, crab claw with ginger and Chinese wine, and stir-fried lobster with egg. Perhaps most impressive of all, you can each lunch here for around MOP$450 (without drinks or the service charge) which is strikingly good value for Macau’s only multi-Michelin starred Chinese restaurant.

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