Koi Palace Restaurant

DO NOT LEAVE YOUR CAR OR VALUABLES UNATTENDED. GOT ROBBED OF OVER $5,000 OF STUFF. THE RESTAURANT MANAGERS DO NOT EVEN CARE. PROBABLY GETTING KICKBACKS FROM THE THIEVES. SHOULD PROBABLY DO A STING OPERATION HERE. more

Amazing dim sum. More expensive than the norm, but so worth the price. When I go to Yank Sing, I tend to feel like I am overpaying but somehow when I come here, I never feel like I overpaid even though I know it costs more than the norm. more

We went to the restaurant with 4 adults and 1 toddler. I don't know where does the restaurant come up this rule: If you are over 5 people per table, you will be charged 15% tips(lunch) automatically. I am pretty sure ,it was not on the menu. and plus, our 5th people is just a 18months toddler.. We were forced to pay 15% tips with their so-call high-class service. I even talked to their manager about this. The manager insisted we should be counted as 5 adults and don't want to let me go if I didn't pay the 15% tips. Is this robbery or what? We will never dine there again.. Eddie Pros: food is okay Cons: the service is below average more

If you have to get a number and wait, you are a 2nd class customer who would have to wait and wait. For a regular customer who passes tips first to the head waiter, you get seated ahead of those with numbers waiting. I know of some customers without numbers who would go to ""another waiting spot"" to get manager's attention to get prompt seating without a number being called. Pros: Food Good Cons: Unfair Long Wait more

The restaurant is huge and you definitely need reservations for dinner. The food is comprised of expensive and good if not high quality ingredients but is it reasonable to spend $388 for a banquet table that serves 10? I didn't feel the food was worth the price. Only 3 memorable items: the appetizer which consisted of shrimp on top of a eggplant square, battered & fried, shark fin/birdnest soup where you actually see a lot of shark fin and they give you a huge bowl of it (a lot), and sliced cantaloupe with a mango jello piece where all good. Another platter of roast duck (which was good) served with seaweed, ?cuttlefish, and beans/vegt was so-so. The white chop chicken was cooked just right but bland as were most of the other dishes. The steamed prawns were presented in a circle and pretty good. I think our guests were not used to the exotic taste of fish stomach (with vegts). I grew up eating Chinese food, but I'll take tripe over fish (it was huge) stomach any day. The steamed rock cod was cooked just right but I don't like rock cod that much (again, a very large, meaty fish). Unfortunately, most of the waiters do not speak nor understand English. They have to go get a higher ranking waiter to translate. It was so loud on a Friday nite around 7:30 PM that I couldn't hear what our friends across the table were saying until the crowds thinned out and went home. It's not a place to have a nice quiet dinner but obviously quite popular. You have to be aggressive and flag down the wait staff if you want anything. YOu can probably do better at some of the peninsula restaurants (HK Flower Lounge) for the same price. Pros: Exotic, expensive ingredients Cons: Poor service, extremely noisy, crowded, over-priced more

The food is okay, definitely not worth the money... especially when they charge you $72 for buying the raw fish, then charge you an extra $18 to cook it. Who would buy just the fish alone and not have them cook it with vegetables or tofu? more

We chose Koi Palace for ""hot-pot"" to celebrate our friend's bday, knowing that this place is supposed to be a high class restaurant among other chinese restaurants. Unfortunately, we were wrong. We were not warned about the food portions and the manager even blamed us for ordering too much. We ordered a half spicy-half regular soup base. The spicy portion was NOT spicy at all. On top of that, they just add water into our soup base when it dried out. OMG!! I don't think the food and service there = the $$$ they charge. It's a RIP OFF!! I had been going there for years, but the food and service is getting worse and worse. I usually don't write reviews at all, but I felt that I should take my part on letting people know about the terrible business moral they have. The choice is yours but I personally would NOT GO AGAIN even if it's a free dinner! Pros: parking maybe Cons: NO service, high MSG more

Six of us came to Koi on a weekend evening. The lady at the front desk asked us to wait for 45 minuets. After 90 minuets, we found the crowd in the waiting area have come and gong for multiple times but we were still waiting. The response from the waitress was "" what's the way it is. We don't know how long you need to wait."" Despite their cold face to us, we found the bright side of them when they talked to customs in Cantonese. more

I?d usually have a lot of patients when it comes to try out new restaurant. I was told the food ?dim sim? here is really good, so I?ve arranged for my family all to meet there on a Sunday. So we've got a number for 6 people at ~11:05am, and we've waited until 2pm and we weren?t even close to getting ours table, I?ve asked the hostess that approx. how long we?d still need to wait, she replied ?I don?t know?, so we've left. During waiting for ours table we?ve also witnessed that if you don't know someone working inside the restaurant you wouldn't have any chance to get a table to enjoy your meal. I don't care how good your foods are but the operations of this restaurant will never get my business, I will tell all my friends about the disaster experience I?ve had with them. more

Koi Palace arguably serves some of the best Chinese food in the Bay Area but also has one of the worst services. The staffs are not friendly and are snobbish. I only go there because my wife likes the food but we are often being treated poorly. One time, I wanted to try these live abalones. The prices on the tank said $15 and $20 for 3 depending on the size. I ordered the $15 version. When I pay the bill, I noticed she charged me for the $20 version. When I asked her, her response was ?We only had one size; you can ask the other waiters.? I said ?Why you didn?t tell me?? She then asked the captain to verify. He confirmed they only have one size. I told him, if you only have one size; don?t advertise you have two at different prices and tell me when I place the order. I am not too concern with the price difference but you need to let the customer know the price will be higher. His response, ?OK? with a smile and then walked off. There was no apology from either of them. Pros: Good Food Cons: Very bad service. The staff push the expensive item hard. more

