Canton-i — Restaurant in Petaling Jaya

My first time here yesterday afternoon, 11 Dec 2023 with my daughter. We were here for an early dinner. Just had tea so we were not very hungry.

After a long walk in the mall, we felt like having an early dinner before heading home.

We usually just pass this restaurant as we used to live in Guangzhou or Canton in China so we usually prefer some other cuisine.

However we often noticed many people in this restaurant so we decided to just check it out so we ordered a few ordinary dishes and wanted to see how authentic the food is.

Generally the portion is rather small compared to Guangzhou.

Beef is often uncommon amongst Cantonese cuisine so we tried the fried beef "ho fan" or flat rice noodles. The beef was tender and the noodles tasty so it was good.

Next we tried our favorite congee that we love in Guangzhou, the Cantonese called it "Teng Zai Jok", in this restaurant, it's Cuttlefish with mixed meat congee. Versions vary in different restaurants but here, the congee comes closest to what we had in China from what we had tried in many restaurants in Malaysia. It comes with a number of ingredients which I won't elaborate on but I only wished that the portion was bigger so that customers can truly enjoy this congee to a fuller extent. My daughter suggested that there should be an option for a bigger portion for order.

We felt like having just one more dish so my daughter wanted to try the fresh shrimp dumpling soup noodles. The fine egg noodles were authentic and the broth tasted good and we enjoyed the shrimp dumpling. Typical Cantonese or HK style shrimp dumpling...

It's been probably 2 years since I last stepped into Canton-i here at One Utama.

Love the new decor, it's bright, cheerful, exciting, lively. Another was the slightly different dishes on the menu - the cute piggy steam buns (wish they had a choice of fillings though, I prefer lotus paste to red bean) the little custard chicks with chocolate eggs). I was too full up to try their pineapple dishes though (next time around when I drop in). Best of all was the Jasmine tea... it came steaming hot, was truly fragrant and relaxing, I enjoyed several cups of it).

Update: 15th April 2021

Great place for a meal. I love their braised beef brisket wonton noodles, the cute steamed palace piggy buns.

You can also try their steamed golden egg yolk layer cake, the baked bbq pork pastry and the egg tarts.

There is a special dish that looks like 3 little birds and 3 little eggs in a bird nest called 'Fried custard dumpling with egg chocolate' but for now, it has been taken off the menu.

This last trip I made here, I noticed many other items struck off their menu to my consternation and great disappointment.

Hope it's a temporary measure due to the Covid-19 and not a permanent decision.

Otherwise I will have to look elsewhere for my beef noodles...

Canton-i is I believe, the sister company of Dragon-i. Between the two, presently, my preference is towards Canton-i.

Dragon-i seems like it's got stuck in its past glory. Didn't see anything different that would excite me enough to want to come back.

But this new decor is exactly my style, and I will certainly be...

I’m very familiar with this Hong Kong franchise, having visited it often back in Hong Kong for a dose of nostalgia. Their signature milk tea and poh loh pau are favourites. I was delighted to discover this branch in Malaysia!

We walked in with no wait time, and the service was polite, efficient, and brisk. The interior is modern, comfortable, and spacious, which made the experience even more enjoyable.

We ordered the baked pork buns, beef brisket noodles, dumpling noodles, fried pepper tofu, steamed siew mai, and lava buns (they were pleasantly not too sweet), from the yum cha menu. The Hong Kong milk tea tasted authentic, and every dish was delicious (the beef brisket was spot on very authentic- tender and flavourful), just like I remember from Hong Kong.

The only thing missing is they don’t serve the HK tea in their signature smiley cups (as seen in their menu) which the tea is normally served in back in HK. Regardless, the food presentation is also nice- I particularly like the gold and black presentation of the lava buns (see photo). The adorable kiddie pig buns were also a hit with my niece- colourful and cute even though she normally doesn’t like red bean.

Can’t fault this place at all. I definitely will be...