The Goa Marriott Resort and Spa, Miramar has for long been one of the most breath-taking hotel properties in this part of Goa. Stunning sunsets by the shore and beautiful landscaping with a calming ambience and an open design and atmosphere, their property would easily pass as an ‘Instagram Heaven' among today's young crowd. Visual aspects aside their restaurants and cafes are nothing short of spectacular either, The Waterfront Restaurant and Bar, The AZUR Café and Lounge or Simply Grills. The Goa Marriott Resort and Spa not only stresses on serving the best when it comes to food and drink but also on their service, which by the way is pretty amazing no matter where you choose to dine.
The hotel's pre-dominantly Chinese restaurant, the Wan Hao has recently undergone a total makeover. The restaurant, that opened in 2003 has over the years established itself as a customer favourite for its delectable Chinese food and calm ambience but the place was in need of a slight change to help catch up with the pace of modern time. The restaurant firstly, has decided to extend their seating area to the outdoor patio which will house a couple of tables that will allow the customers to take in the classic pool and sea side atmosphere that the Goa Marriott has long been famous for. Secondly, the restaurant has decided to change their menu from a Chinese menu to a Pan-Asian menu that features Chinese, Thai, Malaysian, Vietnamese, Indonesian and Japanese cuisine along with some old customer favourites from the previous menu. The restaurant has also decided to focus on maintaining the utmost authenticity when it comes to the food that they serve, unlike many local Chinese restaurants that tend to slightly diverge away from the traditional recipes by adding their own spin on the dishes or tweaking certain elements to cater to the Goan palette. For this task, the Goa Marriott have specially hired Chef Rana who's spent numerous years specializing in authentic Pan-Asian food in numerous restaurants across India like the JW Mariott-Mumbai, Radisson and ITC Maratha to name a few.
I decided to try out a couple of dishes from each of the newly introduced cuisines on the menu. To kick things off with, I decided to sample an assortment of steamed snacks that the restaurant had to offer which included the much loved dim-sums and the popular Vietnamese treat Bao. The dim-sums were served with a freshly made tomato chili and burnt chili sauce. I was served two types of veg dim-sums, one with a truffle and bok choy filling and the other with a chestnut and celery filling, so simple and yet so light not in the slightest bit heavy. When it came to meat, the two dim-sums I had were filled with chicken, ginger and mushroom and the other one with prawn and asparagus. I must stress on the crystal prawn and asparagus dim-sum as this not only tasted amazing but also looked the part. The crystal dim-sums have an almost transparent skin that carefully give you a slight peek of the contents inside. The skin is also very thin and complements the filling just enough without overpowering it with that doughy-floury taste. The flavours along with the intricately crafted dim-sums showcases how much effort the restaurant puts not only in the main course but every single aspect of their menu. Next up was the Bao. For those of you that don't know, the Vietnamese dish is a smooth, soft and round bun that's filled with a marinated meat and steamed to give you a complete meal in a small package. The Bao at the Wan Hao was filled with succulent, twice cooked pork meat and Korean kimchi. A medley of flavours in a soft steamed bun, something you definitely need to try in Goa.
The restaurant also has some sushi on offer and being the sushi lover I am, I needed to get that done. Chef Rana gave me three types of nigiri sushi and an uramaki roll. The three sushis serves were a prawn nigiri, a salmon nigiri and a tamago nigiri (Egg). Tamago in Japanese means ‘grilled egg' and refers to a style of omelette that features layers of egg rolled together. The tamago was very subtle and didn't have an overpowering egg taste, it was perfect along with the others. He also served a tempura prawn ura maki roll which was once again packed with flavour, which is something that you don't always see when it comes to sushi.
For the main course, I tried the Japanese teriyaki prawns that were cooked beautifully in a simple, yet authentic teriyaki sauce that was made from scratch by the chef and served with some grilled vegetables. This was followed by probably, one of the best lamb dishes I have ever tasted in Goa. The Rendang is a popular Indonesian dish where the meat, which is mostly chicken or duck but also beef or lamb, is slow cooked in coconut milk and a bunch of fragrant spices and herbs like lemongrass, galangal ginger, kaffir lime, garlic and more. The Lamb Rendang at the Wan Hao was absolutely heavenly and just melted in your mouth, the lamb was so tender that you could pick it apart with a spoon. The key aspect of this dish was the extent to which the flavour had soaked into the meat, this also showed that the chef knew his meats and his cuisine really well, a true veteran in the Pan-Asian cuisine. I ended my main course with a Korean staple called the Bibimbap which was a mound of steamed rice covered with a chicken gravy, strips of seaweed, sautéed vegetables, kimchi and a sunny side up egg. I also must highlight the date pancake with ice cream that I had for a dessert which was by far superior to any version of the dessert that I've had at other restaurants. This had a crunchy pastry with a sinful date filling topped with powdered sugar and served with ice cream, the dessert was baked fresh. So, make sure you drop by the new and improved Wan Hao at the Goa Marriott Resort and Spa for an authentic Pan-Asian experience that will leave you feeling like you've just been transported to the far east and back.
(Akio Fernandes is a passionate foodie and the owner of The Hungry Wolf food blog - that showcases various culinary delights across Goa)
