I
confess to having had somewhat cynical expectations
about Robuchon à Galera in Macau after my
disappointing experience at Robuchon Las Vegas.
Based on this I had surmised that gambling towns
were an unlikely match for top cuisine. The
restaurant is one floor up in the Lisboa Hotel, and
is richly appointed but otherwise fairly low key
room, with a low ceiling and no view to speak of.
There is a thick blue and gold carpet and
comfortable, traditional chairs, though the lights
twinkling in the ceiling were not to my taste.
There are several menu choices, form a full tasting
menu at HK$ 2,100 down to a cheap lunch menu at just
HK$ 398. We opted for an intermediate tasting menu
at HK$ 1,488. The wine list is truly remarkable. It
arrives in a vast, closely typed, leather bound
tome, and there are no less than 4,300 separate
wines listed. As one can imagine, every taste in
catered from, with wines from obscure regions
(Slovenia wine, anyone?) through to massively deep
coverage of the classic regions. Moreover mark-ups
are by no means excessive in some cases. Examples of
the wines offered are Jermann Pinot Grigio 2004 at
HK$ 600 for a wine that costs perhaps HK$ 180 in the
shops, Cuvee Catherine Pinot Gris 2005 at HK$ 900
for a wine you can purchase for about HK$ 300
retail, through Penfolds bin 707 1997 at HK $1,195
is quite fair for a wine that costs about HK$ 560 to
buy. A relative bargain is Kistler Dutton Ranch 2004
at HK$ 1,800 for a wine that costs over HK$ 800 to
buy. I cannot recall seeing a better wine list than
this.
A bread chariot arrives groaning under the weight of
loaves. The bread is made from scratch here and is
genuinely superb. There are two different baguettes,
black olive rolls foccacia, mixed grain rolls,
sun-dried tomato bread, through to sweeter breads
such as apricot and chestnut. The rolls made from
Comte cheese were utterly divine, the cheese flavour
bursting from the soft roll, while a firmer roll had
bacon and mustard flavour in perfect balance. I am
very fond of bread at the best of times, and I felt
like a kid in, well, a bakery. This was genuine
10/10 bread; I like the bread at Louis XV, and
remember fine bread at Marc Veyrat, but this is just
about as close to perfection as you will find.
The menu began with a pretty dish of petit pois, a
“floating island” on top of a cream of peas
flavoured with a little mint with veal juice,
alongside a sesame fritter. The pea puree had lovely
flavour, the veal juice adding depth, the mint just
a hint; the fritter was very delicate, the sesame
seed flavour a nice touch with the peas (9/10).
Next was a very pretty casing of Romaine lettuce,
garnished with black truffles, inside which was king
crab, avocado mousse, Mozzarella and a little virgin
olive oil. Crab and avocado are a fine pairing, here
the crisp lettuce adding a texture contrast, the
aromas of the truffle and the olive oil lifting the
dish (9/10).
Next was a remarkably intense chestnut soup, poured
over a little foie gras and bacon and celery foam. A
gossamer-light bacon crisp was on the side. The
bacon added a little saltiness to balance the
richness of the foie gras, and the soup itself had
marvelous depth (10/10).
Next for me was a wild sea bass fillet pan-fried
with crispy skin, seasoned with five spices and
served with an aromatic verjus sauce; for me there
was just a little too much acidity to the red wine
sauce, though the fish itself was superb and the
concept was fine (8/10). Stella had amadai in a
spicy oil with remarkably good endive and a good
saffron broth (8/10). For my main course I had duck
breast with foie gras with a few figs, cherries and
pear pieces on the side to provide a welcome acidic
balance to the rich duck (8/10).
A palate cleaning pre-dessert was an exotic fruit
sherbet with coconut, rum and a little popping sugar
(8/10). At this point a dessert trolley arrived with
a wide array of choices. Amongst these were a very
good passion fruit tart, superb Rum Baba, and an
intense coffee choux bun. I was less taken with an
apple clafoutis, but I suspect the issue was the
brand of apple used (this is one occasion where the
English with their Bramley apples win the day).
Still, overall, the desserts were very fine (9/10
overall).
Coffee was also deeply flavoured and rich, and a
further array of petit fours then came wheeling
past, including a feather-light tuile and superb
salted caramel chocolate. The bill for two with a
classy Kistler wine was HK$ 5,381 for two. Service
was very good, though it was strange that there was
no proper sommelier present with a wine list like
this. Chef Francky Semblat trained with Joël
Robuchon at the great man’s restaurant at Avenue
Raymond Poincaré in Paris, and has learned a lot
from his training. For me the cooking here was
significantly superior to the Robuchon in Tokyo, and
far better than that of the Robuchon Las Vegas. It
was true three-star food.
Incidentally, if you are traveling to Macau from
Hong Kong be aware that it is a separate "special
administrative region" and so you will still need
your passport. Macau is a one hour ferry ride from
Hong Kong; the hotel Lisboa is a short taxi ride
from the ferry terminal.
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