Macau-Restaurante Platao

Before posting my mom's birthday dinner, let me start a new post on our short trip to Macau. Talk about the food, there isn't a Macau-nese or Macau cuisine. Most restaurants in Macau are actually Portuguese/Portuguese fusion because it used to be a colony of Portugal before.

We will normally go to the same restaurants when we go to Macau; in other words, we seldom explore ourselves to new restaurants even though we know they have similar foods. My sister, however, brought us to a new Portuguese restaurant this time...

(Picture from backpackers)

九如坊Restaurante Platao
G/F Block B, Jardim Lok Wa, Travessa S, Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro
新馬路板樟堂巷3號樂華花園地下B舖
Tel: (853) 2833-1818

Ratings
1:Yucks! 2:Improvement needed 3:So-So~ 4:Good 5:Very good 6:Heavenly

Food: 4.5
Price: 5
Service: 6
Ambiance: 5.5
Overall: 5

• Tue-Sun 12pm-11pm
  Closed on Mondays
• Location is somewhat hard to find. You have to walk up a hidden alley to find this restaurant, which should be on your right-hand side.
• Parking is not available
• They have two levels, but I truly encourage you to make a reservation before visiting.

• Their atmosphere is very unique. It is modern but also has a little Greek style.
• Suitable for crowds, families
• They offer almost everything you want: soup, appetizer, seafood, curry, vegetable, sandwiches, and desserts.
• They use fresh seafood daily. You can find "Daily Fresh from the Sea" on the first page of the menu, or you can ask the waiters for more information.

蒜茸包Garlic Bread

• $26 (about $4CAD)
• I didn't try this because I hate the taste of garlic.
• My mom ordered this, and she loved them.

罌粟子腰果麥包Poppy Seed and Cashew Nut Rye Bread-6/6

• $11 (about $2CAD)
• This was served warm and, it was sooooo good. I fell in love with it right away when I tore the bun into half.

• Poppy seeds? Check. Cashew nuts? Check. I could chew on the crunchy cashew nuts when I was munching the super soft bun.
• Another bonus: Sometimes I don't like bread with a lot of nuts inside, but this just had the right amount of nuts. I love it.

三文魚餅Salmon Cake-5.5/6

• $42 (about $6CAD)
• This only came in 2pcs, so $42 (which means $21/ea) was quite pricey.

• The fish cake itself was quite good. For non-fish eaters (i.e. my dad), these were good enough for them because these did not taste fishy at all. For fish eaters, these were also great because you could taste that there's real salmon inside!

• See the salmon? The inside was soft and hot; the outside was covered with a golden thin, crispy crust.

咸牛利Ox Tongue

• I actually did not remember what this was...but I guess it's probably something about beef/ox...

• With some diced vegetables served on the side.
• I didn't try this because it's beef and, it's...tongue (ew!) :@ But I heard them say that this was really good.

清炒雜菌Stir Fried Mixed Mushroom-6/6

• $72 (about $10CAD)
• Served on the top of a 1/2-potato
• $72 for this might seem expensive, but the mushroom was surprisingly good! The smokey sauce made the mushroom taste amazingggg!
• This was one of the most popular dishes we ordered that day. Everyone said this was a good dish to balance out all the meat we ordered :)

焗蛋白菠菜茸Baked Mashed Spinach with Egg White-6/6

• $60 (about $8CAD)
• Honestly, I couldn't believe how good this was. I was thinking how good it could be with just mashed spinach and egg white...but the result was terribly good!

• It tasted so light, similar to souffle. I can finish off one of these, really.
• The crust was a little hard, but once I inserted the spoon, I could see how soft the inner part was :P

海鮮焗馬介休Baked Bacalhau with Mixed Seafood-4/6

• $152 (about $20CAD)
• Bacalhau is actually codfish; "Bacalhau" is just the Portuguese word dried codfish.

• Except bacalhau, it said "Mixed Seafood", but all I could find were prawns, and potatoes.
• There was not much flavour in this dish, even though they gave us a generous amount of bacalhau :/
• This dish was actually quite heavy due to all the potatoes and thick sauce. My mom almost finished everything, and she was bloated then.

白烚菜Poached Vegetable

• $70 (about $9CAD)
• Contained 3 types of vegetables: cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli
• This was HUGE. I didn't know poached veggie could be this big in restaurants. I think they almost gave us 1/2 of the cauliflower.

炭燒豬肋骨Charcoal Grilled Enhanced Pork Rib-4.5/6

• $280 (about $37CAD)
• Served with some grilled veggies on the side
• At first, I thought the pork rib will be kind of tough. However, it turned out to be really juicy and tender.
• The grilled vegetables were as good as the rib, especially the grilled eggplants ;) Yummy.

特級羊鞍配羊肚菌汁Prime Rack of Lamb with Morel Sauce-4.5/6

• Served with vegetables(in whole) on the side
• I seldom order lamb because I always find there's a "unique" flavour in lamb that makes me dislike it. However, I have to say Platao makes pretty good lamb, especially how well the sauce goes with the meat.
• They did not drench the lamb with the sauce; instead, they only pour some of it on 1/2 of the lamb. You can choose to dip as much sauce as you want ;)
• Don't underestimate the side veggies! They were actually stuffed with brown rice(?).

Here comes the desserts! :P

木糠布甸Biscuit Mousse-5/6

• $58 (about $8CAD)
• This was their best-selling + well-known dessert. I am not sure whether they use biscuit or bread crumbs to make the toppings...

• Mousse is supposed to be a lighter choice for dessert; however, this did not taste like mousse at all! It was rich in texture, like a frozen ice-cream cake.
• I did not find this particularly special or tasty though :

西梅千層餅Prune Cake-6/6

• This was definitely better than the Biscuit Mousse!
• It was very pretty with all those layers :) You can tell it's very moist by looking at the picture above.
• On the flavour, it was very rich in prune flavour! I could also taste some prune between each layers.
• The best thing about this dessert: It wasn't too sweet, so we could still have a slice of it after finishing up all the food we ordered.

Next time if you have the chance to visit Macau, make sure you come and try Restaurante Platao. Well, if you don't want to order this much food, you can also just order their desserts and a cup of coffee, sit on the patio, and enjoy the rest of your afternoon :)