Shake Shack The Londoner Macao (Macau, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

After walking more than 20,000 steps morning and afternoon combined, we were supposed to be done for the day but none of us wanted to sleep early tonight; and so, we ventured out for an unplanned bonus adventure.

Our final destination was Sands Cotai Central, a complex with shopping malls and various luxury hotels (Sheraton, Conrad, The Londoner, St Regis) all under the same roof. What I like most about Sands Cotai was its late closing hours. At 10pm, everything at Studio City and Parisien were already closed but the Shoppe at Sands Cotai was still buzzing.



I managed to find Shake Shack just in the nick of time before its closing time. Mission accomplished! I finally got my hands on the Macau exclusive milkshake, Ginger Crush (薑汁撞奶). This was frozen vanilla custard blended with ginger juice, pineapple purée and mango purée, topped with whipped cream and candied ginger.

It really did taste like the real ginger juice milk curd and I particularly enjoyed the extra heat of ginger. 

Making this journey even more impressive was the fact that I managed to find a seat on the balcony overlooking the hotel lobby of The Londoner. This is quite an amazing décor they've got here.

Of course, little nugget and I won't pass up the chance for a photo with the "British soldiers" in their famous bearskin hats and red tunics, who were "patrolling" the lobby. Smile, son! 😆

Food Rating: 6.5/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop 2200, Level 2, The Londoner Macao, Cotai, Macau

Tel: +853 2889-8823

Website: www.shakeshack.com.hk/tc/location/macau

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 10:00pm daily

LemonCello Gelato 檸檬車露意大利手拉雪糕 (Macau, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

After enjoying dinner at Restaurante Litoral (海灣餐廳) in Taipa Village, we were all set to leave via the light rapid train (LTR) but since little one wanted a sweet treat to wrap up the night, I wasn't going to deny his wish.. 

Good thing LemonCello Gelato (檸檬車露意大利手拉雪糕) was just a few stores next to Restaurante Litoral so we didn't have to walk very far to complete the task.

This gelato shop has been buzzing since we arrived in Taipa Village a few hours ago and it's still buzzing.

Little nugget almost couldn't make up his mind but at the end, he was able to pick three flavors out of the 30+ of them available. Rainbow, yakult and Cookie 'n Cream.

He's pretty beat up after a full day of activities. I don't blame him.

The rainbow flavor came with two complimentary rainbow-colored cones which I thought instantly made it very instagrammable. But then, out of those three flavors, I thought only the yakult flavor warranted a return visit for.

At this point, it began to rain a little. So, I stopped taking more photos and led the gang towards Pai Kok station (排角站).

Food Rating: 5/10

Price: $$

Address: Shop J, G/F, 115 R. do Regedor, Vila de Taipa, Macau

Closest LRT Station: Pai Kok

Tel: +853 2858-3396

Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 11:00pm daily

Restaurante Litoral Taipa 海灣餐廳 氹仔分店 (Macau, CHINA) ★★★★☆

It took me some time to figure out where to have our Portuguese dinner tonight and to no one's real surprise, we are heading back to Rua do Cunha (官也街), home to some of the best Portuguese and Macanese restaurants in town. 

There were a number of factors to why I wound up picking Restaurante Litoral Taipa (海灣餐廳 氹仔分店) at the end. First and foremost, the restaurant is very spacious which is perfect for large-group gathering (we have 7 tonight) and I really like how its space is nicely decorated with a touch of Old Portugal.

Good thing I made an online booking a few weeks ago cuz it's fully booked tonight.

Plate of clams (西洋炒蜆) – The restaurant actually offers three different clam dishes on their menu, one with diced pork, another with white wine but we opted for this version, with the clams tossed in cream sauce with basil. Pretty tasty.

Cod fish cakes (馬介休球) – A trip to Macau is not complete without a taste of cod fish cakes. I've heard through the grapevines that it's not one of the strengths of this kitchen and it has indeed proved to be the case.

Seafood rice (海鮮飯) – The baked rice was a lot more soupy than I expected but everyone was happy that it was served this way. 

