The Grand Palace in Macau: banquet-like dining fit for a king
- Executive chef Johnny Sin leads the way with traditional Chinese delicacies made with ingredients sourced from around the world
Located next to the Macau ferry pier, Legend Palace Hotel’s Chinese restaurant, The Grand Palace, enjoys a panoramic view of Macau harbour and Fisherman’s Wharf. The restaurant, led by new executive chef Johnny Sin, offers innovative and traditional Chinese delicacies prepared with exquisite ingredients sourced from around the world.
The menu has been gradually revamped by Sin, who has two decades of culinary experience in Hong Kong and Macau. In additional to its new à la carte and dim sum menus, it serves seasonal set menus and omakase.
The first dish we taste is couscous, quinoa and vegetables. Inspired by caviar tartare, the dish is topped with “vegan caviar” made with sago and lemon. To create different textures to the nutritious dish, asparagus, pineapple, cucumber and jícama are mixed with couscous and quinoa.
We then try a signature dish, spicy and sour fish maw rich bone soup, a twist on the traditional spicy and sour soup. The soup base is prepared with chicken, pork and fish bones, with added shreds of fish maw, black and white fungus, bamboo fungus, tofu and tomato. The chef recommends we add a few drops of fresh lemon juice and coriander, which balances out the spiciness of the soup.
A traditional delicacy, deep-fried crabmeat and roe in a puff, is authentic and tasty. It is exceptionally puffy on the outside and juicy on the inside.
The double-boiled meat balls with Japanese scallop and hairy crab roe in consommé are delightfully tasty. To create the chewy texture, cuttlefish is added to the scallop paste, which is filled with seasonal hairy crab roe.
Our next dish, braised Japanese sea cucumber and shrimp roe on rock rice – a gluten-free dish – is impressive. The perfectly cooked sea cucumber, shrimp roe and rock rice are packed with flavour.
We round off the meal with two outstanding sweet dishes: steamed Hokkaido milk buns, an original dim sum created by the restaurant, featuring a creamy milk filling made with Hokkaido 3.6 milk; and New Zealand Rockit apples, which are slowly cooked for eight hours in chrysanthemum flower syrup, with jelly and salty egg ice-cream.
The Grand Palace, 2/F, Legend Palace, Macau Fisherman’s Wharf, Avenida da Amizade, +853 8801 8008
