‘Like I’m in the Algarve’: where a Singaporean goes in Macau for Portuguese seafood dishes, chicken soup noodles and the best steaks
- Ida Chow is a lawyer and investor from Singapore who lived in Malaysia and the UK before moving to Macau, where she enjoys Portuguese and local Chinese food
- She tells us where she goes in Macau for Singaporean fare like laksa, and the best chicken soup noodles, dim sum, steaks and more
Ida Chow is a lawyer and investor who has lived in Malaysia, Singapore and the UK and is now based in Macau. Passionate about art, she volunteers as a museum guide and organises art talks and overseas tours. She spoke to Andrew Sun.
I love everything about food, from growing my own vegetables and herbs and visiting markets, to cooking and hosting dinner parties. But during the pandemic I moved to Macau and really enjoy dining out there.
Jak’s Kitchen (272 One Oasis, 250 Estrada de Seac Pai Van, Coloane. Tel. +853 2825 0148) is a bistro that was opened in 2016 by former executive chef at The Venetian Macau Karlheinz Ritter. Located within a big residential complex, the restaurant serves Western cuisine with good-quality ingredients at reasonable prices, and in a welcoming setting.
The seafood salad, grilled vegetables and pizzas are my regular fare, together with daily specials of lamb or beef. Being German, chef Karlheinz has white asparagus promotions every spring.
The restaurant is decked out with wooden furniture and hand-painted plates for decoration like in an old Portuguese house. I like the octopus salad, bacalhau (Portuguese dried, salted cod) and charcoal-grilled sardines. Other Portuguese favourites are the roasted piglet and baked duck rice.
For dinner, there are dishes traditionally served in Singapore coffee shops like curry fish head, sambal squid or prawns and fried Hokkien noodles. This was my place for home comfort food.
Palace Garden (Shop 306, Grand Lisboa Palace Macau, Cotai. Tel: +853 8881 1380) was an immediate hit when it opened in December 2021.
The main dining room is decorated with giant embroidered screens and a 35-metre (110ft) embroidered chrysanthemum wall with a long glass chandelier running the length of the restaurant.
The lemongrass-smoked grilled pigeon by chef Cheung Ka-fai, formerly of Tim’s Kitchen, in Hong Kong’s Sheung Wan neighbourhood, is also fantastic.
This is the restaurant I take visitors to impress them.
All the food outlets at luxury hotel and casino resorts Wynn Macau and Wynn Palace are good, but special mention must be given to the latter’s restaurants, SW Steakhouse and Sichuan Moon (North Esplanade, Wynn Palace, Avenida da Nave Desportiva, Cotai. Tel: +853 8889 3663).
The steaks at SW Steakhouse are the finest in Macau and they also have delicious crab cakes.
