Sheraton Macao Cotai - Part 1 / 3

I talked about Macau (Macao) in quite a lengthy post previously, mainly about the city as a gaming capital in south east Asia. This time I am going to talk more about it in a slightly different perspective I suppose. I have been to Macau many times but most if not always just day trips because of the convenience of the 24 hours ferry services running between Hong Kong and Macau. I was lucky enough to be invited by the newly opened Sheraton Macao hotel in the Cotai area. What's in the Cotai area? I think it is basically the Macau version of the Vegas strip with countless hotels and casino establishment in the area.  A quick look around you will see countless construction sites nearby with other major hotels planning their new openings in the next few years. The Sheraton Macao Cotai hotel is the largest in terms of number of rooms within the entire Sheraton chain worldwide, with a total of room count of 3,896 rooms situated in its Sky and Earth Tower. With that large number of rooms, there are pros and cons obviously which I will talk about later.

The first thing I noticed when I entered the hotel was the sheer scale of it. The lobby wasn't the largest I have seen but it was the check-in area that truly shocked me! Look at that queuing setup! I suppose if 20% of guests check in together, it would be quite a scene! Imagine if the occupancy rate was about 80% that means 3,896 rooms x 0.80 ~ 3200 rooms ~ 2pax per room ~ 6,400 guests .... okay, yes, a proper queue system is required!!! Oh wait, apparently the weekend we checked in, the occupancy rate was almost 98% !!! (Note: 1,948 rooms of the Earth Tower is yet to be opened, likely in Feb2013, but still ...)

Then again, I was glad and happy for the 98% occupancy rate because without that I would not be upgraded from a Club Deluxe room to ... one of the only 8 Presidential Suites!!!!!! How does it feel staying in the Presidential Suite all by myself? Of course it was ... NICE ... but to be honest, even if I am traveling with my girlfriend, this is a bit too much, too big to a point I feel slightly lonely and overly quiet in that huge suite with 2 en suite bedrooms + living room + media room + meeting room + kitchen and .... a treatment room!!!! if you are traveling as a couple, I suggest to go for the Club Deluxe Suite which you can check out on Dorothy Ma's post. I was too lone and hungry that night I went to her room to order room service at 2am! Her room was much more cozy for couples! If you are traveling as a family, of course Presidential Suite is an option! :) Or perhaps the Ambassador Suite which is slightly smaller but enough for a family. Let me show you what I mean. My DSLR lens was not wide enough to take interior images so I used my iPhone instead so please excuse the lower resolution for the following interior shots. :)

Living Room(s)? 

Media Room (controlled by Crestron central remote control) 

Meeting Room? Dining Room? 

Treatment Room! yes a treatment room! 

Master Ensuite Bedroom with OSIM foot massage device!!!

Master En suite Bathroom with Bathtub and .... waterproof Crestron remote for TV in bathroom! (shower room on the side as well)

Guest Room

Guest Room Ensuite Bathroom 

 Now you can imagine how big the suite was right? It took me 15 mins to decide which room I should sleep in, the master bedroom or the guest room closer to the entrance? Oh and I did take a bubble bath! they have everything for the guests!

Most of the other rooms of different categories are quite spacious but my favourite is still the Club Executive Suite. Again, check our Dorothy Ma's post for more details. Other than that, one of the room categories I really liked was the Family Room! Not many hotels nowadays would offer family room  and even if they do it would simply be like connecting rooms and similar. However, here at Sheraton, they put some efforts into making a family room a truly family room in my opinion.

I was  quite surprised to see very cute bunk beds as well as little potty for kids in the bathroom!

    

They also provide kids amenities as well. I didn't show the image here but they also have bathrobes for kids!

Even in the 3 different pool areas, they have special facilitates for kids!

For those into exercises, their gym is quite large with the usual equipment as well. 

I mentioned about the sheer scale of this hotel in terms of room numbers, one thing worth noting is that even if you are staying at the Club level, having Club access for daily breakfast  there can be a chance that you have to wait in a queue in the morning depending on the occupancy rate during your stay I suppose. However, no worries, you have the option of heading to one of their restaurants as an option. We picked the Feast which is basically a buffet restaurant. I will cover more on that in my next few posts. Enough to digest for now right? :)

Sassy’s Ultimate Christmas Gift Guide for Guys! (2012)!

