China travel food guide · Nº 008
Sweet and sour pork with pineapple (咕咾肉, gū lǎo ròu) is the Cantonese classic: bite-sized pieces of pork in a crisp batter, deep-fried and tossed in a glossy sweet-and-sour sauce with pineapple and green and red peppers. It comes from Guangdong – Hong Kong menus write 咕噜肉 (gu lou yuk in Cantonese) – and it is the original of the sweet and sour pork in Chinese takeouts abroad. In China you find it in Cantonese restaurants all over the country. Sweet first, then tangy; not spicy, no bones, not vegetarian.
The dish card
Tap the red Chinese name, the sweet & sour or the vegetarian line, Pineapple, Pork or a yellow ? to show it full-screen to the staff.
Partly edited with AITick what you need right on the card, then tap the big first line to show it full-screen to the staff – that is also where you choose sweeter or more sour.
The name is mostly sound: 咕咾 (gū lǎo) has no meaning of its own, and 肉 (ròu) is meat – here pork. The usual story is that it began as 古老肉 (gǔ lǎo ròu, “old-style pork”) and became 咕噜肉 (gū lū ròu) – 咕噜 is the sound of a rumbling stomach – because the two sound alike in Cantonese; nobody knows for sure. The method is the same everywhere: chunks of pork shoulder or loin are marinated, coated in a batter of egg and flour or starch, deep-fried – often twice, for crunch – and tossed for a few seconds in a thick sauce of sugar, vinegar and ketchup with pineapple and green and red pepper.
It is one of the best-known dishes of Cantonese cooking (粤菜, yuè cài) from Guangdong – at family dinners, at banquets and in every Cantonese restaurant (粤菜馆, yuè cài guǎn), in Guangzhou, Hong Kong and all over China. Cantonese emigrants took it abroad, which is how sweet and sour pork became a takeout classic in America and Europe. On a menu, 菠萝咕咾肉 (bō luó gū lǎo ròu) just spells out the pineapple (菠萝); 古老肉 and 咕噜肉 are the same dish. 糖醋里脊 (táng cù lǐ ji) and 糖醋小排 (táng cù xiǎo pái) are not: they are its cousins from Shandong and Shanghai – the quiz below shows them side by side.
It costs about ¥40–60 (US$6–9) in an ordinary restaurant in a big city (2026).
Sweet first, then sour – clearly sweeter than most Western palates expect. The sauce is sugar, rice vinegar and ketchup cooked until thick and shiny; some old-style kitchens add hawthorn or plum sauce for a fruitier sourness. The batter should stay crisp under the sauce and the pork juicy inside, while the pineapple adds fresh, juicy acidity and the peppers a little crunch. Not spicy at all. Eat it while it is hot: the longer it sits, the softer the batter gets.
Tastes like… Sweet and sour pork from American Chinese takeout – this is its Cantonese original. In China the pieces are usually smaller and the batter thinner and crisper, the sauce coats each piece instead of pooling on the plate, and pineapple is standard, not optional.
糖醋 (táng cù, “sugar and vinegar”) is a flavor nearly every part of China cooks its own way: battered pork in the south and in the north, ribs in Shanghai and Chongqing, whole fish around the lower Yangtze. 咕咾肉 is Guangdong’s. Tap a place to see the local one.
广州 · Guangzhou, Guangdong
咕咾肉gū lǎo ròu
This dish. Cantonese cooks fry the pork crisp and keep the sauce glossy and sweet, with pineapple and peppers; Hong Kong menus write 咕噜肉 (gu lou yuk in Cantonese). Cantonese emigrants took it to America and Europe, where it became the takeout classic.
Guangzhou city guide →Local versions are general knowledge, not a restaurant test – recipes vary from kitchen to kitchen. Map: province borders as on our other China maps.
Sweet and sour is a whole family in China – 糖醋 (táng cù), “sugar and vinegar” – and several members look alike in a menu photo. The order card above names two; here they are with a third from the northeast, all in our own photos.
Which one is sweet and sour pork with pineapple? Tap a photo.
糖醋里脊Sweet and sour pork strips
锅包肉Guobaorou
咕咾肉Sweet and sour pork with pineapple
糖醋小排Sweet and sour ribs
The one with pineapple: bite-sized pieces in a glossy sauce, with chunks of pineapple and green and red pepper – the pineapple gives it away. So does the name: 咕咾肉 and its menu names (菠萝咕咾肉, 古老肉, 咕噜肉) are this dish; a name starting with 糖醋 (táng cù) is a cousin.
Our photos: sweet and sour pork strips on a set-meal tray, 2025; guobaorou at a family meal in Shanghai, 2021; sweet and sour pork with pineapple in a restaurant in Nanjing, 2021; sweet and sour ribs on a set-meal tray, 2025.
Sweet and sour pork with pineapple contains wheat / gluten and egg, from the batter. It also contains pork in the typical recipe. Wok-fried: the kitchen may use peanut oil or oyster sauce (a mollusc) – ask if you are allergic.
In the usual recipe
Sometimes: if the kitchen uses peanut oil or oyster sauce.
