Zi Yat Heen

Zi Yat Heen is on the ground floor of the Four Seasons hotel in Macau. It has a pleasant dining room with plenty of natural light, well spaced tables and a large floor to ceiling central wine cabinet dominating the room. We went for lunch and tried a mixture of dim sum and a la carte dishes. There were tasting menus available at HKD 1,288 (£99) and 2,088 per person. Sammy Ho Pui Yung has been the head chef here since 2011.

Crispy prawn spring rolls avoided greasiness and had a prawn filling with plenty of flavour (14/20). Steamed prawn dumplings were standard issue, with reasonably good dumplings and good quality prawns (14/20). Char sui buns were not as light as the best versions, their texture a little stringy rather than fluffy, though the barbecued pork inside was tender enough and had enjoyable, sweet flavour (12/20).

Scallops and shrimps were stir fried with sugar snaps, the shellfish lightly cooked and the scallops having good inherent sweetness; the vegetables were also accurately cooked, retaining a firm texture but still cooked through (14/20). Wok-fried prawns with chilli and shallots were carefully cooked in a rich XO sauce, the shallots nicely caramelised (14/20). Egg fried rice was fine. 

Service was extremely good, very attentive, with jasmine tea carefully topped up and refreshed at intervals. The bill came to HKD 1,121 for two people with just tea and fruit juice to drink i.e. £43 a head. To me it seemed tacky to include a service charge and then leave the credit card slip open. At dinner, with wine to drink, a more realistic bill might be around £75 a head or so. This was an entirely pleasant meal, but its two stars in the 2014 Michelin guide is hard to understand based on this meal.