Why You Might Want To Skip Sweet And Sour Chicken At A Chinese Restaurant

Exclusives

The Popular Chicken Dish You Should Pass On At A Chinese Restaurant By Maria Scinto Sept. 23, 2025 7:00 am EST

One ordering mistake you might make at a Chinese restaurant is not sharing your food with the other guests in your party. (How else can you taste more than one entree?) But another one involves ordering the wrong items. According to Maricel Gentile, owner of Maricel's Kitchen and author of " Maricel's Simply Asian Cookbook ," one thing you should definitely skip is sweet-and-sour chicken. "Cantonese sweet-and-sour is an authentic dish, but what we often see in the United States is a magnified version of just one part of the flavor profile," she explained. "Cantonese cooking is about harmony, not excess."

Sweet-and-sour dishes do exist in traditional Chin