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