• Home
• Archives
• About 50meals.com

#23 Koi Palace

Posted on June 2, 2007
Filed Under Best of the Best, Cantonese, Chinese |

Note: Sorry, I know the site’s been down for a couple days. Here’s the latest entry. I’m also looking at a midweek special this week, so stick around.

Koi Palace came highly recommended from Mikey Kwan and had good reviews online, so I had to check this place out, see what the hype was all about. It was pretty full when I was there at 2 PM on a Thursday, and I hear the lines get downright ridiculous on the weekends, so I’m glad I came at a good time.

In case you’ve never had Dim Sum, here’s some background information. Dim Sum means “snack” in Cantonese, (Don’t listen to those people who says it’s “little piece of heart,” that’s romanticized bull. If you wanna get literal, it means “dot heart,” and just means a snack.) It’s Cantonese style breakfast / lunch. You drink tea and order these small dishes that’s traditionally kept steaming on carts pushed around by these ladies who would slowly make their way around the tables. You would order directly from their carts, and remember to hand them your order card so they can stamp it.

Ok, this is dim sum, so less talk, more pictures of food!




This is the Cantonese styled Xiao Long Bao (Small Pork Buns) It’s not bad, but I’ve had better, more authentic examples.




The regular Shumai was excellent, already better than most I’ve had. But you should also order the King of Shumai, which, I swear, has shark fin in it. One is the size of all these combined and is $4.80. Get it.





Fried Taro Cake, this was really good as well, not as popular as its more famous cousin, fried turnip cake, but still quite good. This whole dish was a little too much and a little too greasy. It’s kind of a guilty pleasure for me, I love Taro.




This was kind of a surprise to me, this are Shanghai style fried buns, typically found in restaurants that specialize in Northern cuisine, can’t complain, though, these weren’t bad at all.




This one is kind of hard to describe, the name, if I remember correctly, literally means “salt water dumpling.” It’s got pork in it and surrounded by a sticky rice shell, deep fried to a golden crisp. I really like these, but like a lot of dim sum, it’s quite greasy.





Ah yes, nothing says Dim Sum like chicken feet! This is classic and is very well made here, with a good hint of some Chinese wine flavor, excellent. Plus apparently they found some bigfoot chicken, very large feet.




This thing came out of nowhere and blind-sided me. I’ve never had a duck wrap at a Cantonese place before, I’ve only had it at Peking Duck places like Lu Din Gee. This was incredible. Quite possibly the most well balanced and pleasant thing I have ever tasted. The greasy, flavorful duck is wrapped in a chewy, thick tortilla-like bread with strands of cucumber. This was amazingly good. The cucumber balances out the grease of the duck and keeps it feeling light and refreshing, but with the rich, full taste of duck. Do not pass this one up when you’re there. This is incredible stuff.




Despite the name, this isn’t sweet. But it’s a staple of Dim Sum, \I’m always on the lookout for the cart that has it, it stands out because it’s a cart with a frying surface.




Always one of my favorites, this is a tofu skin roll. It has vegetables, bamboo shoots, etc. And it’s usually a good pick at most Dim Sum places.

Koi Palace did not disappoint and definitely lived up to the hype, the ShuMai were incredible and the Duck Wrap was off the hook good. Definitely come and check out the place, come early, bring as many friends as you can, it’s a big place.
A special note, Koi doesn’t have carts, I think because carts take up a lot of space. What you could do is speak directly to your waiter if you know what you’d like already, otherwise they have an excellent menu that you can simply check off items that you’d like to order, it very convenient and I didn’t have to go hunt for the always popular Turnip Cake cart.

This place was just incredible, I’m gonna come back and try more stuff, Hell, I’m wondering if I can have my wedding banquet here. I took a quick look at the banquet menu and it’s ridiculously lavish. Think lobster, abalone, scallops, crabs, shark fin, prawns. 10 courses. And the price is actually cheaper than what you’d pay at an American establishment. Now, if only I can find a good woman that likes hard core deviant food who’ll marry me… ah, at least I got the banquet taken care of.

Koi Palace
365 Gellert Blvd
Daly City, CA 94015
(650) 992-9000

Comments