Guangzhou is universally known for its excellent food. Cantonese cuisine is one of the Famous Eight in China with different flavors and styles, by using diverse and delicate materials, exotic spices and various cooking skills. Cantonese cuisine, as epitome of Chinese food culture, is a mixture of tradition and modern, east and west. Basically, it is also a combination of local dishes from the different prefectures of Guangdong Province, or even from other provinces and abroad.

Dragon, Tiger and Phoenix with Chrysanthemum
What the Cantonese people mean dragon, tiger and phoenix in the menu are actually snake, cat and black chicken. The recipe is to cook a soup with the snake pieces, chicken, cat, winter mushroom, sweet date and so on. This dish has been rewarded Gold Pot Reward by the Ministry of Commerce.
Roast Goose
Roast Goose, originating from the roast duck, is one of the traditional roasted dishes of Guangzhou. The best material are medium and small sized black geese from the Qingyuan county. The wings, feet and entrails being removed, the body is then blown, besmeared with five fragrant seasonings, sewed in stomach, shortly boiled in water, poured with cold water, besmeared with sugar juice, air-dried and preserved, and then hung and rolled in the oven or above the flame. Then it can be served with pieces. The roast goose colored brown and tasty. There are abundant roast goose shop in Guangzhou, among which the most famous one is Yuji in Changdi and Shenjing roast goose in Changzhou island of Huangpu District.
Gold Medal Sulking Pig
This dish is named after the reward of "gold tripod" which was issued by the National ministry of commerce. It is one of the most famous Cantonese cuisine in the banquet. The cooking skill was already very good since North and South Dynasty, 1400 years ago. The way is to get the entrails out of the pig and leave the body of 5kg in net, then preserve it with salt, honey, sugar for some time. After this, bake it on the oven of charcoal fire when turning it from time to time. There are two ways to bake the sulking pig, one is the smooth skin sulking pig, and the other is the bubbling skin. Little peanut oil and slow fire are used for the first type and more peanut oil and strong fire is used for the second type, so as to make the bubbling skin. The bubbling skin sulking pig is gold in color and the sesame size bubble scatter around the skin evenly, so the skin of the pig is very crisp and tasty. Suckling pig is always served with sugar, sweet source and cake.
Plain Chicken
The plain chicken is easy to cook and it can keep the original flavor of the chicken, which makes it the most popular dish in Cantonese cuisine. The way is to choose the local chicken which are no more than 1kg in weight, after cleaning, put it in boiling water for 15 minutes, during this period, take it out twice, the put it into cold water to cool it down. When the skin is dry, mix it with peanut oil. This dish is served with ginger, spring onion and salt. This way of cooking keeps the original flavor of the chicken. The Plain chicken in Panxi restaurant is awarded the Gold Medal award from the national ministry of commerce.
Qingping Chicken
The Qingping chicken is one of the most famous chicken dishes in Cantonese dishes. It was created by Qingping restaurant in 1965, and it soon became a famous dish in the restaurant. The chickens are from the home-raised chickens from the local farmhouse in Qingyuan County. After being killed and cleaned, the chicken is put in the special-made salt water until it is ready. Then it will be put in the cold chicken water to make it cool. In this way the chicken will taste tender, even the chicken bones are tasty.
Taiye Chicken
As a traditional cuisine of Guangzhou, the Taiye chicken is named after an ancient county mayor. In late Qing dynasty, a local mayor invented this dish after his retirement. The cooking method is to boil the chicken in special salt soap until it is 90% done. Smoke it on the fried black tea leaves and honey. After the chicken is cooled down, cut it into pieces and pour with special preserved salty soup, honey and glutamate. This way of cooking belongs to the smoke chicken.
Wenchang Chicken
The Wen Chang chicken is the most famous dish of Guangzhou restaurant. It is interesting that the chickens are from Wenchang county and the restaurant is located in Nanchang Road. Therefore, it is easy to remember the name of the restaurant. The ingredient are: one raw chicken, chicken liver of of 250g, ham, vegetable, soup, Chinese wine and sugar. The cooking method is to soak the chicken in soup till it is done. When it cools down, tick the bones off and slice the chicken into pieces. Cut the boiled chicken liver and the ham to the same size as the chicken slices, then put them together with the chicken into the plate. Then steam the plate and serve it with vegetables and sauce. This dish is beautiful in color and delicious in taste and is suitable for everybody.
