July 6, 2015

Weekday Escape to Macau - Robuchon au Dôme

Fine dining with friends is a good way to enjoy life. This time, my friend picked Robuchon au Dome, a 3-Michelin-starred restaurant to pamper ourselves.

The renowned crystal light chandelier beautifully cascading from the dome creates an elegant ambience.























Welcome appetizer. The right one contained tomato and tasted slightly sour. But I forgot what the left one like.
















A big basket of delicious bread. Pity that I couldn't tried all as there's a rich dinner ahead.
















Cherry gazpacho with frozen ricotta and pistachio flakes
This cold soup with cherry and ricotta was refreshing and the slightly sour flavor brought us good appetite. Simply like it.














  

Mille-feuille of tomato with crabmeat
The sour flavor was too similar to the L’Amuse-bouche though the major ingredient was tomato rather than cherry. It's a good dish and the baby tomatoes on the side were fresh and sweet anyway.
















Steamed foie gras and root vegetables wrapped in green cabbage, warm truffle emulsion
A very beautifully presented dish. Pity it didn't taste as good as it looked because the bitterness of the radish ruin the whole dish.
















Roasted turbot, confit shallots condiment and lettuce velouté with lemon vinegar emulsion
The fish was perfectly cooked in terms of texture and taste. And it matched well with the lemon vinegar emulsion. It's my number 2 of the entire dinner.
















Racan pigeon, confit leg, green peas, spring onion and country bacon ‘ragoût
This dish is was French! All its ingredients made me recall the memory of my French trip. The tender and tasteful pigeon plus fresh green peas and silky mashed potato created my favorite dish of the night. I felt content after having this and the previous dishes.















Peach “Melba” on light raspberry jelly with vanilla cream and sherbet
This dessert was delicious and pretty. Yet, it's also sour in taste. 
































Dessert trolley time. It's difficult to choose what to have as the restaurant is famous for its dessert. Lucky the waiter and waitress were so generous to allow us to taste many of their signature dishes. I felt like we were having dessert buffet.

The floating island is my top recommendation as not many restaurants serve this traditional French dessert now. The silky egg white was unforgettable.
















Also, you shouldn't miss its super crispy mille feuille and lemon tart. Other desserts were yummy as well.













































Our choices of petit four which were also good in taste.
















This lemon cake was a compliment. Nevertheless, it's super yummy.












Overall, the food was delicious but too many dishes were sour in taste which made the entire dinner lack of variation.

The staff were very responsive to my online booking request and enquiries. During the dinner, they were very attentive and friendly,  which brought my friend and me a very enjoyable dining experience.

Last but not the least, here's the magnificent view of Macau from the restaurant.

Weekday Escape to Macau - All about Food

Tam Kah Shark's Fin Trading - shark's fin and fish maw soup which is good for skin.

















Mok Yee Kei - the serradura was very yummy and I preferred it to the mango ice-cream.






















Gosto - this complimentary bread was large in size. And it had a crispy shell but a soft heart.
















The deep fried codfish balls were bit salty as they are in many restaurants.













In addition to chicken, this Macanese chicken with chourico and coconut milk sauce came with many ingredients, say chourico, egg, carrot, olive. More importantly, it was yummy and opened my appetite. 

Weekday Escape to Macau - Snapshots

Taipa old village is where you can find the history of Macau.

















A touch of Chinese element.

















A touch of western influence.

















Lotus at the wetland outside the Taipa House Museum






Located in Macau, Kun Iam Tong (觀音堂) is a temple dedicated to the goddess of mercy (觀音). Some renovation work will help this temple to reclaim its beauty at young.

Weekday Escape - JW Marriott Hotel Macau

In celebration of the grand opening, JW Marriott Hotel Macau launches a very tempting package with one night of hotel room, breakfast and Hong Kong to Macau return ferry ticket. Let's have a weekday escape!

Similar to many new hotels in Macau, JW Marriott offers late check-in, ie. 3pm and early check-out, ie. 11am. Yet, you can still check-in if you arrive early as the front desk will provide you a number to pick up your room later.


















The twin room is so large that I think it can cater additional 2 people. The bed is comfortable, however, the pillows are too soft to me.



































In addition to bath tub, the bathroom also comes with a shower and toilet.


















View of Galaxy Macau and Grand Resort Deck from the room.













