A hotel Cantonese restaurant paying tribute to street-side dai pai dong cooking is a fun inversion, and Xin Cuisine mostly pulls it off. We went down to Holiday Inn Singapore Atrium to eat through Chef Kwan's Guangzhou souvenirs before the menu ends on 31 October.
> Quick view: Guangzhou Delicacies at Xin Cuisine, Level 4, Holiday Inn Singapore Atrium (317 Outram Road), until 31 Oct 2026. Six specials, ordered a la carte alongside the regular menu. Closed Mon & Tue. Reserve: WhatsApp +65 9114 0281 / tel 3138 2531. *Disclosure: we dined as guests at a media tasting.*
The backstory
Executive Chinese Chef Kwan built this menu after a recent eating trip through Guangzhou, and the throughline is 大排档 nostalgia: the open-air stalls where many Cantonese chefs, him included, learned the trade. The dishes stay refined in execution, but the flavour references are street-level comfort rather than banquet showpieces.
What we ate
Crispy Deep-Fried Quail (酥炸脆鹌鹑) was the table's photogenic star: two birds with glassy, mahogany skin over a nest of crisped rice vermicelli. The skin shatters the way good roast pigeon skin does, and the meat underneath stays juicy.
Boston Lobster (500g) in Superior Broth with Rice Noodles (陈川粉上汤波士顿龙虾) is the headline order: a whole 500-gram lobster over slippery rice noodles in a golden superior broth that reads richer than its clear colour suggests. This is the one to share so everyone gets the noodles soaked in that broth.
Stone Pot Crispy Grass Carp Fillet in Rich Papaya Soup (石锅万寿果浓汤煮脆鲩鱼片汤) arrives still bubbling in its granite pot, the broth milky-gold with sweet papaya cubes against the fried-then-simmered carp. It is the most dai pai dong dish of the set in spirit, comfort in a stone bowl.
Tender Beef Offal Slowly Cooked in Five-Spice with Radish (五香萝卜焖牛什) is the real nostalgia play: 牛杂 is Guangzhou street food royalty, and this claypot version keeps the honeycomb tripe, tendon and radish properly soft in a five-spice braise that smells like the stalls it is quoting.
Steamed White Eel with Black Bean Sauce (原笼鼓汁蒸白鳝) comes to the table in its bamboo steamer on a lotus leaf, thick cutlets of eel under fermented black beans and spring onion, a dish you rarely see outside serious Cantonese kitchens these days.
Red Bean Rice Cake (红豆砵仔糕) closes the arc neatly: put chai ko is about as humble as Cantonese desserts get, and here it is a glossy, wobbly dome studded with whole red beans, eaten the traditional way, off skewers.
Worth knowing before you go
- The specials are ordered a la carte alongside Xin Cuisine's regular menu, so a table can mix the Guangzhou dishes with the restaurant's signatures (the roast duck with tea leaves has its own fan club). Prices for the specials are available when you reserve.
- Closed every Monday and Tuesday. Lunch runs Wed-Fri 11.30am-3pm and Sat-Sun in two seatings (11.30am-1pm, 1.15pm-3pm); dinner runs Wed-Sun 5.30pm-9.30pm, last order 9pm.
- Free corkage for the first bottle of wine or champagne, and IHG One Rewards members currently earn 2X points on dining.
- Where: Xin Cuisine, Level 4, Holiday Inn Singapore Atrium, 317 Outram Road, Singapore 169075. Reservations: WhatsApp +65 9114 0281, tel +65 3138 2531, or xin.sinhi@ihg.com.
