Canton 8

We had our last meal at the airport at Canton 8, which is a Michelin-starred restaurant in Shanghai known for its traditional Cantonese cuisine and dim sum. As one of the more affordable Michelin-starred restaurants, they specialise in traditional Cantonese cuisine

The outlet was located in Terminal 2 airside, but it seems to no longer be there when I searched the latest airport listing. I decided to still post this review since they still have outlets in central Shanghai. The outlet at the airport was small and open concept, with some of their seats flowing onto the walkway

The seats within the restaurant were also limited to about 10 groups, and orders had to be made at the counter before getting a table

Firstly, since it was an outlet at the airport, there were many sets which included a main and some sides. We ordered a noodle dish, which was paired with some dim sum. The chicken feet and prawn dumplings were the first to be served. The flavour was quite mediocre and reminded me of the general dim sum served at a general food court or hawker centre

Next, we had the curry fishballs and noodles, which were part of the set with the dim sum. The pork chop noodles soup and prawn dumpling soup noodles were quite a small serving, but just nice for 1 person. The curry fishball was decent, with good bounce and just enough kick in the spice. Meanwhile, the egg noodles had a nice chewy texture, but the soup broth was not great and rather bland. The pork chop and dumplings were decent enough in terms of freshness and meat texture, but the flavour was mediocre

Last but not least, we have the baked polo buns with butter, the toast bun with butter and sweetened condensed milk and the baked char siew pastry. While we were quite disappointed by the other dim sums and noodles, the baked goods were surprisingly alright in terms of flavour. The char siew pastry was flaky with a nice, sweet, and savoury filling, while the polo buns had a good crust on top. The toasted bun with condensed milk and butter was a no-brainer as long as the bread is toasted till crispy

Overall, I am not sure if the food is mediocre only at this outlet or if the standards have dropped overall. I did some research, and it seems like the reviews of the other outlets were also not too good. Other than the affordable prices at a location like the airport, and the generally ok baked goods, I would probably skip eating here again