You Can Count on Canton

With plates mounded high with mouthwatering favorites that arrive almost instantly at the table, it’s obvious how Chinese food lends itself to sharing and enjoying. No matter how handy you are with a pair of chopsticks, you and your lunch guests are sure to make quick work of any of the dishes at Canton Seafood Restaurant or Canton Dim Sum, where the same menu items and specials can be found.

First up, sink your teeth into a bite of Canton Fried Noodles ($5.99), which feature the Hong Kong style of noodle — “the thin one,” says Canton Seafood Restaurant manager Peng Gong — stir-fried with a confetti of char siu, bean sprouts, cabbage, green onions and the chef’s special shoyu-based sauce, ready to be enjoyed by the chopstick full.

Another item diners can’t wait to get their utensils on, according to Gong, is Canton Crispy Chicken on Rice ($5.99). “It’s very popular,” he says. Its crisp skin and tender meat are amply flavored from a secret marinade. “The chef doesn’t want his secret recipe out,” says Gong, but the chef does admit to adding shoyu, chicken bouillon, pepper and many more ingredients, MSG not being one of them. It’s the marinade that makes this crispy chicken stand out from other restaurants’ versions. The recipe stays within the Canton tradition, where the chef was born and raised. The crispy chicken is served with choi sum and a generous portion of rice for this lunch special.

If you are having a hard time narrowing in on just one of more than 150 lunch options, like Wun Tun Noodle Soup ($5.99), why not settle for four options? The Holiday Special ($29.99, serves two to four people) gives you and your guests a half Canton Crispy Chicken, a whole Deep Fried Flounder with lemon-grass, Choi Sum with oyster sauce, Sweet and Sour Pork or Pan Fried Spring Beans and steamed rice. These are the most popular customer-approved items on the menu, but substitutions are allowed. What’s not to love about the crunchy chunks of pork lacquered in sweet and sour sauce and paired with pineapple or similarly crunchy and shrimp paste-topped green spring beans?

Gong ensures that lunchtime service is quick, but if you need to shave a few extra minutes off your sit-down lunch, call in advance to make a reservation and order so your food will be ready when you arrive. And take Gong’s word for it, with satisfying food and quick, friendly service, “Canton Seafood Restaurant is a good place to come for business meetings.”

Canton Seafood Restaurant

923 Keeaumoku St., Honolulu
955-3388
Daily, 10 a.m.-midnight

Canton Dim Sum

Market City Shopping Center
2919 Kapiolani Blvd.
735-1688
Daily, 7 a.m.-9 p.m.