Fernando’s, Beijing Kitchen, and the City of Dreams in Macau: a continuation of “Cathay & British Airways First Class, Philippines and Macau, a Presidential Suite, and the Fat Duck Restaurant”

Fernando’s, Beijing Kitchen, and the City of Dreams in Macau: a continuation of “Cathay & British Airways First Class, Philippines and Macau, a Presidential Suite, and the Fat Duck Restaurant”

During our three night stay in Macau, and in addition to our breakfasts at the Westin (unlimited complimentary order-off-the-menu), there are two meals I thought I’d highlight: Fernando’s and Beijing Kitchen at the Grand Hyatt.

Whenever I travel someplace new, I reserve food. And there were two things that really stood out as the ‘must-dos’ while I was in Macau: Fernando’s and Lord Stowe’s bakery for Portugese egg tarts. And as luck would have it, both were in Coloane where I’d be staying. In fact, Fernando’s is a short walk up the beach from the Westin, and we decided on dinner there our first full day in Macau.

I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from Fernando’s. It’s a beach place, most of the reviews seemed to suggest that it was more or less ‘famous for being famous’ rather than good, or perhaps living on past reputation. So in my mind I put it in the box of “Bloody Mary’s on Bora Bora.” Everyone is supposed to go there but there’s no good reason why. To mangle a line from Casablanca, “everyone goes to Fernando’s.”

But to my surprise it was really quite good. And best I could figure is that the negative reviews seem to come from people ordering fish and the positive reviews from people ordering pork. So I stuck to pork. Service is certainly slow even when the restaurant wasn’t busy. The bread earns raves but I wasn’t impressed. And having put some olive pits in the butter dish (gasp) I saw them take the pits out so they could re-use the butter which we hadn’t touched.

Ok, we’re not following the usual health department guidelines I’m used to in the US, and thank goodness for that! Because the pork was absolutely delicious.

I gotta say, pork sitting on a bed of fries, soaking up that juicy goodness.. awesome!

The next day we met Flyertalk’s SanDiego1K and her husband for lunch at their hotel. They were staying at the Grand Hyatt, and whereas I had been incredibly please with the deal and room and amenities of the Westin at the beach I just had to feel like I might have made a mistake as to where to stay when we entered the Grand Hyatt. It’s brand new, architecturally reminds me in many ways of the Park Hyatt Tokyo (though not as remotely located, and busier in the lobby).

The Hyatt is smack dab in the center of the action, not off in sleepy Coloane. It’s near the Venetian, which the Westin runs a complimentary shuttle to:

Here’s the lobby of the Grand Hyatt.

Off the lobby is a little café with amazing looking pastries.

I was absolutely impressed by SanDiego1K’s suite, a corner room overlooking the Macau airport with a sleek, modern, minimalist design. The club lounge in the hotel was on the ground floor and huge, and though apparently many guests have access it was empty when we visited (albeit not at a designated service time).

They had pre-ordered for us Peking Duck, which was wonderfully prepared.

After lunch we roamed the City of Dreams complex, which includes a casino, food court, the Hard Rock hotel, varios entertainment venues..

We got tickets from the Hyatt concierge for a complimentary laser light show, “The Bubble.” The name just described physically where the show was, not anything about the show, and I didn’t quite follow the plot. But it still looked impressive.