Salted Chicken
The Dongjiang salted chicken is the typical dish of Dongjiang food. There are two different cooking methods. The traditional one is to wrap the clean chicken with abrasive paper then put it into hot salt, the heat from the salt cooks the chicken. The other way is to soak the chicken in soup till it is 80% done, then pick it up and chop it to several parts. Then put salt, oil, sesame oil and stir it to make the ingredients even. Then heateit till it is totally ready. It is always served with ginger oil and salt.
Crisp Skin Chicken
As one of the famous chicken dishes of Guangzhou, it was created by Datong Restaurant in the 1940's according to the method of Jinling sliced-skin duck. Put the chicken in boiling hot salted soup till it is done, then cover it with special sauce made of vinegar, maltose and starch. Then deep fry it when it is dry. The chicken skin is crisp, the bones are tasty and the meat is tender and delicious. The dish is rich in color and taste. It belongs to the fried chickens.
Soup Contained in Winter-melon
This soup is suitable in summer time. It got this name from the container -the winter melon. The cooking method is to use better half of a winter melon of about 24cm in height, then get rid of the pulp and use it as the container. The edge of the melon is cut to tooth-like pattern and pattern of birds and flowers are carved on the peel. Cool it down with cold water after it is boiled in hot water. Then put lean meat, turkey, ham, crab, oyster, frog and other raw materials with soup into the melon and boil again. When it is served, use spoon to scratch the melon and other ingredients. No Soya sauce is put in this soup. This soup cup is beautifully shaped and tastes light and delicious, which is a good soup for cooling people down in summer.
Famous Restaurants
Pan Xi Restaurant
Pan Xi Restaurant is a large-scale garden-style restaurant. It is located on the bank of beautiful Li Wan Lake. It occupies an area of 12,000 sq. Meters and is the site of "Chang Hua Garden", an imperial garden of the king of Nan Han Dynasty.
The layout of the restaurant is well divided so that every room faces south. The park is well divided into four parts connected by gallery, privy room, hall, villa, mountainous land, and garden.
There are beautiful eaves and pavilions. green tiles and red walls, towers and terrace halls on the water, and winding gallery. The scenery of the park is elegant and refined, praised as "Complete symphonic poem of eastern architecture art".
Pan Xi Restaurant, ranking No. 1 of the three garden-style restaurants of Guangzhou, has many specialties such as Steamed Whole White Gourd Soup, Garden Herbs Chicken and Assorted Platter. The most famous are its pastries.
Mr Luo Kun. No.1 of the best five chefs of pastry in China was from the restaurant. He could make more than one thousand of pastries by himself alone.
The famous pastry is Fresh Shrimps Dumpling, Nest Dasheen, Water Chestnut Cake, and Crisp Three-flavored Rolls. About 40 dishes and pastries of Pan Xi Restaurant won prizes in the cooking contests of various levels.
Adress: No.151, Longjin Rd., West, GZ
Tel: 020-81815718
Guangzhou Restaurant
Guangzhou restaurant is located on Wen Chang Street. It is a garden-style restaurant. It has been praised "The No.1 restaurant in Guangzhou".
Wen Chang Chicken is the representative dish of Mr. Liang Duan. From 1980 archaizing services and royal banquet have been offered.
They had also held the first and the second Chinese Snack Festivals in the restaurant.
By the end of 1997, Guangzhou Restaurant owned 19 subsidiaries. The specialties include Wen Chang Chicken, Kapok Duck, Deep Fried Duck Palm, and Three-colored Lobster. Besides, the moon cakes of Guangzhou Restaurant are also very famous.
Guangzhou Restaurant has trained many famous chefs. Such as Mr. ZhongQuan, "King of Cooking in the South"; Mr. Wu Luan, "King of Shark Fin"; Mr. Liang Duan, "Famous Chef of Guangdong and Hong Kong"; Mr. Liang Xian, "King of Chefs of the World", and Mr. Huang Zhenhua, Mr. Wen Qifu, Ms. Zhou Yuzhen and some successful entrepreneurs.
