Michelin’s First Guangzhou Guide Awards Eight Cantonese Restaurants

The Michelin Guide released its first selection for Guangzhou at the end of June 2018. It was the guide’s second city in mainland China after Shanghai and its ninth guide in Asia. The inspectors listed 63 restaurants and gave one star to eight. None received two or three stars, a cautious result for the city that gave the world Cantonese cooking.

The eight

All eight starred restaurants are Cantonese. Four are in hotels. Jade River is the restaurant of the White Swan Hotel on Shamian Island, which had reopened in 2015 after a long renovation. Jiang by Chef Fei, at the Mandarin Oriental, is led by Huang Jinghui, known as Chef Fei, whose cooking draws on his native Chaozhou as well as Guangzhou. Lai Heen is at The Ritz-Carlton and Yu Yue Heen on the 71st floor of the Four Seasons.

The other four are independent. Bing Sheng Mansion and Bing Sheng Private Kitchen belong to a local group that began as a street-side stall and is known for its char siu and its fish. Lei Garden in Yuexiu is a branch of the Hong Kong group. Wisca, in Haizhu, is a noisy neighbourhood restaurant famous for eel and for its roast goose, and the one name on the list that every Guangzhou taxi driver knows.

Twenty restaurants received a Bib Gourmand for meals under 200 yuan, among them specialists in rice noodle rolls, wonton noodles and claypot rice, and 35 more were listed with the Michelin Plate.

Reading the result

Michael Ellis, then the guide’s international director, spoke of a city with “a strong and historical Cantonese background”. The absence of higher awards was read locally as a sign that inspectors were still finding their way in a city where the best food is often served in plain rooms and where restaurants are judged on the freshness of a steamed fish more than on service. The stars came with time: Jiang by Chef Fei was promoted to two stars in a later edition, and the selection has grown each year.

For visitors, the first guide remains a sound shortlist. A dim sum breakfast at Jade River, facing the Pearl River, followed by dinner at Wisca or Bing Sheng, covers the two faces of the city’s cooking. Rosewood Guangzhou, which opened the year after the guide, is the natural base in the new town.