Robuchon Au Dome
Grand Lisboa Hotel
Avenida de Lisboa
Macau Peninsula

The Robuchon empire spans multiple countries and continents.  I have been fortunate enough to visit his Las Vegas outpost.  Turning a blind eye to the heavy price tag, I found it to be outstanding.  The 3 Michelin stars Joël Robuchon earned in 2010 was well deserved, even as of 2014 when I dined there, at which time the Michelin guide had long since left.  The outposts in Hong Kong and Macau have also achieved the coveted 3 Michelin stars in the recent guidebooks.  As far as fine dining goes, it is definitely an experience to check off your bucket list if you’re ever in this part of Asia.  The location in Macau at the top of the Grand Lisboa Hotel seemed like a particularly special Robuchon that I didn’t want to miss.  The location affords beautiful views of the glitzy glamorous Macau casinos.  Pardon the glare.

The decor of the restaurant is nothing short of opulent and spectacular.  Crystal, gold, and anything else that blings lit the place up from within.  The live piano player really added some life and spark to the place.  He seemed so enthusiastic and happy doing his job.  He made it hard not to smile when passing by.

There were 2 tasting menu options.  The seasonal summer menu at $250 and their prestige menu at $400.  I could sense 3SB was favoring the more decadent prestige menu.  In the spirit of YOLO, I caved and decided prestige was the way to go.

Shrimp Balls crispy risotto, spiced mayonaise
Being a French chef who’s been around for some time, I am always a little surprised and impressed at how modern Robuchon’s cuisine can be.  He has a tendency to incorporate Asian influences without bastardizing the root inspiration.  These fried delights made from shrimp paste and covered in crispy puffed rice were not something you would find in any French restaurant.  I’m sure the mayo had Sriracha.  I would love to walk into the French Laundry kitchen and find a bottle of Sriracha!

The Robuchon experience always gets off to a great start with a bevy baked delights from their bread cart.

baguette, bacon baguette, sourdough, sundried tomato and olive, chestnut and apricot, focaccia
The accent of the waitress was a bit thick, so I couldn’t catch all the different types of bread.  Overall, it was a solid selection that I probably ate too much of considering all the food that was coming.

It was served alongside serving of salted and unsalted butters that were spooned off these massive blocks.

Pour Commencer
Imperial Caviar king crab, crustacean jelly, light cauliflower cream
My first few times eating caviar were bad ones.  It was overpowering with salty fishiness.  Lately, I’ve had better experiences with caviar and found that the high quality caviar tends to have a much more delicate flavor and salt balance.  The dish overall was light and delicate.  No one component shone through, but rather all components worked together.  The cool textures of jelly, cream, and caviar were a great way to start the meal.  This was actually the same dish I had in Las Vegas.

1st Service
Beetroot apple, avocado, young herbs, green mustard sorbet
The next starter dishes came as a trio that highlighted vegetables.  The beets were sweet, while the apples were a bit tart.  The standout component was that green mustard sorbet.  On top of being sour and a little sweet, it was cool and creamy.  It was a very interesting way to bring more flavor to the dish.

King Crab and Avocado Cannelloni citrus, vanilla condiment
The crab was meaty and sweet and paired perfectly with avocado.  These ingredients always go hand in hand.  Hard to go wrong here.

Guariguette Strawberry Gazpacho frozen ricotta, pistachio flakes
I quite enjoyed the combination of strawberries and tomatoes.  It was like a fruitier tomato soup.  The frozen ricotta and pistachios added some contrasting texture and flavor.  

2nd Service
Soft Farm Egg on Florentine mousseline, comté cheese sauce
Another repeat from Las Vegas.  If you like soft runny eggs, this is your dish.  The Hollindaise like sauce in combination with the cheese sauce made for a very rich dish.  I found this version more flavorful than the one I had in Vegas.

Crispy French Frog Legs black garlic and miso sauce
The Asian influences makes it’s appearance again.  The frog legs were delicate and moist.  The crunch was enhanced by the sauces.  Delicious.

3rd Service
Pan Seared Scallop spicy coconut milk, fresh coriander condiment
I was pretty full at this point, but still enjoyed another Asian influenced dish with the meaty sweet scallop.  The coconut milk and coriander took me to Southeast Asia.  Wonderful!

Girolle Mushroom Raviolo light vegetal foam, iberico flavour
This dish had a little bit of everything with the earthy mushrooms, bit of iberico ham and vegetables.  Inside the raviolo itself was more ham and foie gras.  YUMS!

