(Last updated: December 31, 2025)
I hadn’t been back to A Vencedora in over a decade, and after this visit, I’m reminded why.
This time around, I ordered just two dishes — Minchi ($62) and Roasted Pork Loin ($85) — and neither came close to justifying a return.
The Minchi was particularly rough, despite its strong online reputation. Watery, onion-heavy, and almost completely tasteless, it was as pointless as it was perplexing. Minchi should be juicy and comforting; this was neither. 1 star.
The Roasted Pork Loin fared slightly better, but only just. It’s a thick, generous cut of meat, but cooked a touch too dry, with very little to lift it beyond sheer quantity. Ironically, the best part of the plate was the salad on the side. Serviceable, but uninspiring. 2.5 stars.
Taken together, it reinforced a feeling I’ve had for years: A Vencedora has history, but the food itself has never been the reason to come back. Even after I first visited in 2013, I never recommended it to anyone I knew, never brought friends, and never felt the urge to return. It functioned more as a cultural snapshot, a working-class Portuguese–Macanese restaurant frozen in time, than as a place I’d actively choose to eat.
That snapshot still has value, and might be enough to lure curious diners through the door. But judged purely on what’s coming out of the kitchen today, it’s hard to make a case for A Vencedora as a destination restaurant.
My original review from 2013 is below. Reading it now, it feels more charitable than my current view. After all, it did take me a decade to go back, and there probably won’t be a next time.
***
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 brothers from Macau, it’s a fine example of a good local working class joint, the kind you see all over the city.
With basic wooden tables and grey metal chairs, it’s far removed from the glitz and glamour of expensive casino restaurants. This is 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 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 undercooked (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.