Last year I contributed to the Sassy's Ultimate Christmas Gift Guide for Guys and this year, let's keep the momentum and check out what sort of cool items I have recommended for this year's Christmas! My favourite got to be the Herb-savor but apparently it is no longer available in Hong Kong so I need to see where else I can get it!! Argh! ... Now that I am into travel, I tend to check out more travel gears and accessories so I will start posting more frequently on food, travel and gadgets, I promise. I have been trying to adjust and settle in at my new role as a Travel Consultant with Flight Centre Hong Kong and I can confidently say that I am now ready to get back into action to ... SHARE! Want a sneak preview of what's to come? click to Read More! :)

Travel - Macau (Mar 2011)

Macau also known as Macao to many, has become more than just a post Portuguese colony since its handover to China in 1999. It is now known as the Asia's Las Vegas with gambling revenue surpassing the whole Vegas according to many sources. New mega casinos are being built if not already for the next few years and revenue + profits are only expected to increase. I have been to Macau quite a few times over the past year or so but mostly for day trip and solely for food or shows and never really for gambling. Small bets are fun but in Macau, there is no such thing as small bets apparently. Over the years, I have been seeing the minimum bets on a simple Black Jack table increase faster than your heart can handle.  Then again I am not into gambling so not really a concern to me but it is an interesting observation nonetheless. What I am trying to say is not how much the casino industry is booming, everyone knows, but what we have been ignoring is how the huge flood of tourists and development focus have made us forget about the great food scenes in Macau, at least what's left of it. Not to mention how the popularity of some famous eateries have benefited commercially but deteriorated in quality over the years. I was here in Macau over the weekend sometime in March 2011 for my friend's wedding and instead of the popular or upscale eateries (which are over-abundance by the way), I went for some rather down to earth neighborhood joints for my daily food intake.

Beijing Kitchen 滿堂彩 (Macau)

After my recent visit to Beijing Kitchen (滿堂彩) at Grand Hyatt Macau, it marked the end of my Hyatt's Peking Duck journey at three distinct locations across the Greater China region, namely, Sha Tin 18 (沙田18) at Hyatt Regency Hong Kong as well as Made in China (长安壹号) at Grand Hyatt Beijing. All 3 restaurants specializes in what we commonly known as Beijing cuisine 京菜 which is heavily influenced by Shandong cuisine 魯菜, the technically correct reference as to one of the Chinese Four or even Eight Regional Cuisines. I will leave this topic to a future post, for the time being I will focus on Peking duck. So in addition to the same cuisine specialization, all the 3 restaurants of different geographic locations have almost the SAME decor, same utensils and the identical semi-open kitchen design. Talk about uniformity and consistency ... except on the services aspects which I will shamelessly write about in details because I had two cups of coffee at 9pm and I am pretty awake now at 3:10am!

Macau Dec 2009 - Day Trip (Eat, Eat and Movie!)

It was the fact that I was away from Hong Kong during a festive day that brightened up my day, even if it was a short day trip, it was still something to look forward to. It was on Christmas eve 2009 that my friend and I made a day / evening trip to Macau. We took the 4:30pm ferry over, just before the rush hour crowds. Did I ever mention I don't like queues and crowds???

Our first stop after arrival was the famous Margaret's Cafe & Nata. We arrived just in time before it close at 7:00pm. No fancy decor or anything, it was just a normal down to earth, neighborhood cafe with a few seats outdoors. The environment gave me a very warm and homely feeling, loved it!



One of the most famous items here at Margaret's Cafe & Nata was the Portuguese styled Egg Tart. I have no idea about its origins but according to wiki, it was "evolved from pastel de nata, a traditional Portuguese custard pastry that consists of custard in a crème brûlée-like consistency caramelized fashion in a puff pastry case." The outer crust of the egg tart was crispy and had a slightly chewy / elastic texture to it. The custard was wonderful because it was neither too sweet nor too creamy.



The Milk Tea was another famous offering but I personally find it to be rather ordinary. From the taste of it, the tea base seem to be made from Red Rose tea leaves. It was definitely a homemade style milk tea. I don't know, it was rather watery to me. (I don't think we should compare this with the Hong Kong styled milk tea because it was prepared differently for sure)



After this little pit stop, we walked around the area and snapped a few photos. The area around the Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro is one of the busies spots in Macau and it was packed with people all waiting for the countdown to Christmas in front of the blue XMAS tree! (so wrong! I want a good old green XMAS tree!)



