Fewer Michelin-starred outlets in Macau casino sector

Jan 27, 2021 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck  

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The number of Michelin-starred restaurants based at Macau casino resorts has declined in the 2021 edition of the “Michelin Guide Hong Kong Macau”. The new edition of the guide was announced on Wednesday.

The new rundown features 18 restaurants in Macau, down from 20 in the previous year. All the still-listed eateries are located inside a casino hotel or resort.

Macau had again three restaurants awarded three stars. It is Michelin’s top accolade for food that it considers “exceptional cuisine”. Two of the outlets, French favourite Robuchon au Dôme, and Chinese fine dining outlet The Eight (pictured), are at Grand Lisboa casino hotel, owned by gaming operator SJM Holdings Ltd.

Jade Dragon, a Cantonese-cuisine restaurant at City of Dreams Macau, a casino resort run by Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd, also kept its three-star rating.

Missing from the 2021 list of two-starred venues is The Tasting Room, a French contemporary restaurant at City of Dreams Macau. In May, Melco Resorts closed that eatery linked to the revamp of Nüwa, a hotel at the City of Dreams complex.

Macau establishments retaining two Michelin stars for 2021 included: “Alain Ducasse at Morpheus”, described as a “French contemporary” eatery and based at the Morpheus hotel tower, also at City of Dreams; and Feng Wei Ju, a Sichuan-style Chinese restaurant at Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd’s StarWorld Macau.

Also retaining two stars respectively, were: Golden Flower and Wing Lei, two Chinese restaurants at the Wynn Macau resort, operated by Wynn Macau Ltd; Mizumi, a venue specialising in Japanese cuisine and based at the same property; and Sichuan Moon, a Chinese-cuisine restaurant at Macau casino resort Wynn Palace.

In November, Wynn Macau Ltd confirmed to GGRAsia that Golden Flower had been “temporarily closed during the pandemic period,” and would reopen “when visitor volumes are more normalised”. On Wednesday, a notice on the restaurant’s website said the venue was “currently closed until further notice.”

In Michelin’s one-star category, Wing Lei Palace – a Cantonese fine-dining venue at Wynn Palace – won its first one-star rating.

The other one-star eateries retained in the 2021 guide included: Lai Heen, a Cantonese restaurant at Galaxy Macau; and the Italian-cuisine venue 8 ½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana also at Galaxy Macau; Pearl Dragon, a Cantonese establishment at Studio City, a Cotai property majority-owned by Melco Resorts; Ying, a Cantonese restaurant at Melco Resorts’ Altira Macau, Taipa.

Also retaining one star respectively, were: The Kitchen, a steakhouse at SJM Holdings’ Grand Lisboa Hotel; Cantonese establishments Tim’s Kitchen at SJM Holdings’ Hotel Lisboa on the peninsula; Zi Yat Heen at Sands China Ltd’s Four Seasons Macao on Cotai; and The Golden Peacock, an Indian-cuisine restaurant at Sands China’s Venetian Macao.

The Golden Peacock venue is currently “closed until further notice,” according to its website.

Dropped from this year’s one-star rating list were Shinji by Kanesaka, a Japanese sushi restaurant at City of Dreams that was also closed because of the renovation of the Nüwa hotel tower; and King, a Cantonese-style establishment in the AIA Tower in downtown Macau.

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