(Last updated: July 2, 2026)
This review was originally based on seven visits spread over two years. Unfortunately, Palace Restaurant has since changed chefs, and after returning recently, I came away wondering what the hell had happened.
Three of the four dishes ranged from disappointing to downright baffling. Even the ribeye, once among my favourite steaks in Macau, had been completely reworked and not for the better.
Palace drops immediately from 4 stars to 3. That’s a real shame because under the former chef, the duck breast, spring chicken and original ribeye were genuinely among the best dishes in Macau.
The Pata Negra 36 Months ($248) arrived absolutely swimming in oil. That’s not something you normally associate with Pata Negra, and seeing it paired with winter melon and vegetables immediately raised alarm bells. You keep chewing, waiting for that rich, nutty payoff great Iberico ham is famous for, but it never comes. Quite simply, it’s the worst Pata Negra I’ve had in Macau. Nobody serves it like this for a reason. 1 star
The Macau Baked Spanish Iberico Pork Chop Rice ($238) wasn’t much better. Wow again. Are we in one of those Hong Kong-style cafés I spend half my life trying to avoid? It’s actually one of the Chef’s Recommendations, which makes it even harder to understand. It’s basically pork chop on rice buried under tomato sauce, the sort of thing I’d expect from Ma Kok Meng Ke or Hei Lin Cafe, not one of Macau’s best hotels. The photo itself tells the story. It just looks cheap, and tasted that way too. 1.5 stars
The US Grain-fed Prime Ribeye Steak ($488) was ironically the best dish of the meal, but it’s still several steps down from the outstanding ribeye reviewed below, which has now disappeared from the menu. The kitchen has gone in a completely different direction, relying much more heavily on marinades and sauce instead of letting the beef do the talking.
The beautiful char has gone, the finish isn’t nearly as satisfying, and what was once one of my favourite steaks in Macau has become merely a decent one. They had a winning formula and, for reasons I’ll never understand, decided to change it. 3.5 stars
I hope this was merely a rough start for the new chef, but nothing about the meal inspired much confidence. For now, Palace Restaurant remains a magnificent room in search of its former kitchen.
***
Located inside my favourite hotel in Macau, the immaculately restored Hotel Central, Palace Restaurant is a place I genuinely want to love. For decades it had been one of the city’s most revered teahouses, before re-opening as a European restaurant in 2024.
The room is magnificent. High ceilings, chandeliers, white tablecloths, vintage sketches of Macau and an old wooden bar that looks as though somebody pried it out of a Queen’s Road Central clubhouse. It’s somewhere you want to sit for three hours, drinking wine and pretending it’s 1964.
The young staff, dressed in sharp brown waistcoats, take the whole thing seriously. Their English isn’t always perfect, but they work hard, pay attention and seem genuinely proud of the restaurant. My guess is that several are recent graduates of Macau’s excellent UTM school.
So venue, check. Service, check.
Food… that’s where things get complicated.
Across seven visits, Palace swung between outstanding and what on earth is this, sometimes during the same meal. Order correctly and you’re eating at a five-star restaurant. Get it wrong and you’ve landed in a world of hurt.
Let’s start with the showstoppers.
The Pan-Fried Duck Breast ($288) was incredible and easily earned its place among my 10 Can’t Miss Dishes. The meat was soft, moist and outrageously juicy, with the chew and satisfaction of a great steak. I’ve returned for it several times already. 5 stars
The same is true of the Roasted Crispy Spring Chicken ($268), another five-star dish. It takes around 45 minutes, but it’s worth every second. Perfectly crisp skin, fresh, moist meat, and that same “I could keep eating this forever” quality. You
From there, the menu drops a level — still good, just not in the same league.
I almost never order Baked Escargot ($128), so I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. To my surprise, it actually reminded me of high-quality seafood: light, clean, and backed by a terrific tender-chewy texture throughout. Served in their shells over a mashed potato base, everything about the dish tasted incredibly fresh. I’d gladly order it again. 4.5 stars
The Wagyu Ox Tongue Salad ($188) tasted excellent, although I’m still not convinced wagyu tongue needs to exist. The meat was soft, rich and terrific with the simple salad underneath. Unfortunately, there wasn’t nearly enough of it for $188. 4.5 stars for flavour, 3 stars for value.
The US 44 Farms Prime Beef Carpaccio ($188) is lifted by a slightly sour-leaning sauce that meshes beautifully with the beef. 4.5 stars
The Oxtail Soup ($68) was thick enough to qualify as a meal by itself. Deep, beefy and close to a stew, it was exactly what I wanted from it. 4 stars
I’m less enthusiastic about the Smoked French Pigeon ($188), which is supposedly a signature but doesn’t eat like one. The texture is fine — moist and juicy enough — but the flavour is restrained. A little sweet, mildly smoky, but never fully arriving. Not bad, just forgettable. 3 stars.
Unfortunately, that’s where the good news ends.
The Canadian Savoury Pork Chop ($268) is enormous but has almost no flavour. It’s also not like any pork chop I’ve ever had in Canada either. Big portion, tiny impact — a sizeable nothing burger. 2 stars
The Portuguese Coconut Chicken ($148) is a strange one. It presents like a curry, but they ask how you want it cooked, which is odd when there’s only one correct answer for chicken: properly. You wait a long time, it arrives without rice (which it desperately needs), and the coconut barely registers. Moist chicken, yes, but call it what it is: an underwhelming curry that needs a rethink. 2 stars
The Australian Wagyu Lamb ($328) is even weaker, especially given it’s a “chef recommendation.” It takes ages, arrives heavily seasoned yet somehow still bland, and the texture is honestly unpleasant. Nothing about it justifies the price. 1.5 stars
The Lobster Bisque ($298) completely collapses under its own gimmick. The soup arrives sealed inside what’s essentially an enormous croissant bread bowl, and the ratio feels totally backwards. Instead of enjoying the bisque itself, you spend the entire meal fighting through an absurd quantity of buttery pastry. By the end, my stomach genuinely hurt. The soup underneath is actually decent, but there simply isn’t enough of it to justify the sheer bread monstrosity surrounding it. 1.5 stars
(And not to say I told you so, but I’m pretty sure both the Portuguese Coconut Chicken and Australian Wagyu Lamb have been permanently removed from the menu.)
All of that would be easier to forgive if the set meals ($238 per person) were a safer bet, but they’re not.
My set started with a Salmon Tartare that tried very hard to be fancy, with mint and leaves mixed in, but didn’t taste particularly fresh. No spark, no life, just a cold mound of ambition. 2 stars
The Roasted Tomato Bisque saved the set meal. Thick, creamy and properly rich, it was excellent from the first spoonful to the last. The scallop in the middle was even better. Somewhere between 4 and 4.5 stars.
The main French Red Mullet slid back into mediocrity. Soft fish, but a sauce that didn’t do anything to lift it. It tasted like something I used to throw together at home years ago: fine, somewhat edible, but mostly boring and bland. 2.5 stars
That’s the story of Palace Restaurant right now. Stunning room, charming service, and a handful of dishes that are legitimately among the best in town. But the kitchen can be wildly inconsistent, and the set meals in particular are bad bets.
By all means, absolutely stay at Hotel Central. Enjoy the building. Have a drink on the rooftop. And when you eat at Palace, stick to the dishes that shine.