I always find it intriguing to find different kinds of contrasting elements to its buildings, cultures and social values during my visits to Macau. The city is focus on the entertainment industry, particularly the gambling / casino businesses but if you talk to locals, almost 10 out of 10 would not go or have never been to one of the recent casino establishments in the city they lived in. Many businesses continued to operate in the same way as a few decades ago while part of the town has embraced technologies to an extreme, ie: surveillance? Ah well, you get to picture and what I am trying to say. The city has been focusing on tourism and the gaming industry but there seems to be an increasing imbalance in its social and culture structure IMHO.







On our way to dinner at Fat Siu Lau, we stopped by a restaurant that sells "shark fins in a bowl" 碗仔翅. I could not control myself but to try one and eat on the sidewalk of the street. It was alright, a bit too watery.



Don't be fooled by the front door of Fat Siu Lau 彿少樓; it was one of the oldest Portuguese restaurant in Macau but the interior was not that old at all. You are in for a little surprise for sure!



The 1st Floor looked promising as we wanted to enjoy our meal under a rather traditional / cellar like environment. However, out booking was on the second floor.



Wow, the 2nd Floor looked so modern and so CHINESE! I thought I entered into a different restaurant especially when I was being presented of the cellar like decor on the first floor! I felt a bit ... being cheated!



The 3rd Floor carried a fine dining decor if you ask me.



Anyhow, time for dinner!! The bun was EXTREMELY crisp. I tried to cut it in half without resulting with a table full of bread crumbs and flakes. I FAILED!



(1) Ox-Tail Soup (Sopa de Rabo De Boi)
A bit too watery and flavor was rather weak.



(2) Fresh Beef Tea (Caldo de Vaca)
It came in a cup and I really don't if I should call this a soup or tea. It was interesting indeed. I was expecting a strong herbal taste to it but to my surprise it tasted like beef broth, only lighter.



(3) Pork Chop Baked on Rice (Arroz de Costeletas No Forno) 焗骨飯
It tasted JUST LIKE baked pork chop rice in many of the Hong Kong local restaurants but only way better and LESS greasy! The fried rice in the hot clay pot was dry and chewy, a wonderful fried rice by itself. Another delightful surprise was the sauce, it was not sour at all and carried traces of sweetness to it. Thumbs up and must try indeed!



(4) Superb roasted pigeons marinated after our over 100 years secret recipe (Pombo Assado)
100 years secret recipe?? humm ... I really did not find anything overly surprising with the sauce or the pigeons. The skin was not as crisp as I expected as well. Meat was tender but not as extraordinary as the dish name would have suggested.



(5) Braised ox-tongue served with its own juice (Lingua de vaca Guisada)
The sauce was very watery but the ox-tongue was alright with the right tenderness to it. (I will think Tai Ping Koon ox-tongue is better!)



(6) Baked vegetables in Portuguese style (Vegetais Ao Forno A moda Portuguesa)
This dish was just plain BAD! The sauce was WATERY and RUNNING! The sauce was as thin as the soup I had! The flavors of the sauce was ... weak, very weak! Extremely disappointed! I think the dish should be called, Blanched vegetables in lightly flavored water!



Fat Siu Lau 彿少樓:
Rua da Felicidade No.64, Macau
Tel: (853) 2857 3580

Likes:

• Interesting decors / themes by floors
• Pork Chop Baked on Rice (Arroz de Costeletas No Forno) 焗骨飯 - not greasy, sauce wonderful - not to sour, fried rice - dry and chewy by the grain!

Dislikes:

• Baked vegetables in Portuguese style - sauce was a joke! watery, running, weakly flavored!
• Ox-Tail Soup (Sopa de Rabo De Boi) - too watery

Avg Spending: HKD 200 - 300 per person

Before heading back to Hong Kong, we headed to the Macau Tower to watch a movie. Only HKD40 to watch Sherlock Holmes! The so-called cinema was not really theater, more like a converted auditorium with plenty of seats but a rather small screen. Oh well, it was fun going all the way to Macau to watch a movie on Christmas eve and to say Merry Christmas on the dot somewhere away from Hong Kong!