Canfa is a Cantonese-French fusion restaurant led by executive chef Jimmy Luo (罗杰文).
The restaurant is located down a quiet compound on Taian Lu in a beautiful lane house complete with a garden patio. (It opened in December 2023, but I had only just visited.)
The dining area is split between a bar counter overlooking the open kitchen and a few large tables tucked into the corners of the dimly lit room. There’s also a private room.
Dishes fuse Cantonese and French flavors and techniques. Not an easy mash-up I might add.
Of the dishes that stood out, the Braised Yellow Croaker was the most memorable. A whole yellow croaker is first cooked and smoked over the wood-fired grill, then braised in a thick sauce made with fish bone stock, Chaozhou pickles, fermented yellow chilies, and galangal. The sauce is fantastic, butter-based and silky with tanginess, spice, and umami. The fish is flaky, light, and naturally sweet.
This dish requires a two-day notice, as the fish is fresh caught in Fujian and then air-freighted to Shanghai on the same day.
I also liked the century egg (named Brotherhood), served with roasted eggplant purée and chili paste. The funkiness of the egg was desirable, and it had the perfect ratio of textures, jellied and gooey.
The Claypot Rice was excellent, topped with cured meats and a house blend of soy sauce seasoning. The three kinds of cured meats are all sourced from Guangzhou.
The claypot rice was thoroughly enjoyable, and they took their time to produce a nice amount of guoba (crispy rice).
Maitake mushrooms are charred on the grill, served with strips of suansun (fermented bamboo). It was OK, but I didn’t like it much because I’m not a huge fan of suansun, known for its pungent flavor. The Roasted & Smoked Cauliflower was serviceable, served with light Cantonese-style shacha (satay) sauce and cauliflower purée.
The Zhongshan Pigeon was almost perfect. It was fantastically juicy and flavorful, but lacked a crispy skin. It came coated in toasted cereal, which imparted a nice fragrance. Served with wanpee sauce and pigeon jus.
I did not like the Spaghetti with Pepper & Wagyu. M5 wagyu is diced up and cooked in a light, soupy sauce with zhacai (preserved mustard stem) and garnished with raw diced tomatoes. It’s like a pepper steak crossed with stroganoff. It was too watery, a bit flat, and the tomatoes didn’t add to the dish.
The fish is worth trying. FYI, Canfa’s signature dish is a salt-baked free-range chicken (¥666), pre-order also required, in case you’re interested.
Wines by the glass start at ¥68, bottles from ¥298.
