In the insanely un-real world that is the Venetian is a small hole of respite called McSorley’s Ale House. You might think that it is little strange having a franchise of a New York chain of faux Irish pubs in the Macau version of a Las Vegas take-off of Venice, but you learn to leave disbelief at the door of this joint.
Macau is not a beer drinker’s town. I’ll cover off my Taipa pub crawl in a separate post. There used to be a Macau Lager, but I couldn’t find that. After a day’s sight seeing where torrential rain was the dominant theme, I was keen to chill over a few beers and watch some footy. On the Cotai strip where I was staying, everything must flash or sparkle constantly, so McSorley’s is the perfect escape from this.
Pleasingly the beer list has options other than tap Tsingtao, watery Carlsberg, Asahi or Kirin. There’s McSorley’s own take on Boddingtons/Kilkenny which pours smooth and silkily heady. This is a satisfying beer, with more edge than a Kilkenny. I couldn’t put my finger on it, maybe a little nutty. There’s a half decent menu, but I’d eaten Macanese egg tarts all day – so all I needed were chicken wings, which were suitably sticky and spicy. Not a reason to visit Macau, but worth a visit if you are on the Cotai Strip.
back of the ferry 