How about a hotel to match its decadence?
Are you thinking somewhere in Dubai, Vegas, Monte Carlo?
What if I told you the second - not even the first - Wynn Palace Hotel in Macau was by far the most flamboyant of them all?
Of the countless hotels I've been to, including the original Wynn/Encore hotels in Las Vegas they replicated from, this has to be so larger than life that it deserves its own post.
The Wynn Palace that opened in August 2016 was ambitious from the start. The Las Vegas legend Steve Wynn, even with his impressive resume including Bellagio, stated that this would be "the most aggressive, ambitious, and lovely project" he had ever undertaken. With a $4.4 billion pricetag, 1700 rooms, 350 gaming tables, and a performing fountain bigger than Bellagio, it's already startling.
They offer free aerial rides to go up the fountain. The performance lake is 30,000sqm with more than 1000 jets and 2000 lights with shows every half hour. The only better view of the fountain than the ride that circles the fountain itself is probably the pool, accessible only by hotel guests.
I convinced them to let me in for some photos and smoothies anyway.
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| Colorful pool |
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| Told you it's got the best fountain view. |
The hotel's theme is flowers, but you don't need me to tell you to know that. Upon entering the hotel you are hit with a strong scent of flowers and a visual smack of a bright, gigantic rotating flower sculpture. A surprisingly large percent of these flowers are real, freshly changed. The flowers are everywhere, from entrance to walls to every boutique and restaurant. It's like you left reality and walked into a Disney fairy tale.
One of the things you must try is Fontana Buffet. It's a buffet in front of the fountain with separate breakfast, lunch, and dinner services. At the entrance of it is a little flower shop offering you freshly cut flowers as souvenirs, just like the sculptures you see.
The dining room is bright with marble and gold, with a Alice-in-Wonderland-esque feast set up. The buffet setup isn't nearly as large as the ones in Vegas, consisting of only around a dozen food stations, but it is very fresh and of great quality. Most of the dishes that I took were surprisingly tasty for a buffet. Perhaps it's due to more frequent dish changes.
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| Dessert station |
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| Seafood station |
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| Fruits |
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| Eastern & Western hot food station |
One peculiar thing about the Wynn Palace Macau is that it's a gaudy replica of its Vegas original, which has a very deliberate Chinese influenced themes - the lucky color red, frequent uses of lucky number 8 to give you an example. Then they brought that Vegas-Chinese fusion back to Chinese territory but this time with more Vegas flair. They even the same Vegas restaurant names.
One of the most memorable dinners in Macau was definitely here at the Wynn Palace by the name of Mizumi.
Will you judge me if I told you I only was sold on this place solely due to its massive LED tree in the middle of the dining room? I lucked out with the food being exceptionally great.
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| LED sakura tree |
Set menu is available as well as a la carte. For the amazing quality of this authentic Japanese cuisine, it's actually not a bad price at about USD $80/110 for 4&6 courses of menu.
4 courses were raw wagyu beef salad, tempura assortment, miso soup, and skewers.
The 6 course menu was similar except the salad is crab/sea urchin based, and it has eggplant plus a dessert.
You must try the sashimi, though. It's of only the top quality and if you ask for a bowl of rice, they prepare it fresh for you in a stone pot using only the recently cut Japanese rice. So. Tasty.
Some special desserts are a nice plus, also. Warabimochi and green tea shaved ice were lackluster compared to the other dishes, but beautifully presented.
Oh, and don't forget to take LOTS of photos in front of that tree. I might just steal it next time.
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