Haolinju 豪林居 @ Shenzhen (2025)

Taking the homophone of the good neighbour in Mandarin, Haolinju is one of the best Teochew porridge restaurant in Shenzhen.

Haolinju 豪林居 is the place to go to in Shenzhen for Teochew cuisine 潮汕菜 and the late night Teochew-style seafood porridge 海鮮打冷, especially the marinated raw seafood 生腌. Most of the marinated seafood stores in Shenzhen are quite unhygienic but this one, with its brightly lit counters and clean tops, gives the consumers slightly more confidence that this “Teochew poison” is less “potent” than the rest.

The prices for the cooked fishes, aka 鱼饭 literally translated as “fish rice”, had gone up by 10 RMB since the last time we were here, and the popular items still sold out early as usual. We were there around 10pm, however that does not guarantee that you get everything.

Luckily the kitchen was still whipping out delicious Teochew dishes – they closed really late nights. Usually I would order my oyster porridge, a couple of marinated shellfish and crustaceans, Teochew-style crispy oyster omelette, among others. But Darling just had a surgery so we stuck to “safe bets” for the post-surgery patient. This was the first time I realised they have a menu and not just the samples and choices at their open counters.

生腌膏蟹 Marinated Raw Female Crab

I still could not resist ordering a portion of the raw marinated crab. Unlike Korean ganjang gejang, the traditional Teochew version used mud crabs, although the posher ones do use swimmer crabs sometimes. Late autumn is the best time to eat crabs, the female ones are full of eggs and roe. Yummy!

炖石斛花旗參雞 Double-Boiled Dendrobium Ginseng Chicken

It was a cold evening, and I ordered something warm and nutritious for Darling. 石斛 Shi Hu, aka Dendrobium, has pharmacological effects including antiviral, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant effects, as well as immune regulation. This double-boiled soup is supposed to help with recovery.

The soup has extracted all the goodness flavours of the chicken as well as the ingredients. Yet it is not heavy or oily, perfect soup for a cold evening.

清蒸石斑鱼 Steamed Grouper

Besides Teochew dishes, this restaurant also has live seafood tanks. We ordered a live grouper, farmed and around 1.2kg, steamed Cantonese style. Great size to be shared by two. Aquaculture in China has improved leaps and bounds, which brought down the price of all these seafood. Still it is around 180 RMB for the fish.

清炒菠菜 Sautéed Spinach

Simple stir-fry with bits of pork lard and a dash of fermented bean to bring up the rather boring spinach.

生滚菜粒粥 Boiled Vegetable Porridge

Instead of the usual oyster porridge, we ordered something simple and light – boiled vegetable porridge. The main ingredient is chopped Hong Kong Kailan, which is a local favourite, crunchy and sweet.

韭菜粿 Chives Kueh (Teochew Steamed Dumplings)

And for the mains, I ordered some Koo Chay Kueh, which we took only one and left the rest for breakfast tomorrow. The savoury filling is made with chopped chives (aka koo chay in Teochew), glass noodles and choped dried shrimps (aka haebee).

There are many good restaurants along this short stretch of Bagua Road 八卦路, but there’s a good reason why Haolinju is constantly full. If not for the crab or steamed grouper, the meal was less than ¥200. Not the cheapest in town, but tasty and hygienic are all that matter these days.

Haolinju Restaurant 豪林居餐馆
八卦一路鵬盛村8棟第一層8103-8105號
Tel : +86 (755) 8249 0389

Visited Oct 2025