Laurel, located inside the Star World Hotel, possess a modern Chinese decor with its wooden floors, comfortable seating and bright lighting. The tables are spaciously placed to give diners enough privacy for conversations, but like most Chinese restaurants, the voice level is slightly higher than Western dining outlets and more appropriate for a large family outing rather than a romantic date. Though there is a non-smoking area, the no-smoking rule is not strictly applied. For those who want to enjoy a smoke-free meal, a private room may be a better idea.

To experience an authentic Cantonese experience, we start off the menu with soups. We order the double-boiled chicken with American ginseng and Chinese herbs soup and the double-boiled fish maw, black mushroom, conpoy and vegetable soup. The former was a wonderful warming soup perfect for cold weather, while the latter was refreshing with lots of flavour and enticing mushroom scent. Next, we order Laurel\'s signature Toi Shan pig’s knuckles in pot. Like most pig knuckles dishes, the pig knuckles is covered with a large amount of skin. The skin is cooked to a soft and tender texture and the small amounts of meat inside have absorbed all the sauces in the pot to give it a rich and savoury flavour. Another enjoyable dish is the drunken prawn flambé. The fresh prawns are cooked with Chinese rice wine which gives it an aromatic wine scent and enables the texture of prawn to be al dente. We choose the assorted mushroom with tofu as our vegetable dish. The vegetables were cooked in a thick and sticky sauce, which is too salty. To finish, we order the braised papaya with almond cream and braised coconut with milk. The braised coconut was slightly too sweet and could have had a better texture. On the other hand, the braised papaya was made perfectly. The flavour of the fruit and the almond cream was in perfect harmony and extremely enjoyable.

Even though there are no wines by the glass at Laurel, it does have a very impressive wine list if ordering by the bottle. The wine list is composed of roughly 100 different vintages covering both old and new worlds and also including sought-after vintages from renowned vineyards such as Chateau Lafite Rothschild (1997, 1999), Chateau Latour (1988, 1997) and Chateau Margaux (2006). Prices range from MOP360 to MOP19,888.

On first impression, the service at Laurel is quite good. Diners are greeted at the door and waiters are more than capable of taking care of most of your needs. Yet, the servers themselves can talk a bit too loud while they are taking orders or amongst themselves, which a problem often found in more casual Chinese restaurants.

A meal for two with a bottle of wine to share costs about MOP600 per head, which is quite reasonable given the quality of food, wine and service.