(Last updated: November 9, 2023)
Full disclosure, my lunch at Five Foot Road was my first fine dining experience in about 3 years, which may colour a whole lot of this review. Without a doubt the service throughout was extremely warm and worthy of a Michelin starred restaurant. As for the food, that’s a much more difficult assessment to make.
Visiting in July of 2023, I tried their 5 course set lunch that ran a very respectable $298, which also included signature tea, fruit and desserts.
Point blank, the food reminded me of what’s commonly available in Sichuan street markets. While most of the selections were executed well, they lacked the skill and sophistication required to make a Lièvre à la Royale, Canard à l’Orange, and Chaud Froid, or whatever else Joel Robuchon and his Michelin buddies typically charge thousands of Mops for.
Rather I was left with complimentary bowlfuls of peanuts and set course openers like beef innards in chili and peppercorn sauce, and winter melon soup with ham.
Full credit to the beef innards for being fat and glorious, but they were basically just soft, fresh slabs of meat soaked in home made chili oil.
The winter melon soup was assuredly the most complicated dish served and my favourite one of the meal. Using double boiled chicken soup as the base, it was thick but also light, and damn damn smooth, showing beautiful balance and texture.
I wasn’t as impressed with the sliced pig tongue, since the pork took a back seat to the sauce, which dominated all. The pork needed more oomph to fight back against the strong spicy sauce, but it just never matched up.
The vegetables came out next and were thoroughly unimpressive, a throwaway plate if I’ve ever seen one. I mean, a Michelin starred restaurant needs to do more than just slice up a few vegetables and call it a day (and a dish).
That bit of insignificance led into the main dish of the set lunch: the chilled flat noodles with shredded chicken, cucumber and sesame sauce in chili oil.  What it needs to be is five times bigger and served as a main for $288 and I’d be at Five Foot Road once a week chowing it down. The texture on the sauce was so smooth that it just made the noodles melt in the mouth, while the cucumber and chicken provided the perfect taste to balance everything out.
The seasonal fruit plate ended things nicely as did their collection of petit four desserts, which included cookies made from their chili oil mixed with spicy peppercorn and some of the most bitter chocolate known to Man. A creepy sounding combination to be sure, but they did taste surprisingly good.
Like most set meals in life, some selections hit at Five Food Road and others missed.  The sum of the experience though was extremely positive, mostly due to the outstanding service, awesome complimentary wolf berry and chrysanthemum tea, and various conversations about Macau, Zhuhai, and the state of the world with their awesome waitress Linsey, who also explained each dish meticulously and well.
For visitors in Macau who haven’t had much experience with spicy Sichuan food, I would wholeheartedly recommend Five Foot Road as a reliable venue to try it out. The Michelin digs and service are both in full force, which should make up a little for the somewhat simple, straightforward fare.
I know I’ll definitely be back!