African chicken (非州雞) – One of the signature dishes here thanks to the secret thick sauce made of coconut milk, garlic, butter and paprika. Easily the best dish of the night.

This guy thought it was a little too spicy for his liking yet he couldn't get his hands off the dish.

Stuffed suckling pig (葡式焗乳豬配釀飯) – This came in second to the African chicken.  I thought the crackling was pretty nice. Thin, crispy but slightly chewy at times (in a good way). There was also enough smokiness in there to keep me happy. Not bad to go with the fried rice underneath.

Biscuit mousse (木糠布甸) – I've had better serradura, or sawdust pudding before. The ones I like had multiple layers of sweetened whipped cream and crushed cookie crumbs, which delivered much better mouthfeel.

Another reason I decided to pick Restaurante Litoral Taipa was its proximity to the light rail station. Just a short 5-minute walk to Pai Kok station (排角站).

Food Rating: 6/10

Price: $$$

Address: G/F, Block 4, 53-57 Wai Chin Kok Nos, Rua Do Regedor, Vila de Taipa, Macau

Closest LRT Station: Pai Kok

Tel: +853 2882-5255

Website: www.restaurantelitoral-taipa.com

Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 3:00apm, 6:00pm - 10:00pm daily

Loja de Doces Hang Heong Un 杏香園雪糕甜品屋 (Macau, CHINA) ★★☆☆☆

Our next stop was Loja de Doces Hang Heong Un (杏香園雪糕甜品屋), an old-school Chinese sweet soup restaurant a stone's throw from the iconic Rua da Felicidade (福隆新街).

It was my first visit to Macau since 2015 and we noticed that the stores here are now wearing a different color, green instead of red.

We had a long walk from Monte Fort (大炮台) and everybody was sweating hard when we arrived at the front of Loja de Doces Hang Heong Un. But we were dealt with some bad news immediately. The restaurant is full! So, we had to wait across the street under the nasty heat.

It took about 15 minutes for us to finally get a table but that's only the beginning. For whatever reason, service was very very slow from this family-run restaurant.

If they had trouble offering such a wide selection of dessert soups, perhaps they should consider cutting it down.

After a very impatient wait of nearly 30 minutes, our snow fungus sweet soup with longan (龍眼雪耳糖水) eventually showed up. The sweet soup was pretty heartwarming but I thought it was a little more gluey than I would like.

I have to admit, the water chestnut sweet soup with bamboo pith, longan and coconut juice (竹笙龍眼椰汁馬蹄沙) was a very nice treat especially in a hot and humid summer day like this. It's very soothing to the palate but was it worth the extensive walk and long wait!? Probably not. 

Our desserts arrive in pair (looks like that's the "capacity" of the kitchen. Two bowls every time) and since we have 7 people in our group, it took more than 3 rounds before everyone got to enjoy some sweetness. That's not very efficient service if you ask me. In fact, some of us already finished their desserts while others were still waiting.

Food Rating: 5.3/10

Price: $$$$

Address: G/F, 13 Tv. do Auto Novo, Macau

Tel: +853 2857-2701

Opening Hours: 1:30pm - 12:00am daily

Margaret's Café e Nata 瑪嘉烈蛋撻 (Macau, CHINA) ★★★★☆

Now that we've got lunch taken care of, we could finally follow our original itinerary which had Margaret's Café e Nata (瑪嘉烈蛋撻) as our first stop. It was about a 10-minute walk from our lunch venue but with elderly and kid around, it took almost twice the time required to reach our first destination.



To our pleasant surprise, the lineup was a relatively short one and everyone got to enjoy a pastel de nata without much of a wait.

Some said this is as authentic as it gets in Macau and I have no objection to that saying at all. The crisp and flaky crust envelopes the silky, creamy, and milky filling of egg custard which was slightly burnt to deliver some nice smokiness.  

It's little nugget's first venture to Macau and he's enjoying every minute of it so far with the exception of the heat.

