Baking & Co. (Shenzhen, CHINA) ★★★★☆

Baking & Co. is an artisan bakery café at RAIL-IN (睿印) Shopping Mall in Shenzhen’s Nanshan District, where baked goods are made fresh on-site in small batches to keep everything at its peak. While they don’t have a huge variety of products, their bread and cakes have quietly built a loyal following over the past few months thanks to consistently high quality.

I ended up dropping by the bakery just before heading to the rapid train station to see what they have in store for me. Not surprisingly, a lot of their items were already sold out leaving empty shelves everywhere inside the shop.

Well, almost everywhere except for their cake counter.

Baking & Co. offers two types of cakes only: a range of chiffon cakes and Basque burnt cheesecakes. I was eyeing their Basque cheesecake all the way. 

Sea salt pistachio strawberry Basque cheesecake (海鹽開心果草莓巴斯克) (¥38) — 

While their yuzu matcha Basque cheesecake gets most of the attention for its intensely rich matcha flavor, I decided to go in a different direction this afternoon.

Sea salt pistachio strawberry Basque cheesecake delivered a really bold pistachio flavor. The combination of roasted pistachios, homemade strawberry jam, and kiri cream cheese added a lovely contrast in both texture and taste, with everything working together to balance the richness of the cheesecake. I’ll definitely be back for one of these again soon.

Food Rating: 6.3/10

Price: ¥¥¥

Address: Shop B216, Level B2F, RAIL-IN Mall, Nanshan district, Guangzhou, China

深圳市南山区深圳湾睿印负2层B216店铺

Closest Metro Station: Hongshuwan (紅樹灣) / Hongshuwan South (紅樹灣南)

Tel: +86 13049430150

Opening Hours: 8:30am - 10:00pm (Mon - Thu), 8:30am - 10:30pm (Fri - Sun)

Map: https://j.map.baidu.com/bf/wDAM

Tao Tao Ju Premium Shenzhen Bay MixC 陶陶居 · 臻品 深圳灣萬象城二期店 (Shenzhen, CHINA) ★★★★☆

It’s been a while since we last visited any branch of Tao Tao Ju (陶陶居), so on our possibly last trip to Shenzhen before the start of summer holidays, we decided to stop by its Shenzhen Bay MixC (深圳灣萬象城) outpost for a visit.

To avoid lining up outside the restaurant, we called a few days in advance to secure a private room.

Wow, look at the space in this room!

Tao Tao Ju's jumbo prawn dumpling (陶陶居大蝦餃) (¥36) — What happened to the third prawn dumpling!? Someone ran off with it before I had the chance to take a photo. 😅😅

Steamed 5+ Rushan oysters with garlic (蒜茸蒸 5+乳山生𧐢) (¥15 each) — We’ve had this a zillion times already. The oysters were really big and fluffy, and they just worked perfectly with the garlic purée.



Venus clam with bell pepper and black bean (豉椒炒花甲) (¥58) — First time having venus clams here, and I have to say I’m pretty satisfied. The portion was generous, and the clams really did a nice job absorbing the sauce from the chili, pepper, and black beans.

Sweet and sour pork (冰鎮咕噜肉) (¥88) — A crowd pleaser as always. 

Steamed red rice rolls with crispy prawn (錦綉海鮮紅米腸粉) (¥36) — I’m a fan of traditional steamed rice rolls, but my team loved the crispy textures that came from the different layers of this red rice roll. Not bad at all.

Pan-fried turnip cake with XO sauce (XO醬炒蘿蔔糕) (¥30) — The crust was pretty crispy but I thought they were a little heavy-handed with the seasoning.

Steamed bean curd roll in chicken stock (雞湯腐皮卷) (¥39) — I always love anything with bean curds in it but I could live without the coriander and there were more than a handful in each roll.

Sizzling lettuce in clay pot (啫啫生菜煲) (¥52) — Another fan favorite here. Love the crisp lettuce that almost burns my tongue every time.

Steamed minced scallop and sea urchin dumpling in chicken stock (雞湯玉帶金魚餃) (¥39) — The mix of scallops and sea urchin was unbeatable, and the chicken stock really took it to another level.

Jumbo-sized Guangzhou-style youtiao (安心廣式大油條) (¥13) — This tasted better than it used to. Or maybe it’s been too long since we last had it.

Signature barbecued pork (金牌秘制叉燒) (¥89) — One of the least satisfying dish this afternoon. I still remembered the first time we had this at Golden Tao Tao Ju more than two years ago.

