Appellation Australia

Dinner at the Cantonese 2 Michelin star restaurant at the Hotel Lisboa in Macau. This was an interesting meal, with a couple of dishes that I struggled a bit with, but overall I liked it and I think I can see why it is well regarded. Lighting for photos was not super either, so they didn’t come out to my satisfaction.

Cuisine: Cantonese
Service: Very attentive. We went on a public holiday, so I thought it would be busy, and I booked months in advance etc. – but it was almost empty. This resulted in the main room having us and one other table, but wait staff standing around everywhere with nothing to do most of the time.
Food:
Century Egg: Complimentary starter. I can’t say if this was a good version (I’m sure it is based on the care that goes into the other dishes) as I haven’t had one before, but the sulphur was overwhelming and I wasn’t especially fond of the jelly/creamy texture either. Gave it a go, but I think these may be an acquired taste.
Steamed Whole Fresh Crab Claw with Winter Melon: Love the expert de-shelling, the tender and slightly sweet crab meat and the winter melon having the slightest resistance when biting into it. I’m not sure what the sauce consisted of, but it lent a slight richness to the dish. A definite highlight of the meal and my favourite of the two crab claws.
Deep-fried Whole Fresh Crab Claw with Peppercorn Salt: This was good also, the crab was still tender and the batter is lighter than it appears, letting the crab flavour shine. The peppercorns gave it a nice little punch. This was Anjuli’s preferred crab claw dish.
Sautéed Garoupa Fillet with Broccoli: The fish was very moist and had good flavor, the vegetables were similarly well cooked. Relatively simple but a good way to present the fish and show off its quality.
Sautéed Chicken with Onions in Black Bean Sauce in Casserole: I liked this dish, it’s probably a bit closer to the Cantonese style I’m used to, but I thought it was well balanced and just generally tasty.
Braised Pomelo Skin with Shrimp Roe: First dish we were presented with was undercooked, the waitress couldn’t slice it. A second attempt came not too long after and this was better. This is one of the signature dishes of the restaurant, so I was excited to try it, but to be honest I struggled a bit with it – the shrimp roe was incredibly powerful and the texture was a bit too mushy. It was interesting but I don’t think I’d order it again if I went back.
Pan-fried Noodles with Fresh Crabmeat: This dish was fine, but not especially memorable; we probably should have ordered something else.
Cost: 1000 MOP/ 120 AUD
Score: 14.5/20

Century Egg

Steamed Whole Fresh Crab Claw with Winter Melon

Deep-fried Whole Fresh Crab Claw with Peppercorn Salt

Sautéed Garoupa Fillet with Broccoli

Sautéed Chicken with Onions in Black Bean Sauce in Casserole

Braised Pomelo Skin with Shrimp Roe

Pan-fried Noodles with Fresh Crabmeat

We made a last minute booking for the pre-theatre dinner (starting from 6-7pm) at Guy Savoy in Singapore. We arrived right at 6 and they were still getting the restaurant ready for the evening, we sat for around 10-15 minutes in the loungue area and the staff brought us some small bites while we waited. For the duration of our meal (just a bit over an hour), we were the only people in the restaurant so it was nice and quiet, and the service was very quick with about a dozen floor staff for the two of us! Loved how each dish was delivered with some tableside presentation -pouring or spooning sauces, buttering the brioche and so on.

Cuisine: French
Food:
“Peas all around” - Only tried a little bit of this but it was delicious with the runny egg lending richness. Obviously you need to like peas as there are 3-4 different pea elements to the dish.
Artichoke and Black Truffle Soup with Toasted Mushroom Brioche with Black Truffle Butter - This was hard to photograph and make it interesting as it appears so simple, but it is brilliantly delicious – so rich and satisfying. One of my favourite dishes on this trip.
Poussin “en Cocotte” with Lemongrass and Ribbed Vegetables – I only tried a small amount of this as well, but it had subtle flavours individually that worked well combined together.
Atlantic Cod with Asparagus “en Soupe et Salade”, Lemon Sabayon – Another star dish for the trip. The cod itself was mild, but it had a lovely light char on it and the lemon sabayon was perfect.
Chocolate Fondant with Layered Praline and Chicory Cream – Not overly sweet, but very rich, creamy and tasty. The fondant had a lovely airy texture to it. The chicory cream was only a distant taste but it added interest. I preferred this to the desert I got below.
Grapefruit Terrine with Tea Sauce – Quite tart on the first bite after trying the chocolate based dessert, but this was an interesting combination of flavours and refreshing.
Cost: The pre-theater menu was AU$150 per person including 17% tax for three courses from a limited menu selection, bread and amuse bouches.
Score: 17.5/20

Vegetable minestrone with parmesan

Underneath the minestrone – amuse bouche

“Peas all around”

Artichoke and Black Truffle Soup

Toasted Mushroom Brioche with Black Truffle Butter

Poussin “en Cocotte” with Lemongrass and Ribbed Vegetables

Atlantic Cod with Asparagus “en Soupe et Salade”, Lemon Sabayon

Floating island and diced fruit with a pineapple crisp

Chocolate Fondant with Layered Praline and Chicory Cream

Grapefruit Terrine with Tea Sauce

View from the table

Lunch at the Cantonese 3 Michelin star restaurant in the Four Seasons Hotel in Central, Hong Kong. Overall it was very good, the setting was very nice with lots of natural light and a view of the harbour, the service started badly but recovered well (see below) and overall the food was excellent.

