Must-Try Foods in Guangzhou: 27 Delicious Dishes You Can’t Miss

1. Rice Noodle Rolls (Cheung Fun)

2. Wonton Noodles

3. Char Siu Bao

4. Jidi Congee

5. Shrimp Dumplings

6. Siu Mai

Braised beef brisket with radish is a staple home-cooked dish in Guangzhou, featuring tender and flavorful beef that pairs perfectly with sweet and refreshing radish, which absorbs the rich flavors of the meat, creating a pleasing texture.

Since both the brisket and radish are quite firm, they need to be braised for a longer period to achieve tenderness and enhance their flavor. Cooking them together for 1 to 2 hours allows the radish to soak up the beef’s sauce, intensifying the taste. The longer the dish is simmered, the more robust and delicious the flavors become.

This dish is commonly found as street food in Guangzhou, and while walking through familiar areas like Beijing Road or Xiaoxiguan, the tempting aroma of braised beef brisket with radish is hard to resist!

Lotus Leaf Sticky Rice Chicken is an essential dish in Cantonese dim sum, featuring a wrapping of fresh lotus leaves that impart their delightful aroma during cooking.

To make this dish, chicken, char siu (BBQ pork), salted egg yolks, and mushrooms are mixed with sticky rice. This combination is then securely wrapped in lotus leaves and steamed to perfection, allowing the lotus leaf’s fragrance to enhance the sticky rice and make the chicken exceptionally tender.

When enjoying Sticky Rice Chicken, it’s best to gently break open the lotus leaf to release the steam, then cut the rice into smaller pieces to fully appreciate its soft texture and complex flavors.

This dish is commonly served as a dim sum option in teahouses in Guangzhou, typically enjoyed during morning or afternoon tea alongside other treats like shrimp dumplings and siu mai.

9. Stir-Fried Rice Noodles with Beef

Stir-Fried Rice Noodles with Beef (Chinese:干炒牛河) is a popular dish in Guangzhou, made by stir-frying beef, bean sprouts, and rice noodles together. It is a beloved choice among locals.

To prepare this dish, it is essential to use high heat for quick cooking. The ingredients must be thoroughly mixed without overcooking, ensuring that the rice noodles remain intact. The oil quantity needs to be carefully managed to prevent the dish from becoming too oily.

Consequently, a plate of genuine Stir-Fried Rice Noodles with Beef will have little to no excess oil or soy sauce, making it enjoyable without being greasy. The bean sprouts retain their crunchiness, while the beef is both tender and flavorful, maintaining a satisfying chew.

Braised pigeon from Guangzhou is renowned for its succulent and juicy qualities, drawing in numerous food enthusiasts. The pigeons are marinated in a special sauce and then slow-braised to a golden color, resulting in a dish with crispy skin, tender meat, soft bones, and abundant juiciness.

The exterior of the braised pigeon is crispy while the inside remains tender. Many diners consume the entire pigeon, including the bones, as the flavors infuse deeply during the marination and frying process.

This dish is a standout at festive gatherings and is commonly served at home feasts in Guangzhou.

Roast goose is a popular dish in Guangdong, and its enticing aroma often fills the streets. The goose is marinated and charcoal-roasted to perfection, creating a crispy skin and tender, juicy meat.

Typically, Wuzong or Qingyuan black-brown geese are used for this dish, as their meat strikes the right balance between fat and lean, producing a roast goose that is tender without being overly fatty or greasy.

Among the various types of roast goose, the “Sham Tseng Roast Goose” (Chinese: 深井烧鹅) from Huangpu District in Guangzhou is particularly famous.

Roast goose is commonly served in two portions: the upper part (with wings) and the lower part (with legs). The lower portion, which includes the prized goose thighs, is often priced higher due to its popularity.

While it may look similar to Peking duck, the flavor and texture are completely different.

Slow-cooked soup, known as lo foh tong in Cantonese, is a traditional Guangdong dish that has been cherished for its health benefits over thousands of years. These soups are cooked over low heat for extended periods, allowing the ingredients to release their medicinal qualities and produce a naturally sweet and flavorful broth.