Best dim sum in the bay area, by far! Good place for seafood, but a bit pricey more

Best dim sum in the bay area, by far! Good place for seafood, but a bit pricey more

Ok, the wait is ridiculous here, but the dim sum is good. Besides all the standard dim sum items - buns,... more

Ok, the wait is ridiculous here, but the dim sum is good. Besides all the standard dim sum items - buns, shrimp dumpling etc, the coffee ribs are g... more

Yes - one of the cardinal rules of selecting a Chinese restaurant is to see if the majority of patrons are Chinese - if yes, stay. Many families come here. Koi Palace has developed a great reputation for its variety and quality of dim sum and I have to agree the dim sum is above average - I really liked the fried shrimp/banana roll. But there were some misses - the mango pudding was a big disappointment - it was almond jello colored orange with mango flavoring added. The food wasn't so spectacular that it was worth the 1 1/2 hr wait - and folks on Sunday morning, that's the short-list. Part of the problem is people linger - read the paper, etc. post-dim sum. The food will arrive quickly if you took the time to look at the menu while waiting and hand the order to the watier as soon as he brings tea to your table. The wait is what really blew it for me. There are many other restaurants that serve the same quality of dim sum and you don't have to spend half a day waiting for it. Pros: Variety of dim sum, parking, prices Cons: Waiting, waiting, waiting more

I've had great success coming here at 9:15 on a Sunday morning, even though the dining room is already quite crowded I've had parties of 5 or more seated within a minute or two. Compare that to coming here around 10:30 or later where you'll see the wait times soar past 2 hours! The waitstaff for the mostpart doesn't seem to speak English, but that doesn't matter because you mainly just nod or shake your head at the variety of dim sum brought out on different trays. Contrary to popular belief, there are carts here as well, for their fancier offerings. I have to point out their shrimp-stuffed crab claw as their best dim sum, and their spicy noodles are insane, too. Some of their fried dumplings can be a bit greasy, and the steamed dumplings tend to stick together, but overall the quality is just amazing, considering the sheer volume of people they serve every hour. I feel it's unfair of some to say that the wait times are too long; every popular place is like that--be smarter about the time you're here and you'll have a great experience. In any event, this is not the type of place you swing by before trying to catch a movie or a flight. Take your time, enjoy the environment, and savor the many different types of dim sum. Also be sure to check out their dessert dim sum; their black bean sesame dumplings are out of this world, and there's a cream puff that's coated in granulated sugar that has the outward appearance of a rather large donut hole, but inside the cream is blended with the dough, making for one of the best desserts I've ever had--if not a bit too sweet. Pros: excellent dim sum, can seat a party of hundreds Cons: occasional linguistic problems, no reservations for breakfast more

My sister thought this would be as good place to go for Christmas brunch Dim Sum. I've never been there but immediately had a bad feeling when i entered the parking lot and saw the throngs of Chinese folks out front. My sis said she put her name in at 10:45am and was told it would be 45 minutes. I noticed that there were almost no other non Chinese people waiting and had an inkling that they may not seat according to American custom (first come, first served). My fears were confirmed when we checked our status at 12, 12:30, and 1pm. Each time we were told it would be another 20-30 minutes. Meanwhile i noticed that no Chinese parties were waiting longer than an hour. We finally gave up at 1:15 after waiting 2 1/2 hours and it became apparent they had no intention of ever seating us. Having some familiarity with Cantonese culture, i should have bolted as soon as i got there. Crowded chinese restaurants will often seat the parties they believe will make them the most money first, i.e. parties of 4 vs. 3, repeat customers, etc. It really doesn't matter when you put your name on the list (and too bad they don't realize bad reviews from angry customers can lose them money). For example at Little Sichuan in San Mateo. if we have a party of 3, we always say we have a party of 4. They get a little angry when the 4th person never shows, but at least we get to eat lunch before 4pm. Fortunately there are plenty of good Dim Sum places in parts of town that have a good mixed customer base and will seat first come, first served. Try Ming's in Palo Alto. Perhaps the Dim Sum at Koi Palace is slightly better, but not so good that it is worth waiting several hours until the crowd dies down to get a seat. Thanks Koi Palace for ruining our Christmas. Cons: not worth the wait more

I was really anticipating a great meal and was completely disappointed. The Har gow, shrimp dumplings, smelled fishy and were not tasty, the selection seemed poor, the service was incredibly slow. We would request things and it would take forever to get them (in some cases we never did). It took us over 20 minutes to pay for the meal (and this was after we finally flagged down a waiter). I don't see how this place survives. It's not that inexpensive either. Tong Kiang, Hong Kong Flower Lounge, and Yank Sing are all way better than this place. Another favorite for great cheap dim sum (more take out than eat in) is Good Luck Dim Sum. My mom was with us. She remembers the dim sum in Hong Kong - this is nothing like it she said. Pros: Parking was pretty good Cons: Food and service more

Food is not very impressive, bad service but price ok. This is the restaurant that I will try to avoid. They are not that special to worth the torture. more

dim sum is ok although the wait is 2hours and 45 minutes long. The service was horrible, host was mean and waiters were mean, table was not set, tea was not what we ask for and we were hungry and annoyed after such a long wait. ""...service meant they didn't care about retaining customers."" We will never go back and told all our friends not to go. more