Guelph BBQ

Roast duck, lacquered char siu, and crisp-edged roast pork hang in the case at Guelph BBQ — a Cantonese roast-meat counter more often found in a big-city Chinatown than in a South End strip plaza. Cantonese roast meats, siu mei, are what the kitchen is built around, and it shows them off rather than tucking them away. Roasting them well is slow, exacting work, and putting the results in the window is a way of declaring what Guelph BBQ wants to be known for. It is a working everyday kitchen all the same: open seven days a week, built for takeout, and broad enough that a table rarely leaves without finding its plate. Order the meats first, and the rest of the menu falls in behind them.

The Chinese-style BBQ section leads the menu, and it rewards a direct order. Roast duck is the clearest first choice; honey BBQ pork carries the sweet-savoury char siu lane; roast pork brings the crisp-edged richness that sets the other two off. Soy chicken rounds out the lineup with something gentler. The Three Style BBQ Items plate exists for exactly this comparison, letting a table read duck, pork, and chicken side by side, and the meats keep travelling from there — piled over rice as BBQ duck and BBQ pork on rice, folded into noodle soups, or carried into the larger combination orders.