Address: No.2, Wenchang Rd., GZ
Tel: 020-81888388
Da Tong Restaurant
Da Tong Restaurant is located on the Changdi Avenue, a bustling section of Guangzhou.
It was well known in the Lingnan district for its luxurious decoration and superb cooking skills before the foundation of the PRC.
The signboard dishes of Da Tong Restaurant are Crisp-skinned Chicken and Golden Roasted Sucking Pig. The Da Tong Custard Tart is the most famous among its pastries.
Adress: No. 63, Yanjiang Rd., West, GZ
Tel: 020-81885933
Nan Yuan Restaurant
Nan Yuan Restaurant is located on the Qianjin Street, Haizhu District.
It is one of the three garden-style restaurants in Guangzhou. It was founded in 1958 and opened in 1963 with an area of approximate 10,000 sq. meters including a garden of 4,500 sq. meters.
Its specialties are in Cantonese style and Chaozhou style. The Crispy Lotus Seeds Mousse Dumpling won the "Golden Tripod" prize in 1990 awarded by the Ministry of Commerce.
The specialties of Nan Yuan Restaurant are Protect Country Dish, Buddha Jumping over the Wall, Stewed Wild Goose, Bean Paste Chicken, Sliced Beef, Brined Vegetable Pork Steak Soup, and Bamboo Cream Chicken etc.
Adress: No.142, Qianjin Rd., GZ
Tel: 020-84449211
Bei Yuan Restaurant
Bei Yuan Restaurant is located on Xiao Bei Street.It is one of the three largest garden-style restaurants in Guangzhou.
The layout is very classical with pond, mini-mountain, bridge, grass and flowers.
The cuisine pays much attention to clearness, freshness, tenderness, and smoothness. The cuisine is served at all charge levels.
Because Bei Yuan Restaurant has employed Mr. Li Hi and Mr. Chen Zun, who are first-class chefs for banquets and desserts, so the reputation is fairly good.
The specialties of Bei Yuan Restaurant are Oiled Shelled Shrimp. Suburbs Fish Head, Duck Palm in Oyster Sauce, Fried Chicken Breast, Sweet-Scented Balls Roasted Goose, Sauted Chicken in Rice Wine, Fish with Pine Nuts, and Fragrance Fulfill the Jug. The special pastry include Lingnan Litchi, Mint with Lotus, Jade Pineapple, and Watermelon Cream Jelly. The flavor is really wonderful.
Adress: No.202, Xiaobei Rd., GZ
Tel: 020-83330087
Snake Restaurant
It is located in Jianglan Street. Its predecessor was "Snake King Man", founded in Guangzhou by Mr. Wu Man, It specialized in the purchase of snakes for medical factories or making Chinese medicine by using snake gall.
Later it was engaged in serving snake banquets. After the foundation of the PRC, many snake restaurants were closed down, except "Snake King Man" (later renamed as Snake Restaurant) which is still running today.
Snake Restaurant is the largest restaurant in China serving snake food. Now the business area has got more than 500 seats.
It is mainly engaged in snake dishes, snake galls, snake drinks and concurrently engaged in games and seafood in Cantonese style.
The special dish is Chrysanthemum Dragon-Tiger-Phoenix Soup, etc.
Adress: No. 318, Xianlie Rd., East, GZ
Tel: 020-87705998
The Dong Jiang Restaurant
The Dong Jiang Restaurant is notable for its Hakka style, which is one of the three styles of the Cantonese style.
Do Jiang Restaurant is located at the intersection of Zhongshan Fourth Street and Wende Street, which is the most bustling section in Guangzhou.
Its predecessor was Ning Chang Restaurant especially engaging in Dong Jiang style cuisine.
The typical dishes in Dong jiang style are Dong Jiang Salted Baked Chicken, Dong Jiang Stuffed Bean Curd, Duck Stuffed with Eight Treasures, Seven Delicacies Braised in Clay Pot, Dong Jiang Pork Feet, Steamed Pork with Salt-dried Mustard Cabbage and Dong Jiang Fried Spring Rolls.
Adress: No. 337, Zhongshan 4th Rd., GZ
Tel: 020-83335343