In the face rising competition in the local food and beverage market, the original Cotai strip Grand Waldo casino and hotel is aiming its repackaged lobby restaurant at western visitors and Macau’s youth.

The Le Cafe eatery has moulded its new menu around the experience of its executive chef Ronald Ma, who has merged some of his favourite dishes to create a “fused” dining experience.

The restaurant has given the world wide trend of fusing dishes from various culinary traditions a local twist.

“We have combined some of the most popular French and Portuguese dishes with typical Chinese ingredients and vice versa,” said Grand Waldo‘s food and beverage manager, Christopher Goh.

“We want to offer our guests something fresh, something they haven’t tried before.”

Ma has created an extensive menu around the base ingredients of fruit and seafood. A locally born chef who was trained in the art of Chinese food preparation, Ma honed his skills in western style cooking while working in the mainland.

“The restaurant I worked for in Zhuhai often entertained western politicians and businessmen,” he said.

“It was here I honed my skills in cooking western dishes, particularly French food.”

In the refurbished restaurant running off of the main hotel lobby guests can begin their “East meets West culinary experience” with a selection of appetisers and salads ranging from 48 patacas for “prawns stuffed in a guava” to 188 patacas for a “king prawn salad”.

The presentation of the food in a piece of whole fruit is typical of the restaurants style.

“Chinese love to present their food in fruit so we have taken that idea and combined it with some dishes from other cultures,” said Mr Goh.

A number of the five available soups on the menu reflect this philosophy.

A traditional French lobster bisque is served in a papaya and a hollowed out coconut is used to present a minced pigeon soup.

With a maximum capacity of 40, the refurbished corner restaurant provides an intimate setting for a lunch or dinner.

A black on gold carpet bordering on a garish casino look is offset by a simple table setting with burgundy and cream table cloths and elegant faded gold framed and olive green cushioned chairs.

A feature wall adds a classic touch to the dining room with gold framed black and white photos of the ‘old Macau’ hung on a cream painted wall.

Hand selected ornaments atop a dark wooded cabinet running along the bottom of the photo wall and filling an adjacent shelving block add appealing detail to the room.

The cuisine of choice for Macau’s gamers has previously been low priced noodle and rice dishes that can be devoured quickly and don’t distract punters from the gaming floor.

With the new integrated resorts such as Wynn Macau and the newly opened MGM Grand Macau offering visitors an array of fine dining options, earlier entrants, such as the Grand Waldo, which opened its doors in September 2006, are having to reshape their offerings to compete.

Macau’s new visitors
With a total of eight Chinese eateries and one Japanese restaurant, the Galaxy Entertainment Group owned resort is aiming to attract Macau’s newest groups of visitors with its fusion food restaurant.

“These days we are seeing a lot of visitors from Singapore, Malaysia and even the USA, England and Australia,” said Mr Goh.

“We want to give our visitors an alternative to the casino buffet style of eating, a nice place where they can come and enjoy a relaxing and good meal.”

The Le Cafe is also targeting Macau’s youth, many of whom enjoy relatively well paid jobs with Macau’s new casino resorts.

“We have kept our prices quite low so that the young people can afford to come here for a special night, to celebrate a birthday or to take their boyfriend or girlfriend out,” said Mr Goh.

The mains are divided into seafood, meat and rice and noodle categories ranging from 48 patacas for a “Three treasure dim sum combination to 138 patacas for “Grand Emperor fried rice”.

Chef Ma’s signature dish is the “Baked king prawns with sea urchin sauce”.

Lovers of spicy food will enjoy the “Pan fried lamb in Thai sauce” and the “Crab leg with tee noodle”.

The Alaskan crab legs are served partially encased in the shell, presented over noodles cooked in a Sichuan sauce.

“Sichuan is a traditionally chilli sauce that combines ingredients such as garlic, ginger, Chinese vinegar and a type of seed to really grab the attention of the eater,” said Mr Goh.

However it is during desert that chef Ma really lets his creativity loose.

Diners who order the “Caramel red wine pear” are presented with a red wine soaked pear filed with custard sitting in the centre of a three sided dish. To get to the fruit the eater first has to break through a dome of caramel dripping encasing the plate.

The simple sounding “Lime sherbet” is served in an ice cup illuminated with flashing blues and reds using a technique the chef prefers to keep secret.

Venetian effect
A less than 5 minute taxi ride away from the mega Venetian Macao resort, the Grand Waldo is also benefiting from the more than 6 million visitors it attracted in four months of trading last year.

During holidays and special events, the Waldo is catching some of the overflow of visitors to the resort, said Mr Goh.

The 342 room hotel offers rooms from 1,880 patacas a night for a “superior room” to 28,880 a night for a “presidential suite”.

However it is originality such as the new fusion themed restaurant that the Grand Waldo hopes will continue to attract customers in its own right.

“We have tried to think of something new that no one has done yet, that is how we can compete,” said Mr Goh.

Le Cafe is open room 10am to 10pm and also offers an eight person private room. The hotel runs shuttle buses from the ferry terminal and border gate as well as the Macau Jockey Club in Taipa.

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