Inside the Tower

Our dimsum lunch at La Chine turned out to be a good surprise. We wanted to try something new during our quick stay in Macau and this Chinese restaurant inside The Parisien came into the radar. We figured since we haven't been inside the fake Eiffel Tower in Macau we may treat this as an extra sightseeing stop too. 

We spent the morning in Cotai Strip (for the TeamLab experience at The Venetian) so it's just a quick walk over to The Parisien came lunch hour. While the restaurant entrance was inside the shopping mall, the restaurant is actually inside the Eiffel Tower connected by the foot bridge - yes, think Le Jules Verne but miles away, serves Chinese food instead of French, and sans the Michelin star (at least not yet). 

They seated us after a short wait at the lobby with the table by the window overseeing the garden and the strip. There's a sense of industrial chic to the interior - possibly because of the steel structure at the foot of the tower that went right through the dining area but it looked relaxed and comfortable. The menu resembled just about any high-end Chinese restaurants in the proximity with a la carte selections, set menus and during the day, set of dimsum items. 

Anticipating a long meal later in the evening, we decided to go for a few dimsum courses. We started with the classics like Har Gow and Siu Mai, the moving onto something with a twist. The lotus-leaf wrapped glutinous rice 煎糯米雞 was first done in traditional style with mushrooms, ham and chicken as stuffing, then pan-fried for the crispy crust and topped with braised abalones. The cheung-fun was done with the rice flour noodles mixed with grinded red rice for the color, then wrapped with the crispy you tiao and shrimp. The white turnip pastry was done in the traditional way but shaped like cute little swans in the pond and came piping hot, which is always a bonus. 

The Cabbage Guo Tie 鍋貼小棠菜 was beautifully plated, with the chopped cabbage combined with prawn mousse and pan-friend, then on the side of the plate we were told the chef even wrote a poem using squid ink to complete the presentation. Well I never knew now chef not only need to be good at cooking but be good at calligraphy too. Wish we got more room for more food but at the end we just settled with the dessert of steamed sesame rolls. It's decent but just a tad bit too firm for me. 

Service was exceptionally nice, other than the small hiccup of them unable to find the wine I wanted - they boast their award-winning wine list but they happened to run out the very wine I picked. Oh well - we skipped wine then.   

Overall a decent place for lunch, glad we tried something new and this is definitely somewhere I don't mind coming back to if we are staying in the area. 

When? February 11 2023
Where? La Chine, The Parisian Macao, Estrada do Istmo, Lote 3, Cotai Strip, Macao
Menu Highlights? Pan-fried Lotus Leaf-wrapped Glutinous Rice
Web: www.parisianmacao.com/macau-restaurants/la-chine.html