Cuisine: Cantonese
Service: A few problems here – the first dish to arrive was not something we ordered, the second dish was something we ordered but it was described quite differently to the menu so there was more confusion over whether it was ours. Not even close to enough to spoil the mood, but was surprising for a 3* venue! After these hiccups everything was very smooth and professional, so they recovered well. The service of tea was the best that we had across many restaurants, there was only water in the teapot then individual gaiwans for each guest with the leaves for steeping, then the gaiwans were emptied into another teacup to drink from. Solved the problem elsewhere where the tea would oversteep in the teapot if it wasn’t consumed quickly enough.
Food:
Steamed Lobster and Scallop Dumpling: Quite enjoyed this, was presented very nicely with a delicate skin and ingredients that I am quite partial towards. Fresh and juicy, I would have had a second if there wasn’t so much other food!
Crispy Taro Dumplings: Filled with seafood and vegetables, these were surpringly good. It’s an interesting combination of flavours, but it works and the gooey inside and crispy outside are a nice contrast.
Baked Barbecued Pork Buns with Pine Nuts: So good. Loved the crust on top, buns with just a touch of sweetness and delicious bbq pork and sauce with the pine nuts adding a nice background flavour element. Would come back just to eat these again, these were a highlight for the trip.
Steamed Vegetable Dumplings with Bamboo Pith: Liked the presentation with the translucent skin, and the filling was good, but not a standout.
Braised fresh bamboo piths with fresh crab meat: This sounded interesting on the menu, and it was interesting, but probably missed the mark a little bit for my taste. The crab was very good, the bamboo pith was a different texture and the vegetables were cooked well, but I just didn’t understand how it all fit together really.
Lung King Heen Roast Chicken: Liked that this was served tableside and we were offered the choice of having it on or off the bone. Excellent crispy skin and high quality, very tender and juicy chicken. Simple, but great anyway.
Baked Cream Custard Puffs: Light crumbly pastry and a delicate cream filling – a nice end to the meal.
Cost: HK$1100/ AU$130 all up for two people.
Score: 17.5/20

Tea

Steamed Lobster and Scallop Dumpling with prawn

Crispy Taro Dumplings with Seafood and Vegetables with X.O. Chilli Sauce

Baked Barbecued Pork Buns with Pine Nuts

Steamed Vegetable Dumplings with Bamboo Piths

Braised fresh bamboo piths with fresh crab meat

Lung King Heen Roast Chicken

Petit fours

Baked Cream Custard Puffs

We had dinner at this 2 Michelin star restaurant in the Langham Place Hotel in Mong Kok. I really thought this was excellent with a mix of exceptional dishes and great service. Lived up to the Michelin rating.

Cuisine: Cantonese
Service: Great, very friendly and no problems at any point.
Food:
Roasted crispy pork w/ 5 spices – Flat out delicious. Probably my favourite version of this dish tried on the trip. Pork had great flavour, the skin was perfectly crisp and the spice was spot on.
Shredded Chicken in spicy sauce – Nice level of spice giving the dish a kick but not overpowering the other flavours, liked the textural elements of the vegetables.
Deep Fried Crab Shell with crab meat – Not bad, lacking a little bit in flavour. The weakest dish of the evening.
Sliced spotted garoupa 2 ways – stir fried with premium mushrooms & deep-fried with sweet and sour sauce – good quality fish cooked perfectly both ways. Interesting contrast between the two styles and liked the dual presentation. Sweet and sour had great overall flavour balance and the mushrooms and stir fried garoupa had bolder flavours. Another highlight.
Crispy Chicken and lotus root “chips” – Nice layer of crisp skin, chicken was moist and tender. Accompanying salt/spice mix brought out excellent flavour. One of the better versions of this dish on the trip.
Shark fin crystal extravagance – shark fin jelly with mango pudding base – the presentation was entertaining (see the pictures at the end) even if it was gimmicky, it certainly does a great job marketing the dessert to the rest of the restaurant. I like mango so the desert was tasty and while the shark fin was not essential, it was an interesting combination.
Cost: HK$935/ AU$110 – includes service charge but not drinks.
Score: 17/20

Roasted crispy pork w/ 5 spices

Shredded Chicken in spicy sauce

Deep Fried Crab Shell with crab meat

Sliced spotted garoupa 2 ways

Half a Crispy Chicken

Marshmallow Rabbits

Shark fin crystal extravagance

We visited here for dinner based on some research showing it to be one of the better known places for Typhoon Shelter Crab – Singapore Chilli Crab is one of my favourite foods, so I was looking forward to trying this as a totally different take on a spicy crab dish. There are 3 restaurants with this name in a cluster on Lockhart and Jaffe Road and I believe they share a central kitchen.

Cuisine: Known for Typhoon Shelter Crab, but the menu has hundreds of dishes
Service: Good, our waiter spoke next to no English but he was patient with us and there were no problems
Food: Well … we ordered two dishes to start and the house specialty crab. The lemon chicken was pretty terrible, overpowered by harsh lemon flavour. The deep fried fish and corn wasn’t what we were expecting based on the menu description, but was actually reasonably tasty, though a few spoonfuls were enough as it got a bit heavy. The crab dish was definitely the star, good quality and fresh crab under a pile of garlic, chilli and scallions – the topping was tasty on it’s own and combined with the crab it was excellent (and surprisingly the topping wasn’t too overpowering). There are 5 spice levels that can be ordered, we ordered the medium spicy level (3) and it was a good balance at that point for my tastes.
Cost: About HK$500/AU$60 for food excluding drinks.
Would I go back?: Yes, either just for the crab or after having done more research on better side dishes to order.
Score: 12/20

Under bridge spicy crab

Deep fried fish and corn

Lemon chicken