This is my first entry of the year and this past weekend my wife and I went for a jolly to Guangzhou, formerly Canton (so in 'greater Hong Kong'). On our itinerary was a visit to Panxi Restaurant for a Dim Sum lunch.
'Little boat' congee is the literal translation of this savoury dish but the ingredients of this rice porridge was mostly fishmeat and seafood such as squid. It was all tasty with good flavour and the porridge itself had a smooth texture.
The restaurant is located in a large park area and we were sat overlooking a small lake, which was very pleasant.
We initially ordered seven dishes, which are described below. Of these, three were savoury and the rest were sweet dishes.
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Our Order (from left, anticlockwise)- Custard Buns, Custard, Har Gow, Water Chestnut Cake, Congee, Taro Cake |
Steamed custard buns had a sweet custard filling that was not too runny (there are different levels of 'runniness' of custard with these buns). As a nice twist there was part of an egg yolk flavour in it to give a slight saltiness.
There was more custard in the form of 'Crystal Dumplings' Here the custard consistency is of higher viscosity and it was wrapped in a translucent pastry hence the crystal in the name, which made this dish very nice. What's more was that they were creatively shaped into little birds, shown in the photographs below.
There was more custard in the form of 'Crystal Dumplings' Here the custard consistency is of higher viscosity and it was wrapped in a translucent pastry hence the crystal in the name, which made this dish very nice. What's more was that they were creatively shaped into little birds, shown in the photographs below.
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Crystal Dumplings |
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Close up of Crystal Dumplinges |
Taro cake was another sweet item, which again contained some custard. The sugar coating to the outside adding to the sweetness.
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Taro |
The Har Gow (prawn dumplings) consisted of a generous pair of prawns wrapped in pastry, although the pastry was a bit thick for my liking. The reason maybe was that they needed to shape the dumplings into rabbits as the photo shows.
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Rabbit Shaped 'Har Gow' |
Water Chestnut Cake was another sweet dish, although not too sugary. This was a very nice steamed pudding with a chewy texture that the nuts could be tasted.
Latterly we ordered a vegetable dish to balance our meal out, which was 'Sai Yeung Choi'. This was a large bowl of green vegetables boiled in a flavoursome stock.
As with having dim sum we drank tea with our meal and we chose the Iron Buddha variety. The gimmick in this restaurant is that they serve it 'Kung Fu' style where there's a pot of hot water, pot of tea leaves, serving pot and small cups, whereby you drink the tea in three sips.
Panxi is quite a famous restaurant in Guangzhou and was quite busy on Saturday but we were able to get a seat without too much trouble. The surroundings are nice and the staff were helpful, given that we were 'tourists'. The food was nice and very presentable and the price made it good value.
Scores:
Food: 4/5
Presentation: 4/5
Service: 3/5
Setting: 3/5
Overall: 14/20
Latterly we ordered a vegetable dish to balance our meal out, which was 'Sai Yeung Choi'. This was a large bowl of green vegetables boiled in a flavoursome stock.
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Vegetable in Soup |
As with having dim sum we drank tea with our meal and we chose the Iron Buddha variety. The gimmick in this restaurant is that they serve it 'Kung Fu' style where there's a pot of hot water, pot of tea leaves, serving pot and small cups, whereby you drink the tea in three sips.
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Iron Buddha, 'Kung Fu' style serving |
Scores:
Food: 4/5
Presentation: 4/5
Service: 3/5
Setting: 3/5
Overall: 14/20
Total bill: 191RMB for two, which is about 10GBP per head.
We ate: all of the above (and had to take some of the sweet dishes away).
We wore: winter garments - it was struggling to hit 10 degrees celsius in Guangzhou!
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