Italian trattoria Bene at Sheraton Grand Macao serves up a range of satisfying home-style specialities

In the Sheraton Grand Macao on Taipa is Bene, a smart-casual Italian restaurant that has an airy atmosphere thanks to the high ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows. The Italian trattoria presents home-style dishes that are good for sharing as the portions, especially the mains, are quite large.

The signature dishes here are the pasta carbonara in a Castelmagno cheese wheel that is prepared tableside, and the Australian wagyu beef tomahawk that is wood-fired oven roasted with fresh herbs, oven roasted potatoes and vegetables. It’s hard to pace yourself with the home-made breads in front of you, nice and warm so that the butter melts so easily into the bread.

To start off our meal, we tried a favourite, the classic minestrone soup choc full of diced vegetables and seasoned with pesto. This was followed by a new main course on the menu, the crumbled Milanese veal chop layered with prosciutto cotto ham, and fontina cheese, that was then breaded and fried. Once you sliced it open, the melted cheese immediately began oozing out, making it an ideal meaty comfort food. The veal was tender, cooked perfectly.

We finished the hearty meal by sampling the signature dessert of hot chocolate pie with wild cherries, berries and vanilla ice cream. As soon as our spoon dived in, the hot chocolate lava flowed out and we were in chocolate heaven. The berries and marinated cherries were the perfect complement to the rich chocolate, and made even more sinfully sweet with the ice cream.