A lot of reviews on this website cover more famous highly rated restaurants, but A Vencedora is worth making an exception for. Run by two Macanese brothers, it’s a fine example of a good local working class joint, the kind you see all over the city.
With simple wooden tables and grey metal chairs, it’s definitely the place to go for a true sense of day to day Macau life, not to mention of course, some extremely authentic Portuguese/Macanese food.
I think it also holds the honour of being the second oldest restaurant reviewed on this site. (Only Fat Siu Lau established in 1903 predates it.) Prices also seem to be from another era, as our lunch bill for two only came to $300.
Definitely in the mood to eat, Mu Yi and I ordered two soups, one salad, one codfish ball appetizer and two mains (ribs and beef). We found the portion sizes to be large enough but the food was slightly inconsistent.
The french fries were under cooked (as they often are in Portuguese restaurants) and the rib dish was a little off. I don’t know how to describe it exactly, but it wasn’t the way it usually tastes.
Everything else though was fine and excellent value for the price. Honestly, for $300 you can’t really go wrong.
One thing you need to be warned about is the owner. His service can be a little bit grating at times and I felt he imposed himself on our meal somewhat; a more hands off approach would have been appreciated.