Grand Resort Deck is a water park shared by the 6 hotels of Galaxy Macau. It features river rider, water slides, swimming pools and kids area. Remember to bring your swimming suits when you go.
















These ladies were very professional as they posed beautifully once they found my camera.



















The night view of Galaxy Macau from my view.


















The buffet breakfast offered a wide range of choices from cold-cuts to hot dishes, juices to teas and tasted not bad.















 

June 15, 2015

Lost in Tokyo - すし家一柳

I planned to have omakase for my last dinner of my trip and picked すし家一柳, a sushi restaurant because it has acquired many good responses online.


















Though the Japanese chef's English is very limited and I haven't learn Japanese, he still tried his best to tell me what's what and how to have them.


The appetizer was a glass of mushroom. There was a touch of wine in the sauce but I was not sure what it was made of. The chef suggested me to drink it.

















Not sure if it was sea bream (鯛). Yet, from the color and the serving sequence, you can tell it was  relatively light in taste.
















The second sashimi course was bonito (鰹). Both the taste and texture were more impressive. It was served with sauce with ginger and bunching onion which made the sashimi more tasteful.



































This clam was cooked with sake was fresh and yummy.

















I liked this soft yet chewy octopus in light sweet taste. 

















Meaty crab legs with vinegar. The legs were yummy even without the vinegar. I appreciated the restaurant broke the legs in advance so the customers could finish them easily.


































The best of the best - Uni. The left one from Hokkaido was creamy, soft and tasteful. In a word, delicious. Well, the best is yet to come. The right one was super fantastic and beyond expectation. I just felt I had an ocean in my mouth as the uni was full of freshness and sweetness. It's certainly the best uni I have had in life. I love both kinds of uni though.

















Abalone sashimi. It was also very fresh and delicious, far much better than the one I had at Enoshima. Another impressive dish.

















Forgot it's goose liver or liver of a fish. Anyway, it's yummuy.

















This deliciously grilled kinmedai (金目鯛) was full of fish oil, the meat was soft whereas the skin was crispy.

















The chef asked if I would have more sashimi or try sushi. I chose sushi to make my dinner to be more complete, . The chef had already added seasoning to almost every sushi. To experience the real taste of the sushi prepared by the chef, I just had the sushi as they were served without adding extra soy sauce or wasabi.


The sushi version of kinmedai (金目鯛) was also good. Yet, the grilled one was better.

















Sea bream (鯛) sushi tasted better than sashimi.

















Akami (赤身), or back of tuna. Happy to have such fresh and quality tuna which is not so common nowadays.

















Chu toro (中卜口), or medium fatty tuna belly. In comparison with akami, this chu toro contained more fish fat and tender in texture.

















Toro (大卜口) or fatty tuna belly is usually the most expensive part of a tuna. I could feel the fat melting in my mouth. Meanwhile,  the toro was strong in flavor. I felt very content to have 3 kinds of quality tuna in a row.

















Squid sushi. The chef made the texture just right to taste. You know, badly cooked squid tasted tough.

















The seasoned kohada(小鰭)was delicious.













Horse Mackerel (鰺) was also a good try.

















Though the kuruma ebi (車海老) was cooked, the sweetness of the pawn was still well kept.

















Yeah, uni again! Bet the chef could see my smile when this was served. The uni was still excellent even in sushi form.

















Also, the scallop was fresh and sweet.


















It's my first time to have geoduck as sushi. The chewy texture was fun to taste.


















Similar to other ingredients, this oriental clam was fresh. The soy sauce further enhanced its flavor..


















Miso soup made of many small clams. Yummy.
















 

Eel sushi with its unique flavor. I simply like it.

















Unlike the usual egg roll, this tasted more like egg pudding with bit sweet taste. The surface was slightly grilled which enhanced the smell.
















My big dinner was concluded with my favorite tuna. The chef added leek in the tuna roll which made that less fatty. Felt so full.






Points to note:
I tried to make a reservation through the concierge service of my Master card. Yet, the restaurant told the concierge to ask my hotel to do so. Lucky, both the staff from the concierge and hotel were very helpful, thus, I finally got a seat. In fact, many Japanese restaurants would ensure foreign customers will really go to Japan with hotel booked before confirm their reservation. This is because some foreign customers didn't show up without prior notice and this made the restaurants very frustrated. To show your respect, please be punctual for your booking or notify the restaurant as early as possible (at least one day in advance) in case you really can't make it.