Home Food Reviews Canton-i @ The Gardens Mid Valley

After the launch of Deletable by Su, my dining companions decided to have dinner at Canton-i, in The Gardens Mid Valley. At close to 8pm, there was a long queue at the counter. We quickly took a number, and waited outside the restaurant. 30 minutes later, we finally got a table. The interior is bright and decorated with cherry blossom motifs, and furnished with white tables and chairs. They practice an open kitchen concept, so you can watch the chefs prepare your noodles and chop the roasted meats. I found the dining space very small and the tables were placed very close to each other. So close you can actually hear the conversation from the table next door. You can opt to pair your noodles with roasted chicken, duck, char siew, siew yuk or pork knuckles. I found it strange that the dry version costs RM1 more than the soup version – shouldn’t it be the other way around? The wanton noodles (RM4 for a plain portion) had a springy and slightly crunchy texture. However, the sauce wasn’t tasty enough for me – I still prefer the wanton noodles from PJ State and Fun Kee. I tried a spoon of porridge with deep-fried intestines, which had a very smooth texture. It felt as though I was drinking a very thick soup. The fried intestines were crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside. I’m not a fan of intestines, but if you are, you’ll enjoy this. I know Shum would – she loves innards, and I always pass my portion to her.The combination platter of char siew and siew yuk was extremely small, especially for the price tag it came with. That being said, the siew yuk was crispy, with a good ratio of melty fat and succulent meat. I thought the char siew was just alright; it was a bit too sweet for my liking. They should have given the sauce in a separate bowl, instead of pouring it all over the char siew. When the bowl of sui kows arrived at our table, I was surprised to see how huge they were. Each dumpling was full of prawns and minced pork. The prawns were fresh, sweet and crunchy; giving the plump sui kows a satisfying bite. We ended our meal with some custard egg buns – they were tiny and had a pretty purplish-swirl. While the rest of the buns had a generous amount of egg yolk custard, mine was hollow. I told the waiter about this, and he simply took the bun from my hand, tore it open and POURED OUT the abysmally scarce filling onto my plate. My dining companions and I were startled, and found him extremely rude. He then said he’ll get me another bun, but I lost my mood for it after the hoo haa earlier.

All in, I found the food mediocre and quite expensive for such tiny portions. While the wantan noodles were nice, I still prefer the coffeeshop / old school noodles better. The one thing they were very generous with was the MSG. We all felt very thirsty after the meal, and asking the waiter for more water was harder than begging for money.

Ambiance: 5/10 (crowded and noisy)
Price: 4/10

Food: 5/10 (non-halal)

Verdict: Come here only if you happen to be in a shopping mall and crave HK food.

LG-202 & 203A,
Lower Ground Floor,

The Gardens,

Mid Valley City.

03 2284 6888

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12 comments

Tee Lim October 8, 2009 - 1:46 am

I get what you mean by bad service. Went there twice with my wife and now its in our list of places not to go ;P

You may want to try Room Eighteen at Tropicana City Mall. Service aint that great but still bearable. Food it pretty good but the main thing is there is no MSG overdose.

When ordering, say roast pork, you can specify that you want "pun fei sau" and they actually take not of it and it is shown in the printout of the items ordered (but in mandarin though). So if you don't get what you actually ordered, you actually have a basis to complain.

I think its definitely a place to try out if you enjoy roast pork with crispy skin.

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"Joe" who is constantly craving October 8, 2009 - 3:12 am

yeah food n service has dropped quite abit..but wat to do, biz is good, n like they all say dont fix wats not broken

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thule a.k.a leo October 8, 2009 - 4:22 am

the food is OK la… the exorbitant price that we pay mostly is to pay for the salary and also rental (any idea on how much rental in the garden?)

So far I didn't encounter any bad service… went to The Garden once but prefer 1Utama due to the more spacious outlet compared to the garden's…

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worldwindows October 8, 2009 - 8:24 am

The food can be had in coffee shop and cheaper and nicer, sans the good ambiance and lower expectation on service.

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Eric October 9, 2009 - 1:56 am

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taufulou October 9, 2009 - 5:50 am

walk pass there alot of times and see at the menu pricing had turn me off…

now lagi with your coomment..will head to other place better.

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~Christine~Leng October 9, 2009 - 6:56 am

he is so rude! omg.

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bmw9700 October 11, 2009 - 3:23 am

not worth going there…really expensive for tiny portions..definitely on my 'not to go' list

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rokh October 11, 2009 - 3:26 pm

mmm, i did have better experience at this place…will think twice now before returning

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Bangsar-bAbE October 16, 2009 - 10:09 am

rokh – Maybe it's just my luck…because the service and food at 1U wasn't good either.

bmw9700 – The tiny portions didn't bug me as much as the service did…

Christine – Ya lor…terrible fella!

taufulou – Hmmmm…you MIGHT get better service…who knows?

worldwindows – Coffeeshop much better…and it won't cost more than RM10 per meal!

leo – Err…I'll still stick to my good ol' coffeeshop. =P

Joe – Sad…but true.

Tee Lim – Thanks for the tip!

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豆芽。黑色 January 20, 2010 - 5:02 pm

Hi, accidentally saw your post bout Canton-i, The Gardens and I desperately want to support your point of view on bad service. I had my dinner today in that restaurant but end up very unhappy as the staff (called John Wong!!) treated me like a stupid from kampung and even worse by not looking at me while talking to me (am I invisible?). I just drop a complain email and wondering when will they response to my email. Haha! For me, no next time, not even other branches. I rather spend my money on good food and good service.

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