The Vic’s Place

Located at the basement’s European-style property, The Rocks Hotel, at Macau Fisherman’s Wharf; The hotel lobby went extremely, beautifully decorated. Along with the spiral staircase and European crystal chandelier embellishments, the lobby doesn’t feel restrained at all.

The Homy ambience

Once stepped into the main dining area, the highlight goes to the wooden furniture themed setups; Embedded with semi-open kitchen, together with Portuguese ceramic tiles and oil paintings, as if we all stepped into a virtual, European nanny’s home. In addition to the natural breeze coming from the horn fan, the cool air scattered throughout the entire restaurant, the new ambience gradually went so familiar to me. This is how the Vic’s Restaurant provides its intimacies to each new patrons. Coupled with the outdoor Portuguese garden terrace; together with the invincible sea view surrounded the whole restaurant, the natural sunlight shine upon the stunning outdoor terrace; It all makes you feel as though you are in Europe. That was indeed an excellent spot to eat and drink under such comfortable environment.

A young chef that master all

Operated by Portuguese Chef Martinho Moniz, he’s an approachable young man. Originate from a small village, Barreira; was born in Nazaré, Central Portugal; Inherited from his family’s secret recipes. A young chef like him, he’s willing to accept different taste preferences and opinions.

At such a young age, he owned years of cooking experiences; and yet, he won lots of international awards and recognition under his traditional family Portuguese cuisines, along with his excellent cooking skills. He also love blending in different types of cuisines, together with his skillset and creativity, aimed creating new, innovative dishes for each different guests. Heavily involved in strict food presentations; He transplanted his hometown’s unique herbs and spices at the Vic’s backyards, making his own Portuguese herbal garden. He successfully migrated his true secret portuguese flavor from thousand miles away.

Surprising dishes

This time highly recommended by my friend, trying their new winter seasonal dishes. That was not one of the normal signature dishes like Spicy tomato Boiled Clams, Salted Grilled Fresh Sea Bass, Lobster Rice, etc; Initiated by chef, start with a cold seafood dish, with tonnes of surprises. The eye-catching, gigantic Portuguese stuffed crab, all placed in the middle of the dining table, well served together with plumpy crab claws and crab paste; Served with crispy special garlic bread. The main tribute goes to special Portuguese Spicy sauce integrations; it all goes absolutely delicious! The cannot missed out Portuguese Sangria drink, was just indispensable. Together with some refreshing salads, fried Bacalhau, or shaved Parma ham; Matching with another Portuguese-style bread as main appetizers, it did filled up half of my stomach already.

Here comes the mains

Right after, here comes the special steak dish; The sauce composes of Portuguese coffee bean, integrated with few dashes of brandy and butter ingredients etc; That was one of the most classic, traditional Portuguese dishes that I ever tried. The strong coffee aroma best match with the steak, having its Jus well kept within; The taste was just outstanding! Right after served out my best favorite Ibérico Pork skewers; skewed with chopped onions, green peppers and red sausages. The pork cubes were tender and soft, burnt slightly with a distinctive tastes; The jus almost burst out from my mouth! Pairing with kidney bean stews, salad, etc; We just ordered few dishes, and almost ended up too full to sit up straight; We all try out and eat slowly, while cleaning up the remaining dishes. It nearly took us few hours finishing off our dinner, together with the splendid wine.

The must-try Red Wine Seared Pears and Portuguese Cheesecakes; As Christmas is approaching, chef have specially shared his Home-made Christmas Portuguese dessert, The King’s Cake (also called Bolo Rei in Portuguese); The dessert gained majority bread tastes in it. The bread were soaked with red wine, mixed with fruits and dried nuts; The sweetness was just right. Comparatively were not as sweet as the other traditional festive seasonal cakes. Our sweetness almost ended up in the great heavens after cuppa coffee!

We never felt restrained in this hotel at all; The Vic’s team were enthusiastically explorative, aimed delivering each guests’ preferences on the spot; The unique family atmospheric feel, and their enthusiasm introducing unique, traditional Portuguese cuisines; tends getting harder to find in other star rated hotel.