Satisfy Your Chinese Craving At Shalow Waters

As a self-proclaimed food critic – who owns the pasta belly to prove it – it is of utmost importance to always know where the best Italian, steak and Chinese restaurants in my area are. The latter of those three is one of the most important. For many years now I have been battling my addiction to sweet and sour pork, and nothing, I say NOTHING makes or breaks a mainland China menu like good sweet and sour pork. This brings us to Shallow Waters in Northcliff, which is situated in the popular L Corro Shopping Centre. The restaurant itself is spacious and dimly lit, which adds to the ambience and recreates the tranquillity of the scenic Chinese city of Yangshuo. Tsing Tao is served ice cold and professional sushi chefs dance their fingers across sharp sashimi knives in preparation of beautiful platters of seaweed, rice and raw fish. Above and beyond the main menu, which is similar to all Chinese restaurants, is the flavour – which is the reason we’re all here, right? I’ve had sweet and sour pork in many restaurants from here to Kimberley but none come close to that prepared by the kitchen at Still Waters. It’s almost as if each slice of meat is individually cared for and marinated and rolled in sesame seeds and served with egg fried rice just for me. The vegetarian options on the menu are fair but few apart, but there is a hidden option the restaurateurs don’t advertise – and we came upon this completely by accident. The meat in most dishes can be replaced with tofu, which is brilliant and opens up the veg choices tenfold – just make sure they have in stock when ordering. Other favourites on the menu include the dumplings and chicken hot pot. For dessert, Shallow Waters boasts a weird and wonderful list of items such as the classic deep fried ice cream and deep fried banana, and then they’ve added deep fried litchi as an option as well which I’ve not yet had but I have to say that it looks extremely interesting. So, what I’m saying is if you’re into sweet and sour pork and classic sit-down Asian dining then take my word for it and check out Shallow Waters – you won’t be disappointed. By Shawn Greyling