Cantonese cuisine is widely considered the finest regional cooking in China, and Guangzhou is where you eat it at its best. The essential morning experience is yum cha — dim sum with tea, served from early morning until midday, when restaurants fill with multi-generational families. Classic destinations include Tao Tao Ju on Dishifu Road (open since 1880) and Panxi Restaurant beside Liwan Lake. Order har gow (prawn dumplings), siu mai (pork and prawn), cheung fun (silky rice rolls), and char siu bao (barbecue pork buns).
Beyond dim sum, the city excels at roast meats — char siu (glazed pork), siu yuk (crispy roast pork belly), and roast goose — served over rice or noodles at dedicated roast-meat counters throughout the day. Fresh seafood is cooked simply with ginger and soy. In the evening, the streets around Beijing Road and Zhuang Qian Cun fill with restaurants and hotpot places.
The Tianhe and Zhujiang New Town area has Guangzhou's most international dining scene, with Japanese, Korean, and European restaurants alongside the Cantonese staples.