Lunch Friday 12 October 2007.
Palace was rated as Sydney's top Yum Cha in the 2008 SMH good food guide, knocking Marigold out of their long held position. I had been once a while ago, but actually worried the SMH rating may be a bad sign as I never much cared for Marigold.
Palace is very western friendly, the staff are friendly and helpful (still pushy but not overly) and they even put the dish prices on the stamp card so you can keep track.
I think the food is also quite western friendly - a modern and dynamic style as opposed to traditional. They had all the staples, variations on modern dishes (salt and pepper lobster!) and the presentation and extra touches were all very nice. See below.
On the left is snow pea sprout and prawn dumplings (also see pic below) and on the right are scallop dumplings. Both were outstanding.
The vegie was so fresh and brightly coloured.
We had BBQ pork as well as beef rice rolls. The vegies for presentation was a nice touch - and they were actually fresh and yummy too. One roll I tried was a little gluggy - more rice than filling, but this was the except overall for the day.
Prawn dumplings. These were, for my taste, as good as I have had in Australia. Fantastically fresh and plump.
Left is sesame prawn rolls - or was it? There was speculation from the crew that the texture was more like crab or lobster than just prawn. On the right is another seafood stick thing - I cannot comment on this one.
We also had stir fried rice rolls, a mixture of dumplings and chicken feet. They were all good - but not too sure what style the feet were - not much flavour. It may not have been black bean...In the middle is duck and mushroom dumplings. I was really impressed with these.
The girls had two deserts. The mango pancakes came with a mango puree sauce (nice touch) and the egg tarts were very fresh and warm.
Reviewers Angela and Helen
Elizabeth was saying how distinct all the flavours were, whereas the seafood dumplings often taste similar (rice and seafood) - the ones today at Palace were bold and distinct. I couldn't agree more. I was so impressed with how fresh it all was. The variety was good - some outstanding unusual items, but a few things (like Shanghai dumplings and saam sik goh) were not available.
Tania (managed to avoid the photos...)
Food: 14 out of 20
Service & Setting: 3 out of 5
Value: 3 out of 5.
TOTAL: 20 from 30
"Delicious steamed duck and mushroom dumplings. I liked the mango sauce over the mango pancakes although the pancake itself was a teeny bit too chewy. The tea was a little too strong and needed watering down. Nicely attentive staff."
Food: 15 out of 20
Service & Setting: 3 out of 5
Value: 2 out of 5.
TOTAL: 20 from 30
"Comparatively expensive, but I enjoyed it. A good mix of food and the deserts were great."
Elizabeth
Food: 13 out of 20
Service & Setting: 2.5 out of 5
Value: 2 out of 5.
TOTAL: 20 from 30
"The dumplings had great and distinct flavours, but the chicken feet were tasteless."
Helen
Food: 16 out of 20
Service & Setting: 4 out of 5
Value: 3 out of 5.
TOTAL: 23 from 30
"What I had was nice and tasty, and the great company counts for something."
Matt
Food: 15.5 out of 20
Service & Setting: 4 out of 5 (The ambiance was good and the service was attentive without being pushy. The room is quite nice too.)
Value: 3.5 out of 5. (It wasn't cheap at $21 a head, but there was a lot of desert - about 5 plates in total. And I think the quality justified the price.)
TOTAL: 23 from 30
"Shocking. I'd have to agree with SMH for once. For premium, modern-styled Yum Cha, Palace is really outstanding. I will be back again soon."
I also give it two special awards:GOLDEN GOW AWARD - for outstanding fresh dumplings
PLATINUM AQUARIUM - fantastically fresh and flavoursome seafood
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