Food review: Portuguese and Macanese treats at Fado, Macau hotel restaurant
Fado serves up the classic seafood and meat dishes at a great price
Trying to choose restaurants to review in Macau is hard because so many have opened in recent years. A friend of a friend recommended Fado, which is in the Hotel Royal. They offer a great lunch deal of two courses for 128 patacas, and three for 158 patacas. But we were tempted by the à la carte selection.
My favourite appetiser was the slow-cooked beef tongue (90 patacas), which had thin slices of the meat fanned out on plate, topped with a refreshingly sharp vinaigrette. One guest dubbed the moist Alheira sausage (90 patacas) encased in flaky pastry a "sausage roll" (which in effect it was), but he was happy with it and grabbed the last bite.
It was accompanied by a slightly oversalted choi sum soufflé and chunks of sautéed apples. For the amêijoas à bulhão pato ("the most celebrated clam dish in Portugal", 120 patacas), while the clams were tender and plentiful, I especially liked the sauce, which I soaked up with the delicious selection of bread, which included rye, olive roll, and corn bread with chorizo.
The meat of the roasted suckling pig (180 patacas) had been taken off the bone, seasoned with plenty of pepper, then shaped into two neat rectangles before being topped with the slightly chewy skin.
Wet seafood rice (200 patacas) look appetising, but the tender grains in a rich broth were intensely seafoody, making the clams, shrimp and mussels taste mild.
Bacalhau à Brás (160 patacas) was cooked by the chef in front of us on a portable stove. He made the comforting dish by cooking garlic, soft shreds of salt cod, eggs, then a helping of shoestring potatoes.
Sorbet of wild berries and anise (50 patacas), refreshed our palates, then we were served a wonderful dessert of puff pastry with rich egg cream (60 patacas) accompanied by vividly flavoured orange sorbet and topped with spun sugar.