Perhaps, the only knock with Margaret's is its outside seating, the only space available from the café to enjoy their delicious egg tarts on the spot. Not the most ideal place to enjoy food while sitting in front of an alleyway facing the back of an old residential building. 

Food Rating: 6/10

Price: $$$

Address: G/F, 17A Rua Alm Costa Cabral R/C, Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro, Macau, Macau

Tel: +853 2891-0032

Opening Hours: 8:30am - 4:30pm (Mon - Tue, Thu - Fri), 10:00am - 6:00pm (Sat - Sun)

North by Square Eight 食・ 八方旗下北㕑 (Macau, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

The best-laid plans of mice and men..........

So, I thought I had it all planned out. We would start off our Macau trip with a bang at Michelin-starred Wing Lei (永利軒). I even had a table reserved at The Eight as backup. But an hour late arriving from Hong Kong thanks to the queues at different shuttle spots and everything just went sideways from there. Not surprisingly, both Wing Lei and The Eight couldn't keep our bookings. With 3 elderly and 1 kid, I knew I had to improvise and come up with Plan C.

So, I went across the street from Wing Lei and found this place called Square Eight (食・ 八方旗下) inside MGM Macau. Obviously, there were two concepts under the ownership/roof here, one called South (南苑) dedicated for the cuisine in Southern China and another called North (北㕑) heavy on spicy dishes and noodles from Northern China. North was the one I  accidentally lined up for and got a table without knowing that its dishes were primarily hot and spicy.

Glutinous rice dumplings rolled with red bean paste (京城驢打滾) – Didn't expect the dessert would come ahead of the savory stuff...

The glutinous rice were really light and fluffy, and that worked well with the layers of red bean paste.

Tea egg (茶葉蛋) – Little nugget was the only one who could comment on these tea eggs cuz he personally took down two of them on his own. Could smell the tea flavors from distance away but didn't get to try one myself. 

Shanghainese wonton soup (上湯菜肉雲吞湯) – Pretty decent.

Sichuan pork dumplings in chili oil (紅油炒手) – The fact that I was starving might have something to do with it but I thought these dumplings were pretty tasty. The chili oil added some nice numbing effects to the mix but the spiciness wasn't over the top.

Sichuan Dan Dan noodles (天府擔擔麵) – This came with pulled noodle soup, minced pork and crushed peanut. I thought it would be a little more spicy but it was well within my limits. 

Braised pork ribs noodle soup, Lanzhou style (紅燒排骨麵) – The pork ribs were pretty tender but the broth was a bit bland for my palate. Everybody else seemed to like it better than the dan dan noodles.

Wok-fried shrimp with cabbage and garlic (大蝦燒白菜) – This came when we have already finished up our noodles. The cabbage and garlic were the surprising star here while the shrimps took the back seat. 

Everyone including yours truly was just glad to get this over with. With plenty of ground still to cover in the afternoon, we wasted no time taking care of the bill and started our journey towards our next destination.

Food Rating: 4.5/10

Price: $$$

Address: G/F MGM Grand, Avenida Marginal da Baia Nove, Alameda Dutor Carlos d'Assumpção, Macau, Macau

Tel: +853 8802-2388

Website: www.mgm.mo/en/macau/dining/north

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 3:00pm, 6:00pm - 11:00pm daily

Studio City Macau (Macau, CHINA)

I have been quietly looking forward to this day since Jelloman made the booking a few months ago. It was supposed to be a belated celebration for Father's Day. Yes, it was a couple of weeks late but I figured it was better late than never. 

Turns out everyone was all hyped up for this trip. For little nugget, it's his first-ever trip to the "Vegas of the East" and for mom, her first since she first got married (You don't want to know how long!). Finally for me, part of the reason for the hype was the fact that we have not been to Macau since 2015. That's eight years and counting.

We had quite a long journey to get to our final destination via various shuttles. At 8:30am, we took the bus to the stop near Hong Kong International Airport, where we hopped onto the "Golden Bus (金巴)" after crossing the border and another bus ride took us to the Taipa Ferry Terminal (氹仔客運碼頭) shortly after. Then, we managed to catch a complimentary (and final) shuttle to Studio City Macau. By the time we actually arrived at the hotel, it was already 11:47am, 3 hours of bus rides!

