Ok, guys, I’m really amped to tell you guys about this specific restaurant because I feel like it’s one of those places that should be kept a secret but shouldn’t because the food is just so damn good!! If you’re a sucker for amazing traditional Chinese food made in an authentic and beyond delicious way, then keep reading.
My friend Ying took me to one of her family’s favourite places in Johannesburg called Lau’s Restaurant, located on the second floor of a weird building next to a petrol station in Rivonia! The inside of Lau’s is definitely not going to win any interior design awards, in fact, it looks a bit like a wedding venue gone wrong. Picture if you will, roundtables, off-peach and cream tablecloths and chair covers, dramatic curtains and loads and loads of fluorescent lighting. But trust me you’re not there for the decor, even though it totally adds to the whole experience in the best way, you are there for the food, which will have you dreaming about each dish you ordered every night until you go back.
The best time to go to Lau’s Restaurant according to Ying is on a Sunday for brunch or what the Chinese call Yum Cha (brunch) which is really popular in all of Cantonese China but most famous in Hong Kong. Yum Cha literally means ‘to drink tea’ which is why they bring tea to the table as soon as you sit down. It generally involves small portions of steamed, pan-fried, and deep-fried dim sum dishes served in bamboo steamers, which are designed to be eaten communally and washed down with tea and it’s often attended by large groups of people or families.
What’s so awesome about Yum Cha is that all the food is laid out in front of you and then you just go around and pick and choose whatever you think looks good! So you are surrounded by steaming baskets and plates of amazing looking stuffed bao, dumplings and dim sum, fried duck, pork, rice and vegetables, spring rolls and things that not even I could recognise, but looked delicious none the less! Some of the dishes had to be explained to me, but everything looked and smelt amazing and trust me when I say that we went to town on the menu. You can definitely overdo it pretty quickly in this place, but your stomach doesn’t care at all, it’s just constantly saying ‘feeeeeeedddd meeeeee!!!!”.
I took a bunch of photos of all the dishes we tried, a lot of them contained pork, but there are a lot of vegetarian dishes too. I thought maybe a barrage of photos would drive this post home and leave you feeling all amped to go, so prepare to scroll. We’re actually going back tonight for dinner that’s why I thought I would pop this post up today, give you an idea for this coming Sunday perhaps.
On any other day you can order from the normal menu, which again Ying says is so really good, but if you want to go for Yum Cha on a Sunday you have to book and the best time to go is between 11am and 2pm, apparently, after that everything is basically gone and you don’t want that because you will be sad. Very sad.
I have listed a few things that we had on the day at the end of this post if you’d like to maybe keep them in mind. Also the prices are really reasonable! Hooray.
Enjoy.
Address: 329 Rivonia Blvd, Edenburg, Sandton, 2128
Telephone number: 076 722 2570
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