Where are the beautiful charred marks? And there was way too much honey making it far sweeter than it should be.

It was an enjoyable meal especially with the privacy we had in the VIP room. Service was excellent again, with multiple servers checking on us every few minutes to make sure our tea was topped up. The dim sum parade wasn’t bad either.

This is probably part of the reason why a lot of Hongkongers have almost given up on the local dining scene. Service and price-wise, it wasn't even close.

Food Rating: 6.6/10

Price: ¥¥¥

Address: Shop B190, Zone B, Level B1 Shenzhen Bay MixC, 3213 Keyuan South Road, Nanshan, Guangzhou, China

深圳市南山区粤海街道海珠社区科苑南路3213号深圳湾万象城B1层B区B190号铺

Closest Metro Station: Houhai (后海)

Tel: +86 (755) 8382-8865

Opening Hours: 9:00am - 9:30pm daily

Map: https://j.map.baidu.com/f3/WcIk

Tempura Suzuki 天婦羅鈴木 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

My team is off to meet up with Madame Taekwondo in Shenzhen this weekend leaving yours truly behind in Hong Kong. Rather than going up to SZ myself, I decided to stay local. Tempura Suzuki (天婦羅鈴木) and Tempura Tenon (天婦羅天穩) have long been on my to-do list so this was the perfect timing to cross one off that list. Tempura Suzuki eventually got the nod with its proximity to my next destination after lunch.

I didn’t recall visiting the 10-seater counter-only restaurant before but judging from how they replied to me via WhatsApp with my surname (I didn’t initially tell them my name), there was a chance that I have visited a restaurant within their group before.

During lunch service, there was a choice of two tempura sets: a basic course set ($580) and a premium omakase course set ($1,580). Since I wasn’t in the mood for a big feast, I went with the simpler tempura set.

Deep-fried sesame tofu (胡麻豆腐) — The thin batter of the homemade sesame tofu worked really well with the dashi.

The delicate, deep sesame flavors were complemented nicely by a subtle hint of wasabi.

Shrimp head — I got not one but two shrimp heads!

As always, crispy and very delicate.

Shrimp — Fresh and springy. No wonder it’s always a fan favorite. (And no, I didn't get two shrimps despite having two heads!)

Red eggplant (赤茄子) — Crispy on the outside and soft, melt in the mouth inside. 

One of the best memorable item of the meal this afternoon.

Thread fish (姫魚) — Silky but not overly oily. I liked the mild flavor of the fish with minimal seasoning, and just a few drops of the zesty lemon juice already made a huge difference.

Myoga ginger (茗荷) — As expected, there was some extra heat from the ginger but it was relatively light.

At this point, I took a break from the deep-fried goodness. Next up, a refreshing dish of cuttlefish sashimi. 

The cuttlefish itself was soft in texture and not overly flavorful, but fortunately, the bonito consommé jelly, tomato, and perilla flowers came to the rescue. A touch of shiso helped elevate the overall flavors.

Japanese red pepper🌶️ (紅椒) — Very very juicy.

Love this.

Scallop — Two thin slices of scallop tempura were served with truffle salt.

Maitake mushroom (舞茸) — Apart from the shrimp, the vegetables has apparently become a highlight of this meal. The highlights started with the eggplant and red pepper, and continued with this maitake: crispy, tender, and deeply satisfying.

Sea eel (穴子) — Another one that works well with the thin batter.

This looked like the same sea eel tempura but served with a homemade sea eel sauce (鰻魚汁), topped with sancho pepper, and wasabi. Of course, the highlight of the dish was the crispy fish bone which delivered a lovely crunch.

I usually choose tendon (天丼) with a freshly fried kakiage whenever possible but this afternoon, I wasn't offered a choice anyway.

The tendon was served with some nice pickles.

And a bowl of red miso soup.

Dessert was a scoop of coconut ice-cream and homemade yokan (羊羹). A sweet ending to my relaxing tempura lunch.

Service was outstanding today, and that matters especially with all the different Japanese ingredients in the meal. The only thing I felt a little gutted about was not choosing the more luxurious set with all the premium ingredients.

Food Rating: 7.1/10

Price: $$$$

Address: 1/F, 11 Stanley Street, Central, Central, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Central

Tel: +852 2861-0018

Website: https://www.instagram.com/tempura_suzuki/

Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 3:00pm, 6:30pm - 11:00pm daily