Light Green Pea and Almond Veloute scallion jam, mint
This may have been my least favorite dish.  It was like an almond milk pea soup.  It was very light in flavor, so the onion jam and mint flavors were hard to miss and sometimes too overpowering.

4th Service
Lobster with “chateau chalon” wine and seasonal vegetables
Sadly, I was only able to eat just a bit of this because I was too full.  It was perfectly cooked. The sauce definitely had some Asian flavors going on.  So YUMS!

Black Cod with malabar black pepper sauce, bok choy, coconut foam
The black cod was another seafood Asian influenced delight.  The foams might have been getting a little too much at this point.  The version here was better executed here than in Vegas.

La Plat “Tradition”
Beef Chateaubriand and Foie Gras “rossini” style, vintage port wine, soufflé potatoes
On another sad note, I had just one bite of this and died from food overload.  The beef dish tends to be the most ho hum of dishes in these grand tasting menus.  The cut of beef known as “chateaubriand” or tenderloin filet, was married with foie gras.  Traditionally this dish has the beef and foie gras just resting on the other, but here they were able to make it as though it were seamlessly one cut of protein.

It actually was really one of the best beef courses I’ve had.  The aromas of rosemary wafted through with each bite.  The demi glace had deep meaty flavor enhanced with wine and butter.  It was really the perfect take on a classic French dish.

I had souffle potatoes once before at Paul Bocuse, L’Auberge du Pont de Collognes.  They are deceptively simple.  It’s essentially a fried potato puff.  But it takes quite a bit of skill and practice to double fry these up to a perfect hollow puff.

La Fromage de nos Régiones

I opted out of the cheese course, but had a little taste of 3SB and The Annoyer’s selection.  Comté (lower middle) is always my favorite.  It had delicious umaminess.

Les Desserts

These were some pre dessert options, from which we were able to choose 3.  3SB chose the baba rum which I didn’t care for.  The eggy cake soaked in rum is not my cup of tea.  I quite enjoyed my pick, the raspberry tart.  

Banana Passion Fruit Cream rum granite, coconut foam
The main dessert course was another trio.  I don’t like banana too much but this was a delightful balance of sweet banana with tart passion fruit cream.  The subtle of hint of coconut really turned this into a tropical delight.

Pink Champagne with Light Strawberry Mousse soursop sorbet
Strawberry anything is a sure fire way to my stomach.  I loved the combination of strawberry and soursop, the latter of which is not too familiar to me, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Sugar Sphere light lemon cream, popping candy, fromage blanc sorbet
I was surprised that the trio of main desserts were all fruit based and no chocolate dessert was offered.  Still, I delighted again in this tangy, sweet, lemon treat.  The fromage blanc sorbet helped balance out the citrus and added some creamy cool flavors.  Well done!

Dessert Cart
As if all those desserts were not enough, they provide another cart of sweets.

Since I didn’t get my chocolate fix with previous fruity desserts, I got some chocolate bon bons, a canele, and caramel macarons.

The experience at Robuchon was a home run.  Everything from the service to the food was executed with great attention to detail.  I was cold and asked for a shawl.  They brought one to me that was still wrapped in the plastic!  I hope that was a sign that they had just laundered it and didn’t have to run downstairs to the gift shop to purchase it.  Either way, there was never a whiff of hesitation to meet our every need during our 4 hour meal.  As for the food, it was remarkably similar in quality, taste, and perspective when compared to his Las Vegas outpost.  I figured that with different executive chefs manning each outpost, that the consistency of Robuchon’s vision might falter.  Still, I would give the edge to the Macau outpost over the Las Vegas one.  One, it’s slightly cheaper.  Two, the portions are slightly bigger and better presented.  Three, execution was stronger because I thought some of the dishes in Las Vegas were a little lukewarm.  It is hard to beat the beauty of that opulent dining room as well.  Overall, I was very impressed and pleased with my meal at Robuchon.  I paid a hefty price since I took care of the entire bill for our party of 3.  But it was really my pleasure to treat 3SB and The Annoyer to such a wonderful meal.  I probably won’t come back since the price is so steep, but I highly recommend the restaurant to any visitors to Macau looking for a memorable fine dining Michelin experience.

 

10 – You NEED to eat here
9 – Awesome (factoring price)
8 – Very good
7 – Good
6 – OK
5 – Average
4 – Not bad
3 – Not good
2 – Terrible
1 – Do NOT eat here