Macau loses two Michelin star restaurants in 2021

The Macau casino sector has seen a decline in the number of Michelin-starred restaurants at its casino resorts.

GGR Asia reports the latest edition of the Michelin Guide Hong Kong Macau revealed 18 restaurants in Macau boasting a Michelin star, down from 20 in the previous year.

All the still-listed eateries are located inside a casino hotel or resort.

Macau had again three restaurants awarded three stars.

It is Michelin’s top accolade for food that it considers “exceptional cuisine”.

Two of the outlets, French favourite Robuchon au Dome, and a Chinese fine dining outlet The Eight, are at Grand Lisboa casino hotel, owned by gaming operator SJM Holdings.

Jade Dragon, a Cantonese-cuisine restaurant at City of Dreams Macau, a casino resort run by Melco Resorts and Entertainment also kept its three-star rating.

Missing from the 2021 list of two-starred venues is The Tasting Room, a French contemporary restaurant at City of Dreams Macau.

In May, Melco Resorts closed that eatery linked to the Revamp of Nuwa, a hotel at the City of Dreams complex.

Macau establishments retaining two Michelin stars for 2021 included: Alain Ducasse at Morpheus, described as a French contemporary eatery and based at the Morpheus hotel tower, also at City of Dreams; and Feng Wei Ju, a Sichuan-style Chinese restaurant at Galaxy Entertainment Group’s StarWorld Macau.

Also retaining two stars respectively were: Golden Flower and Wing Lei, two Chinese restaurants at the Wynn Macau resort, operated by Wynn Macau; Mizumi, a venue specialising in Japanese cuisine and based at the same property; and Sichuan Moon, a Chinese-cuisine restaurant at Macau casino resort Wynn Palace.

In November, Wynn Macau confirmed that Golden Flower had been “temporarily closed during the pandemic period,” and would reopen “when visitor volumes were more normalised”.

On Wednesday, a notice on the restaurant’s website said the venue was “currently closed until further notice.”

In Michelin’s one-star category, Wing Lei Palace, a Cantonese fine dining venue at Wynn Palace, won its first one-star rating.

The other one-star eateries retained in the 2021 guide included Lai Heen, a Cantonese restaurant at Galaxy Macau; and the Italian cuisine venue 8 ½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana also at Galaxy Macau; Pearl Dragon, a Cantonese establishment at Studio City, a Cotai property majority-owned by Melco Resorts; Ying, a Cantonese restaurant at Melco Resorts’ Altira Macau, Taipa.

Dropped from this year’s one-star rating list were Shinji by Kanesaka, a Japanese sushi restaurant at City of Dreams that was also closed because of the renovation of the Nuwa hotel tower; and King, a Cantonese-style establishment in the AIA Tower in downtown Macau.

Macau registers first virus case in months

Macau has registered its first coronavirus case since June, in a returned passenger arriving last Thursday.

Asgam reported on January 23 that a government issued statement revealed the patient, a 43-year-old female, had travelled from Dubai to Singapore before landing in Tokyo where she joined the return flight back to Macau.

Although asymptomatic, she tested positive to two rapid nucleic acid tests as required for all passengers and crew.

The woman was sent to Macau’s Conde de S.Januario Hospital and is now in isolation, as are eight passengers seated nearby who are awaiting the results of further tests.

There were a total of 109 passengers on the two Air macau flights, with the rest transported on Thursday to Grand Coloane Resort to begin their 21-day mandatory hotel quarantine.

As per new government guidelines, they will also be required to undergo an additional seven days of “self-health management.”

As previously reported, the government implemented a closed loop system for the return of the passengers to prevent the potential spread of COVID-19 into the community.

There had originally been 115 passengers booked on the flight but five opted not to travel while one passenger was refused entry after testing positive ahead of the home flight.

The passengers came from several high risk countries including the United Kingdom, Portugal, Switzerland, Ireland, the United States and Japan.