The last time I sat in this seat, I watched the same fountain show. Back then this place was called Wing Lei Palace, and Chef Tam Kwok Fung was in the kitchen.
A few years on, the restaurant has a new name and a new direction, but the view stays the same. Beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows, the Performance Lake still rises and falls with the music, its shifting lights and the neon of Cotai across the water folding into the glass. Inside, it's the samejade-green palace — gold threaded through emerald, auspicious cloud motifs tucked into the details, as if a Jiangnan water town had been lifted and set down in Macau. This time I came alone. With fewer distractions, I could focus on the food and wine in front of me — a much better experience than before.
Lakeview Palace now serves modern Jiangnan cuisine, built on Jiangsu and Zhejiang flavours with Sichuanese and Cantonese accents. Executive Chef Kevin Zhu comes from Qingyuan in Guangdong. He was trained at Lei Garden in Guangzhou — often called the West Point of Cantonese cooking for its rigour— and studied under Huaiyang master Hou Xinqing. Before joining Wynn, he was the youngest Chinese executive chef in Shangri-La's history. Huaiyang precision, Cantonese fire: you can taste both in this meal.
I ordered the set menu. It started with a glass of champagne, with a cherry pâte de fruit sitting at the bottom of the glass, its sweetness against the acidity of the champagne woke up the appetite.
The first course, Lakeview Palace Platter, arrives as three small bites. Chinese kale, sliced thin, medium-hot, crisp and cold, carrying the scent of green Sichuan pepper oil — an opener that does its job. The eel sachima (a sweet snack in Chinese cuisine made of fluffy strands of fried batter bound together with a stiff sugar syrup) is the clever one: it really does have the texture of the sweet fried dough it's named after, sweet without cloying, but there's a savoury, sea-salt note underneath, closer to chewing dried fish snacks, with a further layer of florals, lemon zest and powdered macadamia. Then the caviar-topped roast duck roll: crisp duck skin first, its fat rendering out, followed by the yielding pull of glutinous rice inside. Gone in one bite.
(From right to left) Crispy Chinese Kale, Crispy Eel, Roasted Duck Roll
Classic double-boiled Yangzhou clear broth pork meatball(Lion's Head), four parts fat to six parts lean. The broth is remarkably light, barely seasoned, yet without a trace of gaminess. The meatball is more tender than I expected — that softness set against green peas bursting one by one in the mouth, a deliberate contrast. On the table sit three house-made chilli sauces. One combines green chilli with Sichuan pepper; a spoonful of it sends anumbing tingle skipping across the lips and tongue, and the salt-heat pushes the meatball's sweetness further forward. Ridiculously good together.
Double-Boiled Yangzhou Clear Broth Pork Meatball
The threadfin comes in an aromatic sour soup built on a tamarillo base.The flesh is so fine you don't have to cut it — it simply dissolves, and the flavour concentrates near the skin. There's lemongrass citrus in the sauce, and the small leaf on top carries something close to wild angelica. Sour, hot, herbal, layer over layer.
Threadfin Fish in Aromatic Sour Soup
Perhaps because I was dining alone, the floor manager came over to chat. I mentioned that I liked threadfin, and the kitchen sent out a second one, cooked differently. They first marinated the threadfin in Huadiao wine with spring onion, ginger and garlic to draw out any muddiness, then smoked it over rice and black tea.This is an old technique in Chinese kitchens: rice, tea leaves and sugar laid in a dry wok, heated until they smoke, the smoke wrapping the ingredient in aroma. The rice and sugar caramelise under high heat — that's where the toffee sweetness comes from — and the tea adds its own layer on top. Camphor-tea duck and tea-smoked chicken work the same way. On threadfin, it gives a faint sweetness and a bouncy, gelatinous skin that reminded me of the smoked duck wings I grew up eating. This is the upside of eating alone: the dish nobody planned for.
Smoked Threadfin Fish
Crispy Wagyu beef with finger lime uses A3, richly marbled, seared dark at the edges, the juices running out between the teeth. The signature sauce is sweet, cut by the acid beads of Australian finger lime, shiso flower and green peas. One small piece is exactly the right amount.
The main is yellow eel Yangzhou fried rice. The eel is stir-fried with a generous amount of white pepper and laid over the rice; the server specifically advised against stirring it in, suggesting instead to spoon from the bottom up so both elements arrive together. The dish's Chinese name, ruan dou(literally "soft bib"), has history behind it — it comes from the Huaiyang classic ruan dou chang yu. Chang yu is eel, and the dish originated in Huai'an, Jiangsu. One says live eels were bundled in cloth slings for blanching; another says the cooked eel back is so tender that when lifted with chopsticks both ends droop, like the bib a child wears. It was the first hot dish served at the inaugural state banquet of 1949, which earned it the nickname "the first dish of the republic," and it's ranked first among Jiangsu's ten great dishes. Lakeview Palace takes the classic apart: eel with Yangzhou fried rice, a mouthful of each. There's a faint note of yellow chives running through it. I don't normally eat chives of any kind, and this sits right at my threshold — here, that same aroma is exactly what strips the muddiness out of the eel.
