We visited The Tasting Room upon my suggestion to my large group of non-blogging foodies before it had recently been awarded 1 star by the tyre guide. Apologies if some friends felt this meal was decent rather than good. On the positive side we found their Lunch Course here at MOP 228 for 3 Courses (USD 28.50) to be very reasonable. Suffice to say, a bigger night budget will get you more exotic dishes but here we got a preview into their dishes and executional accuracy.
Dining Hall -
Omuse -
French Mineral water.
For lunch, Simple Amuse Bouches to start -
They won’t give u a lasting impression and I hope the dinner ones will be more sophisticated. But then again at least they provided u something at all for lunch. Dinner at 3-4 times the price will have you set different expectations!
Bread and French Butter -
The butter tasted quite French Bordier-like. The bread offerings were more on the softer side but baked well. In HK/Macau context they were even good. ~ 7.5/10
Tuna Carpaccio with Capellini Pasta & Eggplant -
Couldn’t taste the tuna at all nearer the bottom. Pasta were curled up more for looks than for taste I guess. Don’t want to sound all critical, this definitely looked better than it’s advertised taste. ~ 6/10
Salmon Gravlax with Endive Confit and Vegetables -
This was pretty but simple. Something you can make at home yourself and if you know how to 3 spoon quenelle. Again, fits in with the pricing point? What about dinner then? ~ 7/10
Some Condiments and Toast -
To go with the Salmon gravlax..
Steamed Chicken Mousse, Wrapped in Lettuce, Sweet Corn Emulsion -
Sounded right but everything tasted just a tad weak, it could benefit tremendously from more grilling and/or a better sauce. The pop corn on the chicken were a little strange? ~ 6.9/10
Slow Cooked Sea Bass with Potatoes and Razor Clams, Tomato Beurre Blanc -
The Sea Bass had an almost crisp skin but the potatoes beneath it were, oh really, they were actually boiled potatoes? The Razor clam was sliced up nicely but wasn’t that flavourful again, it needed some more sauce. This would have been a great dish if they improved the overall taste as it’s becoming repetitive by now – that many dishes and sauces taste weak. ~ 7/10
Pasta Fregola, Lime, Seared Squid & Fava Beans, Lobster Emulsion -
Anything with lobster emulsion or bisque won’t fail to please easily. Yet this was still on the lighter side. This crustacean based dish was easily the favourite of the day for obvious reasons, because it can be detectable at least! ~ 8/10
Braised Pork Cheek with Smoked Vegetables, Garlic Foam -
Ok. Not smoky at all and not really making enough of a statement in taste, not very tender or enriched with gravy either. This restaurant is very healthy it seems!! ~ 6/10
Chocolate Torte, Passion Fruit Curd with Cognac Milk Chocolate Ice Cream -
I can almost bet that the Kitchen will come up with excuses on how Macau and Hong Kong customers aren’t accustomed to Cognac and strong Chocolate taste in their ice creams and desserts. Blah blah blah. All defensive mode ON. It looked pretty, but quite muted unfortunately again and the chocolate torte was too dry and crumpled apart and reminds me of a dry brownie. Liked the chocolate truffle on top and the dish plating though! ~ 6/10
Yogurt Panna Cotta and Vanilla Sable, with Lychee and Raspberry -
Turned out to be deconstructed in the sable biscuit part of equation. It tasted ok and more like those bottled Japanese ‘Bikkle’ yogurt drinks than real fresh yogurt, strange coming from a now Michelin Starred restaurant. Again lunch budgets aside, how will the dinner courses fare here? It’s a question to be answered but so far a lot of dishes looked better than they actually make an impact on your palate, so I am ambivalent about paying even more to try out their dinner. ~ 6.9/10
Tea with Macarons -
Both were within spec of what you will find in HK and Macau. Slightly off European standards…
Chocolates near The Tasting Room entrance -
One of the special points about this restaurant, is that it is also doubling as a Chocolate tasting space. Well we didn’t get any chocolate petits fours and the above chocolate dessert was dry and weak, so yeh.. May be I should just eat more Amedei chocolate from here myself!
A Bargain for Lunch -
It’s hard to write a review about here. Lunch was good value for money, it reminds me of the good old Aurora in Macau before their original chef left. However execution and taste wise, I think I will prefer them to be more lively and which you can actually taste the ingredients and the sauce. Or the chocolate influence in the dessert.
Price: MOP 228 + 10%
Ease of Access: 4/5
Food: ♕♕♕♕
Opening Hours:
Mon to Sunday 07:00am - 10:30am, 12:00pm-15:00pm, 18:00pm-23:00pm
Address: 路氹城連貫公路新濠天地皇冠度假酒店3樓
Level 3, Crown Towers City of Dreams, Cotai, Macau.
Ph: (853) 8868 6681
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