When choosing the name and designing the logo for their restaurant, the owners of Paper Moon included a paper plane to represent the fact that locals can enjoy authentic Thai food without actually travelling to Thailand. And given the situation we find ourselves in in 2020, that’s a very good thing!
There are two Paper Moon restaurants in Macau, both offering delicious home-made Thai cuisine – a smaller one in Taipa, opened in 2016, and a larger establishment which opened about two years ago on Macau side in the NAPE district.
“For our Taipa restaurant, it really feels like you are in a Thai house with all the lighting and outdoor tables,” says Carina Ho, one of the partners in the business. “It’s very nice to sit outdoors in Autumn and Spring, and its more family-style for the local neighbourhood. People can come in very casually and have a quick bite, even take away,” Paper Moon on Macau side is a much bigger space and very popular for larger gatherings and celebrations.
“Lots of people come here to have birthdays, and our beautiful curved staircase is great for photos and Instagram,” adds Carina.
Occupying two storefronts and two floors, and with high ceilings and an industrial chic aesthetic, the interior design of Paper Moon is an immediately impressive feature when you arrive.
“Our business partners are young people and they travel a lot, so we wanted to have something different. We wanted to create an atmosphere so people really feel like they are somewhere else when they come in.”
Of course the main attraction at Paper Moon is their delicious Thai food, prepared by an all-Thai kitchen staff.
“We have 15 chefs altogether and they are all from Thailand,” notes Carina.
The star of the kitchen and heading up the team, is Aunda Sriprapha who has lived in Macau for 28 years.
“When she was quite young she ran her own restaurant in Thailand. Then she moved to Macau with her family, and we have been working with her for more than 13 years,” says Carina. “She is very hard working and she goes back to Thailand every year to learn new recipes. She has a lot of strength and passion, and she’s trained all our staff. All our other chefs are men and she has trained them all. She’s really tough,” adds Carina with a clear sense of admiration and respect for her head chef.
Having lived for so many years in Macau, Chef Aunda has a very good understanding of the tastes and flavours that appeal to local people, and adjusts her recipes accordingly, while always keeping the flavours authentic. One of her key specialities are her home-made sauces.
“We do a lot of home-made products here and all the sauces are made here. Almost every dish has its own particular sauce,” says Carina. “In fact, most of the dishes on our menu you can find in other restaurants, but the flavours here are different and it’s our home-made sauces that really make it special.
“We use special ingredients too. For example, one of our best-selling dishes is our Raw Shrimps, and we use Blue Angel sashimi Japanese shrimps. The cost is really high, but we don’t pass it on to our customers and they really appreciate the quality.”
Some of the other popular signature dishes recommended by Chef Aunda include the homemade crispy pork belly, yam abalones, Tom Yum prawn soup, stir-fried crab curry and coconut agar jelly.
“Our special recipe grilled chicken takes two days to prepare,” Carina notes.
Given that Macau people love Thai food but haven’t been able to visit Thailand all year, it’s not surprising that getting a table at Paper Moon isn’t easy these days.
“The last few months have been very busy. Business is really good, even better than usual, because everyone is here with nowhere to go. No one is going on summer holidays this year, and a lot of people have come back from overseas,” says Carina.
She advises that diners need to make bookings at least one week in advance to guarantee a table. Dinner reservations can be made on Facebook, but only phone bookings for lunch.
Paper Moon
Address：No.97 Avenida do Governador Jaime Silvério Marques, AG Wan Yu Villas, Macau
Tel: +853 28724343
Opening：12：00 – 15：30 / 17：30 – 23：00
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Instagram papermoon.bistro
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