After all the child-friendly restaurants in KL & Singapore, it was an unpleasant surprise to find that Macao is not as toddler-friendly.
Maybe I was just plain unlucky: we had almost all our meals in The Venetian, where we were staying, for convenience, & most of the restaurants we tried have baby chairs that did not come with safety belts!
No, I don't mean the belts have fallen off or are broken out of misuse. The chairs we were offered were in good condition, partly cos I think The Venetian is still relatively new (only just 1 yr old in Aug).
The safety belts are simply not part of the design of the baby chairs! Some of the chairs, in fact, have no barrier between the legs either! They resemble more like mini chairs than the usual baby chairs I've gotten used to.
While these mini chairs look great, comfortable, & are probably a great hit with older children, they were a source of constant worry to me, making my meals as stressful as not having a baby chair offered. As such, I didn't take as many photos as I wanted too.........
There were several restaurants in The Venetian that specified "No kids allowed". Since we could never manage a proper 3-course fine dining meal with Sam anyway, I didn't really mind giving those a miss, as of those within the casino itself.
Only 1 restaurant was introduced as child-friendly in the guidebook provided in the hotel room: the 3 Monkeys 3猴子餐厅, located in St Mark's Square (shop no. 2412a). However, as hubby & I were not really into western cusine for this trip, we gave it a miss. Sam was highly amused by the giant monkey soft toy at the entrance to the 3 Monkeys though.
We tried all the 3 breakfast places offered in our package:
- blue frog bar & grill 蓝蛙酒吧餐厅 (level 1, shop no. 1037)
There's no baby chair available. Luckily the place is not very popular for early breakfast, so we got one of the semi-circular high-back seats & ordered the set breakfast off the menu, while Sam walked on the cushioned seat.
- Cafe Deco Macao 峰景餐厅 (level 1, shop no. 1036)
The breakfast buffet was very popular, think it's due to the wide range of Chinese & Western styled foods available. We ate there twice, & on both occasions had to wait a bit for the busy waiters to find us a baby chair. Sam had his fill on cornflakes, muffins, pork patties & chicken sausages, & tasted his 1st samosa, which he loved.
- Fogo Samba 巴西扒房 (level 3, in St Mark's Square, shop no. 2412)
I was surprised the Brazillian place offered delicious Chinese congee & fried noodles in their breakfast buffet, besides the usual fruits, salad, bread & pastries.Though the selection is not as wide as Cafe Deco, their unique way of serving freshly roasted meats made it an interesting experience. We had to stop Sam from playing with the tongs used to take the slices of meat the waiters cut directly off the grill at our table. May I add that the roasted pineapple is wonderful when still warm!!!
It was rather fun to have the 'alfresco' dining under the Venetian sky (painted ceiling). At least the background to the photo looks more interesting. ;P
We had our 1st dinner at the Festivita Food Court 琳琅美食广场 (level 3). While there were no baby chairs available, we were able to stack 2 chairs up so Sam could reach the table comfortably.
I loved the wanton soup noodles in Old Neptune Restaurant 海王老记粥面菜馆 (level 1, shop no. 1032). But it was a trifle irritating not to be offered the baby chair: the waitresses assured us the baby chair was too tall for the low wooden table, & that Sam would be better off sitting on cushioned wooden seats with us.As hubby said: why bother stocking the baby chairs then??? But the waitresses were right: Sam was the right height to self-feed (albeit with ceramic bowls & spoon, no plastic ones available), while we adults ate slightly hunched over.
And fortunately for the tanks for live seafood in the restaurant, Sam was happily entertained till the food was served.
Our last dinner was in the Grand Edo Japanese Restaurant 大江户日本料理 (level 3, shop no. 2311). The food was great: big live oysters deep fried Japanese style, plum-flavoured somen (an uncommon item), wonderful yuzu sherbet served in a yuzu (japanese pomelo).
But I couldn't fully enjoy myself, cos part of my brain kept worrying about Sam in his beautiful wooden mini high chair. There was no safety belt, no mini table to the chair - Sam was seated right till the arm rests of the mini chair touched the table. Thank goodness he didn't attempt to rock the chair that night!!!!!
If I had known Macao was not so toddler-friendly, I would have waited till Sam was a bit older before I visit. What a waste of all the good food!!!!
For travel blog on The Venetian, Macao, itself, you can read it here.
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