Not in this dish (typical recipe)
B shrimp / crab, D fish, F soy, G milk, H tree nuts, L celery, M mustard, N sesame, O sulphites, P lupin
These are estimates from how the dish is usually made, not a restaurant’s declaration. Every kitchen and every sauce brand is different – always tell the staff about an allergy. Chinese kitchens often fry in peanut oil, and chilli oil may be made with it too; we don’t repeat that for each dish.
Not vegetarian: it is made with meat or seafood.
Not gluten-free: the wheat comes from the batter, and there is no version without it.
There is no pork-free version in the usual recipe. Some Cantonese restaurants make the same dish with chicken; ask with 有不放猪肉的吗？ (yǒu bú fàng zhū ròu de ma?) – tap Pork on the dish card.
Vegetarian (Buddhist) restaurants sometimes have 素咕咾肉 (sù gū lǎo ròu), made with mushrooms, tofu or wheat gluten (面筋, miàn jīn) instead of pork – vegetarian, but often not gluten-free. Ask with 有素咕咾肉吗？ (yǒu sù gū lǎo ròu ma?); the line is behind “Not vegetarian” on the dish card.
Ketchup, sugar and vinegar add none of the 14 allergens in the usual recipe: the wheat and the egg both come from the batter, and without the batter it would not be 咕咾肉. So there is no gluten-free or egg-free way to order it – pick another dish.
Two cards that go with every dish in this guide. The first shows where allergens hide in Chinese cooking – tap an ingredient to ask about it in Chinese. The second is a Chinese allergy card for the staff: tick your allergens right on the card and it turns into one sentence, full-screen.
Tap an ingredient to ask the staff about it in Chinese.
Tick your allergens on the card, then tap the big first line to show them full-screen to the staff. A question or the red line opens full-screen too.
General ingredient guidance, not a restaurant’s allergen declaration. Recipes vary by region, kitchen and chef – always tell the staff about an allergy.
It is the original. Cantonese emigrants took 咕咾肉 abroad, and takeouts in America and Europe made it their own. In China the pieces are usually smaller, the batter thinner and crisper, and the sauce clings to each piece instead of filling the plate; pineapple and peppers are always in it. Some kitchens sour the sauce with hawthorn or plum sauce rather than only ketchup and vinegar.
Not spicy at all. It is sweet first, then sour, and in Guangdong clearly sweet – sweeter than many visitors expect. For less sugar, tick 少放糖 (shǎo fàng táng) on the order card. In its full-screen view you can also ask for it 酸一点 (suān yìdiǎn, a little more sour) or 甜一点 (tián yìdiǎn, a little sweeter), and for less sauce, which keeps the batter crisp.
No: it is pork. Some vegetarian (Buddhist) restaurants make 素咕咾肉 (sù gū lǎo ròu) with mushrooms, tofu or wheat gluten instead – ask with 有素咕咾肉吗？ (yǒu sù gū lǎo ròu ma?); the line is behind “Not vegetarian” on the dish card. If you only avoid pork, some Cantonese restaurants make it with chicken.
No. The pork is coated in a batter of flour and egg before it is fried, and there is no version without it. Some kitchens use only starch, but you can’t tell from the menu, and the frying oil is shared with other battered dishes. Egg is in the batter too.
All three are battered, fried pork in a sweet-and-sour sauce. 咕咾肉 is Cantonese: bite-sized chunks with pineapple and peppers in a glossy red-brown sauce. 糖醋里脊 (táng cù lǐ ji), from Shandong, is long strips of tenderloin in a bright red-orange sauce, without fruit. 锅包肉 (guō bāo ròu), from Harbin, is big flat slices in a very crunchy, pale batter with a light glaze. 糖醋小排 (táng cù xiǎo pái) are Shanghai ribs, with bones and soy sauce. Test yourself in “Don’t mix it up” above.
About ¥40–60 (US$6–9) a plate in an ordinary restaurant in a big city (2026) – one plate is enough for one or two people with rice. A canteen portion costs much less; smart Cantonese restaurants charge more.
咕咾肉, in pinyin gū lǎo ròu (typed without tones: gu lao rou). Menus also say 菠萝咕咾肉 (bō luó gū lǎo ròu, with pineapple), 古老肉 (gǔ lǎo ròu) or 咕噜肉 (gū lū ròu, typed: gu lu rou) – gu lou yuk in Cantonese. In English it is sweet and sour pork, or pineapple pork. To order, show the staff the order card above, or tap the red Chinese name on the dish card.
Ordering in a restaurant, by QR code or in a canteen? Our restaurant walkthrough, the QR-code ordering walkthrough and the canteen walkthrough show each step.
The cards are our own. The dish photo on cards 1 and 2 is partly edited with AI; the other photos on this page are our own, unedited. Prices come from our dish library and are typical for an ordinary restaurant in a big city; dollar prices are rounded. Allergens are estimated from the usual recipe, checked against the 14 EU allergen groups and the 9 major US food allergens. Menu names, similar dishes and phrases are general knowledge – recipes vary by region, kitchen and chef.
