Jade Dragon, Macau - Oh so fine

Jade Dragon signature fried rice with prawn, Sakura shrimp, conpoy and roasted goose

As part of my junket* in Macau, I got to visit Jade Dragon, City of Dreams Macau's signature Cantonese restaurant. I'd heard lots of great things about it - Tatler Top 20 and Best Dim Sum, Michelin-starred, etc. - so I was excited to try it out myself.

Signature Tiger Prawn Dumpling

We went for lunch, so that we could try out the dim sum. The signature dumpling can be ordered individually, hence the precious looking presentation above. It one-ups the textbook-perfect har gow, with its vegetable tinged wrapper and fancy tiger prawns, although it is really only visually more different than a classic prawn dumpling.

Char siu so (barbecued pork pastries)

A childhood favourite, these were impressive, with a delicately flaky pastry that was just substantial enough to hold everything together and not fall apart after the first bite. It was piping hot, which I also love - too many dim sum places seem to think that non-steamed dishes deserve to just sit around - and there were just enough char siu strips inside to make it slightly chunky. The filling had just the right amount of sauce and it wasn't too sweet either. I'm salivating just thinking about it.

Xiaolongbao (Shanghainese pork soup dumplings)

I don't remember why I ordered xiaolongbao. Strictly speaking they shouldn't be on dim sum menus as it's not Cantonese, but hey, we appropriated puff pastry so why not something from a few provinces north... This xlb offered no ugly surprises - it was on point, but in a (my) perfect world the pork soup could have tasted cleaner and sweeter (porky-sweet, not sugar-sweet).

Stir-fried wagyu

We finished up with a stir fried Wagyu and the Jade Dragon fried rice which featured both fresh large prawns and fried sakura prawns. The latter was quite successful, but to me, while tasty, both lacked a little wok hei.

Petit fours, Chinese style

What's really cute is that the meal ends with complimentary petit fours with a lot of "Asian" ingredients, eg. black sesame macarons, and little milk tea and soy bean milk ice-creams (not pictured, but they were delish).

Overall, a very high quality Cantonese restaurant (no surprises there!) and a must-stop when in Macau. I'm kicking myself till this day that I forgot to order char siu, but that's a good excuse as any to go back, teehee...

Jade Dragon
Level 2, The Shops at The Boulevard
City of Dreams
Cotai
Macau
+853 8868 2822
Open: lunch & dinner daily

* I paid for none of these meals, but I asked (and was granted permission, thank you CoD) to book and go anonymously, which is the way some restaurant guides work - take from that what you will - so it's good enough for greedy ol' me.