As one of the city's most iconic dishes, char siu can be found everywhere—but here are the restaurants that truly do it justice
It seems so simple, barbecue—throw some meat in a marinade, roast it, and voilà– but, like most things that seem easy to learn, mastery of the craft is difficult. Char siu, the lightly spiced, sweet and savoury roast pork, is a key piece in the Cantonese barbecue repertoire, and anyone who has walked past a siu mei (barbecue) shop, its windows brimming with slender slabs of glossy char siu, knows how irresistible it can be. It is possibly the most popular of the roast meats, sold everywhere from streetside takeaway shops to fine dining establishments, and the dish has a keen fanbase, each with their own favourites—we’ve used this guide to distill some of these picks and char siu knowledge.
See also: #NoCharSiuNoLife: An Ode To Cantonese Barbecued Pork
1. Canton Room
The char siu at the Gloucester Luk Kwok Hotel’s Cantonese restaurant shot to fame when they began serving char siu atop rice tossed with chopped red onions and roast pork drippings, accompanied by a fried egg, which is modelled after a dish that was depicted in the famed Stephen Chow comedy, The God of Cookery. The char siu itself is the mui tau cut (pork collar, or butt) from fresh local pork, with a light maltose glaze that is caramelised till the edges become quite charred. In the rice dish, it’s served in just two long, thick chunks for maximum Flintstones-esque satisfaction of biting into a big piece of meat; when ordered à la carte, the char siu is chopped into thick slices and served with the natural pork jus.
Canton Room, 1/F, Gloucester Luk Kwok Hotel, 72 Gloucester Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong; +852 2866 3806