Golden Flower in Macau’s Wynn casino is one of their 2 restaurants serving a variety of Pekinese cuisines, and even before their opening, Wynn’s had begun to scout for the right Head Chef for almost 3 years just to fulfill this role. Chef Lau’s family trickled down from one of the very few privileged to have served Imperial Cuisine directly to Beijing’s Chinese Emperors. The kitchen specializes in Tan Cuisine 譚家菜 which is slightly influenced by Southern Chinese food, but they are equally adept at Beijing Imperial Cuisine 魯菜 by default, and since Chef Lau has also been trained in Sichuan 川菜, his team is finely balanced between cooking 3 different types of cuisines within China.. This is my 2nd visit to this restaurant upon an invitation by Wynn’s hotel, let’s see what they have organized for us tonight.
Entrance -
Tasting Menu written in Calligraphy Style -
Very pretty and making us feel like an Emperor tonight.
Tea with 4 types of Flowers and Leaves - 蘭花, 桂花, 菊花, 烏龍
The tall cup is said to carry more aroma, I have already tried this before. The shorter & broader glass extracts the finer layering within the tea. It’s the Riedel glass equivalent of Chinese tea.
武夷山大紅袍 MOP$88 - Wuyi Mountain Red Robe, Oolong Tea
They have a proper Tea Sommelier here similar to London’s Yauatcha and a few other places in the world. It is a rare find yet Pekinese cuisine will always treat tea with great respect. This famous Red Robe tea from Fujian is one of the best teas in China, even Chairman Mao back in the days had chosen this as a gift to President Nixon! There are not many mother trees left producing this.
Tofu and Prawn -
As an appetizer. It tasted quite refined but slightly too simple.. ~ 6.5/10
薑汁桂花魚片, 水晶肘子, 老陳醋伴蜇頭, 珊瑚白菜卷 -
Sliced Fish with Ginger, Chinese Pork Terrine with Aspic, Aged Vinegar & sesame Jelly Fish, and Slow Braised Cabbage wrapped with Mango and Ginger. All executed well, I liked the Cabbage roll and the Jelly Fish the most personally. ~ 7/10
水晶肘子 Pork Terrine with Aspic -
The name suggests it is a famous dish from 济南 Jinan, one of 8 Sub-Pekinese cuisines. Surprisingly, this version looked a bit more like 肴肉, which is more of a Zhen Jiang 镇江 or Shanghai based dish. Knowing the background behind Golden Flower there is no surprise as to the slightly inter-mixed Chinese, and macro-fusion Chinese cuisine as explained before.
茉莉海蚌清雞湯 – MOP $60
Chicken Consomme with Clams and Jasmine Flowers -
The Sea Clams 海蚌 being referred to were actually Surf Clams, same as Japanese Hokkigai. The soup was kind of nice but had too much Chicken broth flavour than seafood and the Jasmine wasn’t apparent enough. But generally it was still very pleasing, bar the overall balance. ~ 6/10
蟹肉黃燒魚肚 – MOP $688
Fish Maw and Crab Meat in Superior Broth
This was expensive but very utterly good! This was to me and my dining companion the biggest highlight and I couldn’t help chow down the whole thing! The dried fish maw is soaked then expanded for many hours with oil instead of water, which gives it a more porous form to absorb in more juices. The base stock made of chicken and ham is gorgeous, the freshly dismantled crab meats were amazing in sweetness. It just all worked so well together. This was simply sublime ! ~ 12/10
譚府羅漢大對蝦 – MOP $298 Duo of King Prawns
The left is the Prawn tail wrapped with fried Crab meat mince. It’s like a reverse version of Crab claw filled with Prawn mince. The right side is a very big prawn’s front body, cooked in a sweet and sour sauce. It was slightly overly-cooked hard and the sauce could really do with some spice or other 3 Dimensional component to make it more interesting! ~ 6.9/10
Prawn Tail wrapped in Crab Meat Mince -
With water chestnut. This was good.
豉汁蒸東星斑 - Soy Sauce Steamed Grouper Fish
This was cooked ok-well with a sweetish soy based sauce. The fish was definitely very fresh as it retained that right texture and fish flavour, without having been refrigerated for too long. Might benefit from being steamed just a tad shorter in timing ~ 7.5/10
脆皮紫菜包 & 家常肉餅 -
Crispy Seaweed Roll filled with Glutinous Rice and Chinese Sausage, was missing the advertised seaweed bit and could do with more than 1 small piece of sausage inside. But the glutinous rice texture was ok. The other Pork Minced Pancake (Right) I have already tried before and was so juicy and likable once again. I much preferred the one on the right ! ~ 4/10 & 9/10
盧山雲霧茶 - Green Tea from Jiangxi
This is a fresh green tea and the flavour reminds me of Green Tea from Japan’s Uji 宇治.
It has that fresh yet only barely toasted flavour. Very nice. The 1st flush was the best, it’s a delicate tea afterall.. Yum.
From Top Right (Anti-clockwise) 豌豆黃, 芸豆卷, 驢打滾, 艾窩窩 -
Some Beijing/Pekinese style desserts, usually carries some sort of chewiness factor in most items. These were nice enough, especially the 2nd 芸豆卷 and 3rd 驢打滾, the only let down was the bottom right 4th 艾窩窩 which had a hardish skin though. ~ 8/10
豆蓉包, 酸梅湯 –
Minced Beans Crust with Coarse Red Bean filling, with a side of Plum Tea
A traditional Beijing finish. Time for me to finally eat!
Interior is decorated with Bling Bling and Flowers -
The food here has elegance, and some of the food especially are prepared meticulously and the cuisine is one of it’s kind in Hong Kong and Macau. From my previous visit – I found the Dim Sum items to be even classier. There are many more dishes to be explored at this Michelin 1 Star venue.
Price: Meal was by Invitation, but approx $400-$1200 Per Person for Dinner. $250 Lunch.
Ease of Access: 5/5 (Take Bus from Ferry Port to Wynn’s Casino)
Dinner: ♕♕♕♕1/2 (This meal was served to us by Wynn’s Casino)
Opening Hours:
Mon to Sun 06:30am - 22:30pm
Address: 宋玉生廣場外港填海區仙德麗街永利澳門酒店
G/F, Wynn Macau, Rua Cidade de Sintra, NAPE, Porto Exterior, Alameda Dutor Carlos d'Assumpção
Ph: (853) 8986 3663
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