There are many types of lo foh tong, with different ingredients and cooking styles producing a wide range of tastes and health benefits. Popular varieties include black chicken soup with red dates and Ejiao, pigeon soup with yam and poria, and coconut chicken soup.

The ingredients in these soups can vary from meats and seafood to vegetables, grains, and medicinal herbs. The cooking methods, such as slow simmering, stewing, or double-boiling, also influence the soup’s flavor, which can range from sweet to savory or even spicy depending on the ingredients used.

While Turnip Cake represents the savory side of Lingnan cuisine, Water Chestnut Cake (Ma Tai Go) is the quintessential sweet treat. It is a regular feature in dim sum restaurants, highlighting its popularity.

Made from water chestnuts, the process for creating Water Chestnut Cake is relatively simple. Fresh water chestnuts are ground into flour, then combined with sugar and water before being steamed to perfection. Many traditional families in Guangdong prepare this cake during festive occasions.

This cake stands out for its distinctive texture—smooth, springy, and delightfully chewy. Its light sweetness and refreshing taste make it unlike any other dessert, earning it a special place in Cantonese cuisine.

Steamed Chicken Feet with Black Bean Sauce is a popular Cantonese dim sum dish that carries the meaning of “good fortune and harmony.” It’s a common snack in Guangdong, enjoyed both at morning tea and as a late-night treat.

This dish requires careful preparation, including blanching, deep-frying, soaking, marinating, and steaming, making it a bit of a lengthy process. However, the result is worth it: the chicken feet are soft, with tender bones that easily separate when eaten, unlike the usual tougher texture of braised chicken feet. The rich, savory sauce adds a delightful depth of flavor, leaving a lasting impression.

Custard Lava Buns (Liu Sha Bao) are a popular dessert choice in Guangzhou’s dim sum spots and tea houses, especially for those with a sweet tooth.

The buns are filled with a salted egg yolk mixture. When steamed fresh, they’re piping hot, and biting into them reveals a golden, molten filling that oozes out, making for an impressive visual treat.

The filling is creamy and sweet, with a distinctive slightly gritty texture, leaving a lasting sweetness on the tongue and providing a unique, enjoyable flavor.

In Guangzhou, chicken is a staple, with thousands consumed daily. One of the most iconic dishes is White Cut Chicken, highly regarded for its simple preparation that brings out the natural flavors of the chicken.

The dish is prized for its fresh, unadulterated taste, featuring crispy skin, tender meat, and aromatic bones. Typically, Qingyuan Ma Chickens, known for their firm yet tender meat after about 150 days of rearing, are used. The chicken is gently simmered in a white broth made from pork bones and lean meat, with spices like star anise and ginger enhancing its flavor.

The dipping sauce is essential to the dish, with a ginger-scallion paste being the top choice, though mustard or soy sauce variations are also common.

In Guangdong, white-cut chicken highlights pure flavor and tender texture—a true test of culinary skill—and is considered one of the Chinese luck foods.

Lai Fun (Chinese: 濑粉) is a traditional rice noodle dish from Guangdong, particularly popular in Guangzhou. These noodles are thicker than typical rice noodles, giving them a smooth, soft texture with a bit of elasticity, making them ideal for soups.

In Guangzhou, it’s often called Old Xiguan Lai Fun. The soup base is a thick broth made from pork bones and rice paste. The Lai Fun is cooked and then added to this broth. Common toppings include peanuts, dried shrimp, char siu, mushrooms, pork cracklings, and diced radish. Xiguan Lai Fun is light on meat, with the rice paste making it easy to eat and digest.

Fish skin, a less common ingredient, is something that only skilled chefs in Guangdong can master, and Chen Tiam Kee stands out in Guangzhou for its exceptional offerings. Made primarily from fresh fish skin, this dish usually features tender fish like snapper or cod. The preparation involves cleaning, cooking, slicing, and seasoning the fish skin.

The signature dish of Chen Tiam Kee is its traditional Shunde-style crispy fish skin, which is widely admired by food enthusiasts. Upon tasting, the first impression is its delightful “crispiness.” After processing, the once soft fish skin transforms into a chewy and enjoyable texture, providing a novel experience for many. When paired with peanuts and coriander, and mixed with a special soy sauce while chewing, the sweet and savory flavors intensify, making each bite increasingly delicious.