Joel Robuchon au Dome – Grand Lisboa Macau

[PhilD]

The restaurant moved from one hotel/casino in Macau to another across the road, I didn’t manage to visit the restaurant at its previous site (now a imported Portuguese Michelin starred restaurant – but not yet rated here) so this is a first. It is on the top floor of a really OTT hotel and sits under a big steel and glass dome – a really modern space age setting. But the restaurant in decorated in faux French, second empire mismatch of styles which jar the senses. The staff are wonderful - but they need to be because it is an odd space. The tables are arranged in two circles around the Dome which makes it tricky for all the trolleys to navigate the space.

It is also far from cheap, three choices, an ALC, a short degustation (MOP1,588++) and a more extensive one (MOP2,188++), on top of this is a wine list with no bottle under MOP700++ and most in the MOP1,000++ bracket. This not going to be a cheap meal!

The food is, however, pretty good:

We start with a monumental bread trolley with all sorts of breads, we do for a selection which turns out to be pretty good. The butttter trolley then arrives with two large mounds of Bordier butter, again we choose one of each. Then an amuse which is a perfect cheese gouger and a wonderfully tasty salmon sandwich. On to the meal proper:

1. Le Caviar – surprise of in fine coral jelly with aniseed cream – served in the tin which is obviously on trend these days. It’s nice but quite subtle.

2. La Tomate – salad of tomato, olive oil with basil, tomato essence topped with mozzarella cheese. This arrives on two dishes, a black jelly dotted with little wite dots topped with an orange or green gel, the side plate with a large slice of tomato. The black jelly turns out to be clear tomato jelly with the plate having a black indentation (mind games), the dots are intense cheese with herb gets. It all works really well and has a fantastic depth of flavor.

3. L’oeuf Organique – slow cooked organic farm egg with sautéed girolle and lettuce veloute under a crispy tuile –this is an amazing dish the veloute has a beautiful intensity and the other elements all contribute fantastically to the overall dish.

4. L’Amandi – pand fried Amandai fillet with crispy skin and baby arctichoke and barigoule jus – another standout, wonderfully crispy/scaly fish in an a great soupy sauce. Not certain how they cook the skin to get this effect, which I have seen in a few modern restaurants. It is very good,

5. A choice of, Le Canard de Challans – duck breast and foie gras cooked in rock salt with pepper in reduction of seasonal fruits. Or, Le Boeuf “Kagodhima” – Grilled Kagoshima beef with slow-simmered shallot in red wine served with potato soufflés. We choose one of each, and both are a slight let down, they are really rich which we struggle with after the richness of previous courses. The beef is a little tough but flavoufull, and the duck, is well duck.

6. Le Rhum Ambre – rum punch with fragrance of exotic spices, this is almost a pre-dessert and it is very, very good. It is like a little rum baba immersed in a intense sauce with popping candy - very moreish indeed.

7. La Symphonie des Douceurs – dessert trolley. And what a magnificent trolley it is. An incredible choice, with lots of takes on classic French desserts, a lovely poached pineapple, a great millfeulle, iles flotante, a Paris brest and a classic baba-a-rhum. And that is just what I hoovered up!

And then to end coffee or tea and the final trolley, a wonderful selection of petite fours….I am restricted to a mere eight by my spoilsport wife.

Overall a good meal with some excellent food, great service and very fine wine. But it is really, really expensive our meal came in at MOP5,730 (US$720) for two with wine which was MOP1,600. If the room was better, if the ambiance was better it maybe OK value (although the wine needs to come down by 50%), so whilst I loved the food I am not going to rush back. I need to try JR in HK and do a compare and contrast.

[Dustin_E]

Have you (or anyone) been to other Robuchons? i'm wondering how this compares to branches in vegas or tokyo. i really liked my meal in vegas a couple years ago, and had heard this branch was a lot stronger

(from here: http://www.andyhayler.com/show_restau...

)

but that was the old location -- unsure if the cooking standard and chef are the same.

I was trying to decide if i should go here in a few weeks, given i'm rarely in hong kong, but visit vegas somewhat regularly.

thanks.

[Bu Pun Su]

I would say the one in Macau is about or almost the same level as the one in Vegas. As a matter of fact, all 4 Robuchon fine dining are consistently good - but never really producing "out of this world" dishes/meal experience

Robuchon dome, for sure, is "the cheapest" one among those four. Execution is still good overall, though a bit coarse at times. Personally, Chateau Robuchon Tokyo is my favorite - Japanese ingredients plus Chef Verzeroli (Passard's former apprentice) are the best combination.

[Charles Yu]

Food presentation might be more fancy looking these days. However, taste-wise, nothing beats some of his classical dishes when he was ' actually manning the kitchen ' at Jamin, Paris!! Ah!! Those were the days!!

[Dustin_E]

I hear a lot of people say that, actually.

Are the dishes served at his restaurants now updated versions of his classics at Jamin? Or are they totally different?

Sometimes Joel Robuchon is in the kitchen visiting his various restaurants -- do you have any idea if the cooking improves when this is the case?

[Charles Yu]

Haven't seen some of his classic dish like 'Tarte Fin Au Truffle' for a long while!! Sometimes, I did experience a Parisian dish like the super creamy Sea Urchin soup in places like L'Atelier in Tokyo. And, of course those 'arteries clogging' creamy mash potatoes has been on his menus for years!!
When he came to Macau to preside over the all Truffle tasting menu at Galera Robuchon, the meals were absolutely magnificent.

[Dustin_E]

do you know if he usually announces beforehand that he'll be at one of his restaurants cooking?

i'm leaning towards visiting here -- even if it is roughly the same as vegas.

do you have any suggestions for lunch menu vs a la carte vs set menu? how are the wine pairings? i'm leaning towards full degustation menu, no wine -- assuming this is served at lunch time.

i'll likely visit caprice the day before or after -- don't know if some dishes are better at one than the other.

[Charles Yu]

Lunch at Macau's Robuchon must be one of the best value Michelin 3* meal anywhere!!!

[Bu Pun Su]

I'm 2nd to this statement
Even the restaurant said lunch is almost always full whereas for dinner, it would be lucky if they can fill half of those seats

[Dustin_E]

thanks -- sounds like lunch is the way to go. especially because there's no lunch served in the vegas branch, and lunch makes it more likely i'd have an appetite for a somewhat ambitious dinner back in hong kong.

[Uncle Yabai]

Their wine list is second to none, and used to be quite reasonably priced. Of course, that's before Stanley Ho and the four sisters figured out that mainlanders will pay anything for the right label (and unlikely to be some counterfeit rebottled plonk), at the expense of those who go there for the food and wine and not the showing off.

[Peech]

from what I hear (comments on the pictures I took in the cellar) there are likely a few suspect bottles as well… Oh well, when you have a vast collection like that, I guess it's inevitable...