But once we got over the run of bus rides, it was all good!

Check-in wasn't what we called efficient but we managed to get our keys in around 20 minutes. I took the time to walk around the shops on the lobby level while everyone was queuing up to check in. It was a pretty big premise that covers a lot of ground.

For a hotel which has been open for 8 years, the interior was relatively new. There was a slight cigarette smell when we got into the room but that's fairly common for hotels in Macau, even for rooms on the non-smoking floor (which we have requested for).

Our room was spotless and we even got a partial view of the 8-shaped roller coaster thing in the middle of the architecture. That was so cool!

View at night right here...

The bathroom was pretty spacious too. My only complaint was the height of the bath tub which had me making a full stretch in order to get comfortably on top.

The complimentary breakfast was definitely the highlight of our stay. Our parents were kind enough to wake up at 8am to get ourselves a table. For those who were less fortunate, it was almost impossible to get in after 10am (breakfast ends at 11am).

I really like the location of Studio City. It was much less crowded than Venetian and Galaxy; yet it wasn't isolated like some of the hotels away from the Strip. Of course, it would have been nice if it's inner-connected with the neighbouring Parisien and The Londoner.

While Studio City Macau is more than a serviceable option for accommodation, would I come back and stay here again, you ask? Well, very unlikely unless I am planning to spend a day at their waterpark. One of the things they must improve on was the variety of shops in their arcade, along with their closing time (9pm-ish?). The Londoner Macao offers a more diversified shopping and dining experience (i.e. The Cheesecake Factory, Shake Shack, Lady M etc.) and the shops there tend to close after 10pm.

Rating: ❤❤❤♡♡

Price: $$$

Address: Estrada do Istmo, Cotai, Macau

Closest LRT Station: Est. F. De Lótus / Studio City

Tel: +853 8865-8888

Website: www.studiocity-macau.com

Luet Fat Restaurant Kowloon City 聯發茶餐廳 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

Back in April, I promised myself I'd come back to the old neighborhood of Kowloon City for a stroll. Today, I finally managed to keep that promise. I figured I should pick one of these traditional cha chaan tengs to sit down and have a quick tea break. There were quite a number of them in the area so I was having a hard time pulling the trigger. But once I bumped into Luet Fat Restaurant (聯發茶餐廳) on Hau Wong Road, it was the end of my search.



The name Luet Fat brought back a lot of memories from my childhood. We used to live in an area where there was only one cha chaan teng in the proximity. It was a two-storey one called Luet Fat with a small bakery shop on the ground floor and tiny little tea restaurant on the mezzanine floor. I love going to tea restaurant as a kid (and still do now!) but dad doesn't want us to eat outside that often so we had to wait for our chances. Every time when dad brought us there for breakfast, it's like a special treat for me and my sister. It brought a smile on my face every time. That was my little story about Luet Fat which I believed had no connection what-so-ever with this one in Kowloon City. Anyways....  

Turned out this was more than just any cha chaan teng. They had some modern dishes/snacks like this one, deep-fried luncheon meat served with a beurre blanc dip.

And I got to come back for these clay pot rice some other time! I love anything with Chinese sausages.

But today, I needed something sweet so first up, a cup of hot pantyhose milk tea for my caffeine fix. The tea here was pretty strong and fragrant. And look at the sugar container. I thought they were all gone by now.

As much as I like to try the deep-fried luncheon meat, I went with this French toast instead. It came sizzling hot which was perfect to go with the melting butter.

As usual, I sliced it into nine equal pieces and dipped them into the maple syrup one by one. This wasn't bad but if the crust was a little more eggy, even better.

Food Rating: 5/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop 1, G/F, 2-4 Hau Wong Road, Kowloon City, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Sung Wong Toi

Tel: +852 2718-8832

Opening Hours: 7:00am - 10:00pm daily