Review by Tony Wong
With the objective of carrying out an on-site study on how the newly-renovated Patane wet market’s food court is operating, I went there for my dinner on Tuesday evening, and my conclusion is that the “high-class harbour view” food court’s operation still needs to overcome a few teething problems.
My conclusion is based on two main reasons. Taking Tuesday evening’s visit as an example, firstly, many of the stalls closed earlier than what their respective business-hour schedules indicate, as all their food had already been sold. Secondly, patrons had to wait a long time for dishes provided by some of the stalls that were still operating that evening, possibly due to still insufficient manpower and still unresolved capacity issues.
The food court, located on the second floor of the high-rise Patane wet-market municipal complex, officially opens between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. daily.
The revamped Patane food court officially opened on Monday after an about-one-week trial operation.
I did not see any business-hour schedules displayed on the stalls, but the government runs a website providing details on the city’s wet markets and their food courts, according to which seven of the Patane food court’s 11 stalls have a business-hour schedule identical to the food court’s official opening hours, while the other four stalls are operating a few hours less than the food court’s 15-hour official operating time.
My dinner trip on Tuesday evening showed that many of the stalls, however, still did not operate in full compliance with their respective schedules indicated by the website.
I am looking forward to the Patane food court’s operation becoming fully fledged before long, but I also would like to point out the fact that the food court has been upgraded to a “high-class” one makes a difference: I will now more often choose to eat at this food court, a change from the past when I very rarely chose to eat at the city’s wet-market cooked food centres.
Food court vs cooked food centres
Including the Patane one, Macau has four wet-market cooked food centres. Before the Patane food court’s renovation, it was the same type as the other three existing wet-market cooked food centres, namely the ones at the wet-market municipal complexes of S. Domingos, S. Lourenço, and Iao Hon.
The difference is now also indicated by the official terms used to refer to the four cooked food centres. Before the Patane food court’s renovation, all of them were officially known as “wet-market cooked food centres”. After the Patane wet market’s cooked food centre’s renovation, its official name has been elevated to “food court”, while the other three continue to be officially called “wet-market cooked food centres”.
Although the S. Domingos wet market is just a stone’s throw from our newspaper’s current office, I have never had my meals at its cooked food centre since we moved our office to Rua dos Mercadores in December 2022. But I am now willing to include the revamped Patane food court as one of my favourite dining-out options, partially encouraged by its high-class decoration and facilities.
One of the government’s reasons for its decision to upgrade the Patane cooked food centre to a high-class food court is to make good and full use of the wet market’s spectacular harbour view.
Revamp completed in November
When the Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM), the public entity managing the city’s nine wet markets, organised a media tour to the then still under-renovation Patane wet market’s future food court in October last year, which I attended, I was already looking forward to enjoying meals there after its opening, as I was quite impressed by its new design and decoration, considering that the renovation was almost completed at that time.
According to the bureau’s thematic website on its construction projects, the Patane food court’s renovation project, which started in the middle of 2023, was completed in November last year.
The revamped Patane food court comprises 11 stalls, 10 of which were chosen through public tender, which was launched in October last year and drew hundreds of bids, while the remaining one is operated by its original stallholder.
The bureau runs a thematic website (https://app.iam.gov.mo/marketinfo) providing details on its three wet-market cooked food centres and the new Patane food court, which is also available in English, including the menus of all the stalls. However, the menus are only available in Chinese.
Waiting time of up to 45 minutes
On Tuesday evening, after seeing a long queue at the largest stall which sells Japanese ramen, sushi and sashimi, I turned to a stall selling Cantonese dishes where the stallholder told me I had to wait for 25 minutes when I ordered a dish with a bowl of rice.
I decided to wait because, as I have mentioned, many of the stalls had closed already.
When I was waiting for the Cantonese dish, I saw there was no longer a queue at the Japanese stall, and then I tried to order there, but the stallholder told me I had to wait for 45 minutes. So, I decided against it. Finally, I only had the 68-pataca dish and the 10-pataca rice from the Cantonese cuisine stall.
I could not enjoy my regular cup of coffee after my dinner because the food court’s beverage stall that sells coffee, tea and other drinks had closed earlier than scheduled.
Quite a let-down.
Patrons have their dinner at the Patane wet market’s “high-class harbour-view” food court on Tuesday. – Photo: Tony Wong
