Panxi Restaurant

Panxi Restaurant sits directly on the shore of Liwan Lake in the historic Lychee Bay area of Liwan District, occupying grounds first laid out as a private pleasure garden during the Southern Han period roughly a thousand years ago before being rebuilt as a restaurant in the 1940s. It is often described as the largest garden-style restaurant in China, with a sprawling complex of covered walkways, koi ponds, pavilions and lakeside terraces that make a meal here feel closer to a stroll through a classical Lingnan garden than a typical restaurant visit. The kitchen has long been associated with Guangzhou's signature roast goose, prepared with the crackling skin and rendered fat that define Cantonese siu mei, and it also turns out an extensive dim sum menu including a distinctive lotus-leaf steamed basket and a deep-fried taro puff shaped into a nest and stuffed with meat and vegetables, a dish widely credited to Panxi's kitchen. Weekend mornings bring a heavy flow of both local families marking celebrations and visitors touring the Lychee Bay heritage area, and the lakeside terrace tables, which offer the best views of the water and surrounding pavilions, are the first to be reserved. The restaurant sits an eight-minute walk from Exit B of Zhongshanba Station on Metro Line 5, making it straightforward to reach without a car, and it pairs naturally with a walk along the restored canals and old Xiguan shophouses of the surrounding Lychee Bay district.