May 26, 2008
Ristorante Fernando
Every tourist destination has a restaurant famous to tourists as the "authentic" purveyor of the local cuisine, but locals look down upon as a tourist trap. Fernando's restaurant is kinda like that in Macau. I'm not usually a fan of touristy places, but Fernando's is a local institution, and it's not as if we had anything better to do in Macau until our late flight out, after I got wiped out at the gaming tables.
It was an expensive cab ride from The Venetian in Cotai out to Hac Sa Beach on the very edge of Coloanne. Got there just as they were opening up for lunch and there wasn't any of the big crowds that some reviews had warned about. The restaurant is just as famous for its relaxed beach-side setting as for its rustic Portuguese food, but it had rained hard earlier in the morning so it wasn't quite practical to sit outside. The red-checked plastic tableclothes and cheap pitchers of sangria wouldn't be out of place along Portugal's Atlantic coast, although the Cantonese-speaking waitresses break the illusion a bit.
We ordered a simple salad, a quarter roast chicken on fries, and a plate of Macau-fried-rice with Portuguese sausage. Nothing fancy, but solidly satisfying, and it's unique enough to us. The meal comes with excellent gluten-rich home-baked bread. And a whole big pitcher of cool, fresh-mixed sangria, complete with half a bottle of red wine and a couple shots of brandy.
I should've just ordered glasses of the wine punch instead, but we managed to finish the entire pitcher by the end of the meal. The fruity sweetness of the mixed punch and the cool drink in the sultry air fooled the wife into chugging way too much sangria. Thankfully the beach was nearby so we could rest on a bench and let her peacefully sleep off the alcohol in the seaside breeze.
Ristorante Fernando
Praia de Hac Sa, 9
路環黑沙海灘9號
Colôane, Macau
+853-28882264