Cantonese food (粤菜, Yuè cài) is the native cuisine of Guangdong, and the everyday table in Shenzhen: lightly cooked vegetables, clear soups, roast meats, seafood, and morning dim sum. It is not all sweet-and-sour, and it is not all dumpling baskets. This page is a menu decoder — dishes with their Chinese characters — so you can order in a local restaurant. For the ritual of yum cha, see our dedicated dim-sum guide. We will name a restaurant only after a dated visit, which this explainer does not pretend to be.
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重要な事実
| The cuisine | 粤菜 (Yuè cài), Cantonese / Yue, is Guangdong’s native cooking and Shenzhen’s everyday food |
|---|---|
| Dim sum | 点心 (diǎnxīn), usually in the morning and at lunch. See our yum cha guide |
| Roast meats | 烧味 (shāo wèi / siu mei): roast goose, char siu, soy sauce chicken, crispy pork |
| What it is not | Not a synonym for ‘Chinese food,’ and not the same as Hakka or Chaoshan cooking, which Shenzhen also has |
| Restaurants | We explain dishes here. We do not rank rooms we have not sat in |
What Cantonese cooking is
Cantonese cuisine (粤菜, Yuè cài) is the cooking of Guangdong and of neighbouring Hong Kong and Macau, and it is the default “local food” in Shenzhen. The usual virtues are freshness, a light hand with oil, a clear soup, and seafood or roast meat that still tastes of itself. Sweet-and-sour pork exists; it is not the cuisine.
Shenzhen also eats Hakka and Chaoshan food, because so many of its residents came from those parts of Guangdong. Those are cousins, not the same table. Our Shenzhen food guide is the wider map.
Dishes worth knowing, with their names
- 点心 (diǎnxīn) — dim sum. Small plates, usually morning to early afternoon, with tea. This is a meal with its own rhythm; we gave it a separate guide.
- 烧味 (shāo wèi), Cantonese siu mei — roast meats displayed in the window: 烧鹅 (shāo é) roast goose, 叉烧 (chāshāo) barbecue pork, 白切鸡 (báiqiē jī) white-cut chicken, 油鸡 (yóu jī) soy chicken, 烧肉 (shāo ròu) crispy roast pork. Ordered by weight or over rice (饭, fàn) or noodles.
- 云吞面 (yúntūn miàn) — wonton noodles, often in a clear shrimp-roe broth.
- 蒸鱼 (zhēng yú) — steamed fish, usually with soy, ginger and spring onion. A whole fish is a celebration dish and a Tuesday dish.
- 煲仔饭 (bāozǎi fàn) — claypot rice, with a crust at the bottom, often with sausage or spare rib.
- 老火汤 (lǎohuǒ tāng) — a slow-simmered soup, the house’s pride in a more traditional restaurant.
- 干炒牛河 (gānchǎo niú hé) — beef ho fun, wok-fried rice noodles. A test of a Cantonese wok.
- 菜心 (càixīn) or 芥兰 (gàilán) — Chinese broccoli or flowering greens, often with oyster sauce (蚝油). Vegetarians should say so; oyster sauce is not vegetarian. See our diet guide.
How to sit down and order
A modest Cantonese meal is shared: one soup or broth, one meat or fish, one vegetable, and rice. You do not need a banquet table. Point at the characters on the menu or in the window; a translation app helps, and so does the short list above. Morning yum cha is a different pace — more baskets, more tea, a stamp card in some houses.
Prices vary by room and by the market price of a fish. A simple roast-meat rice in an ordinary shop is an everyday amount of money; a steamed grouper in a banquet hall is not. We will give bands when we have a dated bill. Pay as you would anywhere in the city, usually by Alipay or WeChat Pay, and do not tip.
For a Guangzhou comparison on the same cuisine, the day-trip page is Shenzhen to Guangzhou. We will write Guangzhou restaurants when we have eaten in them.
よくある質問
Is Shenzhen food the same as Guangzhou food?
The same cuisine, in a younger city, with more immigrants and therefore more of everything else — Hakka, Chaoshan, Hunan, Sichuan. A good Cantonese restaurant in Shenzhen is very close to what you would eat in Guangzhou. The streets around it may be more mixed.
What should I order first?
If it is morning, dim sum. If it is lunch or dinner, a roast-meat rice or noodle plate (烧味), a clear soup, a green vegetable, and, if you eat seafood, a simple steamed fish. Share plates. You do not need a set banquet.
Is Cantonese food spicy?
Not usually. Flavour leans on freshness, soy, ginger, spring onion and a careful broth. Chilli is a condiment you add, not the base. If you want spice, Shenzhen has plenty of other cuisines.
Where can I eat vegetarian Cantonese food?
Vegetable dishes are easy to find; a clean vegetarian kitchen is a more specific request. See our vegetarian, halal and allergy guide, and show the restriction in Chinese.