Canton Road Shangri-la the Fort BGC Honest Review

I had eaten at Canton Road previously and remember not being particularly impressed with the fare. It was a rushed meal though as we were doing pictorials and everything. So for Christmas day, I decided to take another stab at it, especially since we were already staying at Shangri-la and my grandparents clearly prefer Chinese food.

As it was Christmas, I decided it was likely safer to reserve instead of walking in. I don’t think they had a lot of guests to be honest. Initially they told me there was a pre-set menu, but two days before my cooking, they allowed me to choose from the ala carte menu too. Likewise, they requested I pre-order, but I saw some guests walking in and just choosing their orders on the spot. I suspect they had realized they didn’t have sufficient volume of diners so ended up being a bit more lenient.

I appreciated pre-ordering though, because the food was ready and started coming out as soon as we sat down. Wonderful. What a great start to our meal.

With regards to the dishes, I ordered the following soups: Chefs Special Daily Soup (wintermelon soup with chicken) (₱328) and Sweet and Sour Soup (₱358). The wintermelon soup was excellent. Light but flavorful. The sweet and sour soup was… Interesting. Also good, but definitely not the typical hot and sour soup we’re accustomed to. It definitely had a stronger kick to it, which I found was the case for all their dishes apparently.

Next, we had the Efu noodles, assorted seafood and straw mushrooms (₱698). The servings are quite generous actually – sufficient for all 7 of us. I found this noodle dish rather dry, but it tasted a lot better once I added the black truffle sauce (from the simmered free range chicken dish)

Next up, we got Simmered free range chicken, shallots in black truffle sauce (₱698). This was excellent. Chicken very tender, sauce incredibly flavorful.

After that came the Szechuan style poached chili group fillet, pickled vegetables (₱1188). This is a classic Szechuan dish. After you’ve eaten the fish, you can then drink the soup, which is very hearty and VERY spicy. Gosh, this was good. Such a balm on a cold night. The fillet itself was pretty normal.

Next came the Bok choy, wood fungus, and wolfberries in superior broth (₱588). This was just ok. Nothing memorable.

Fujian seafood fried rice (₱598) came next. Reminds me of North Park’s fried rice, but this one had a lot more seafood toppings. Quite good, but I was also starting to become quite full at this point.

Next up: Black pork mapo tofu dusted szechuan pepper (₱598). Typical mapo tofu just a lot spicier. Difficult to go wrong with this dish honestly.

The last dish that came out was the Homemade soy milk tofu, aspargus, minced pork in mixed mushroom gravy (₱588). I don’t know why they left this for last. It’s such a shame because this was SO GOOD. Arguably my favorite dish for the night, but we were all so full at this point, the others barely had this.

Finally, for dessert, I chose the Swan shaped taro puff pastry (₱228). It’s very beautiful. The taro pastry itself was also alright, but nothing too WOW.

As you can see, we were not overly impressed with our meal food-wise. But what was amazing was the service. The assigned server was very attentive and helpful, anticipating our needs before we even realized it. Food came out promptly too, always a big plus in my books. Ambiance was great and very calming.

Overall – while the food is nothing to write home about, I’d definitely come back here for a fuss free meal, especially since the prices are not bad given the serving size of their dishes.