Yellow Eel Yangzhou Fried Rice
Dessert comes in two parts. First, a rose ding shengricecake (a traditional Chinese pastry) filled with red bean — something like a rose-scented sponge, but denser, not sugary, the red bean opening quietly across the palate. Second, glutinous rice dumplings in osmanthus rice wine lees, three colours — sweet potato, spinach and plain — floating in the bowl. A gentle way to finish.
(Left) Glutinous Rice Dumpling & Osmanthus, (Right) Steamed Rice Cake with Candied Rose
從小在廣州長大的我，對這餐的風味既熟悉又陌生，那種似曾相識或許就是淮粵合流的奧妙之處。餐後有幸能與朱師傅進一步交流，好奇詢問他從市區餐廳到度假酒店，因為客群或地域的不同，如何影響他對菜單的構想及創作。
朱師傅大方分享，市區餐廳對季節性以及選用食材的靈活度，相較下會比度假酒店高。話雖如此，永利集團對餐飲這塊相對重視，讓朱師傅能用更國際化的視野選擇合適的食材，得以盡情發揮，讓料理有機會進一步升華。
位處澳門，進出口各地食材自然不是問題。然而，江南菜追求的是地方性、時令食材，進出口所需的時間與運輸過程，多少會影響營運端，這也是朱師傅需要進行抉擇的重點之一。他會優先選用揚淮、寧波、上海、江浙滬一帶的食材，若有進出口限制，則退一步選用澳門本地或環球的食材，用「淮」、「粵」或「合流」的技法去呈現菜單。
一般套餐中會涵蓋主廚的精選菜色，不過菜單上單點菜色琳瑯滿目的照片著實讓我心動。其中一道名為「荔茸鮮蝦文武鵝釀關東參」，是朱師傅打磨了近半年才放上菜單的自創菜，也是他現在最偏愛的一道。名字拆開來，藏著他整套「淮粵合流」的心思。「文武」延伸自金陵文武鴨，那道菜出自戲曲的文武之分，用烤過的燒鴨配未烤的麻鴨，一起燉成湯。朱師傅把這個概念挪進自己的菜：內餡同時用上馬岡鵝的燒鵝肉與新鮮鵝肉，一烤一鮮，就是「文武」。手法則借淮揚獅子頭的功夫，鵝肉切丁、上勁摔打，再加馬蹄和鮮蝦，講究的是不見刀工。關東參餵足入味後本就軟爛，外層再裹一層荔茸，炸成蜂窩狀——這是全菜最考技巧的一步。淮揚的細，粵菜的巧，兩個菜系在這一道裡找共同點。用朱師傅自己的話，是想做到 1+1>3。
對於第一次到永翠宮用餐的客人，若是人數足夠，除了「荔茸鮮蝦文武鵝釀關東參」，朱師傅也大推經典淮揚菜之一的「嶺南三寶燉淮揚三套鴨湯」及「翡翠芙蓉文思松葉蟹」。前者是淮揚菜刀工的表現，家禽全部去骨處理後，再一層層套入，家鴨套野鴨，野鴨套鴿子，俗稱「三套」，並在內加入「三寶」的禾稈草、陳皮、鹹欖。後者像一幅素雅又鮮美的畫作。以龍蝦湯及花雕酒清蒸的芙蓉蛋羹鋪底，文思豆腐切絲結合菠菜做成的醬汁，最後覆蓋上去殼的松葉蟹，是店內大受歡迎的一道料理，讓人食指大動。
釀嶺南三寶燉淮揚三套鴨湯 @ 永翠宮
I drank Chinese wine throughout this meal. Since 2024, Wynn has run its own competition, the Wynn Signature Chinese Wine Awards, billed as the largest Chinese wine competition judged to international standards. The first edition drew close to 200 Chinese wineries and over 700 wines, assessed by an international panel led by Masters of Wine; this year marks the third edition. Lakeview Palace's list carries over a hundred of the winning wines — sparkling, white, red, ice wine. Pairing used to mean Old World or New World by reflex. Drinking Chinese wine straight through a Jiangnan menu, seeing Ningxia and Yunnan on a wine list in Macau, doesn't feel like a stretch at all. The dessert wine at the end was a 2024 Amethyard Petit-Manseng Sweet White from Hebei: honeysuckle, honeycomb, warm pastry on the nose, unlike sweet wines from the traditional regions, with a finish of ripe mango. Quietly captivating.
One seat by the lake. The same window, the same fountain show. From Wing Lei Palace to Lakeview Palace, the cooking has moved from Cantonese to Jiangnan, but the obsession with detail hasn't changed. The direction here is clear: a foundation of Huaiyang lightness and precision, with the sharp edges handed over to Sichuanese chilli sauce and sour soup. Next time, I'm still coming alone.
封面：永翠宫
图片：Tina Hsieh
撰文：Tina Hsieh
