Chinese Lantern Palace Restaurant — Restaurant in New South Wales

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A surreal, deep-fried fever dream — and I loved every second.

Perplexed by the mixed reviews? Wondering if Lantern Palace is worth the visit? Let me assure you—it absolutely is. To all the Uber Eats customers—I encourage you to take that leap off the couch and give this hidden gem a go! Lantern Palace isn’t trying to be trendy. It’s something better: charmingly stuck in time, unapologetically itself, and absolutely worth the trip.

Okay, let me set the scene. Picture this: a 12-person family dinner at Lantern Palace in Wamberal. We roll up to this nostalgic slice of Chinese-Australian-bistro heaven—part restaurant, part motel mystery, part retro fever dream—with a sign that’s missing letters and a toppled lightbox that whispers adventure.

Maybe it was our lucky night, but we had the whole place to ourselves. Twelve people. Zero strangers. It felt like private dining, minus the pretension. The owner greeted us warmly, and the server—clearly experienced—brought dishes out with impressive speed. She didn’t engage much in conversation, but handled the service capably, and everything arrived quickly and correctly.

The menu was a greatest hits of classic Aussie-Chinese comfort food: prawn toast, rainbow steak, spring rolls, san choy bow, salt and pepper calamari, chicken and corn soup, fried rice, spring rolls, veggies—and for the grand finale, deep fried ice cream (still not sure how that’s scientifically possible, but the kids were all in).

The décor? Peak, elaborate, old-school chozzie charm. Think lanterns on the ceiling, lucky lions at the door, and a Chinese garden out front. The full bar was almost full, and the wide-open dining room gave the kids plenty of space to be kids—roaming, laughing, and enjoying the freedom you rarely find in modern dining spots. Oh, and did I mention? They even have a dance floor! Parking? Ridiculously easy.

As we stepped out into the car park, full and happy, the restaurant lights went out. And then the car park lights. It was like the curtain dropping on the final act of a very niche, very charming play. Iconic.

Would I go back? Absolutely. It's warm, weird, and wonderful—like a love letter to a bygone era, still quietly shining...

It took us about 3 years to satisfy our curiosity about this place. From outside it looks like an experience. A huge piece of land with a Theme Chinese restaurant on the top of it. It is possibly the biggest restaurant in terms of land on The whole Central Coast.

What kept us away from trying out this place was the Google reviews. There were so many people complaining about the food and the staff that we were a bit scared to give it a go. We could cope with unfriendly staff but bad food is a big no. However, as the curiosity killed the cat we decided to go last night.

I regret to have waited so long. When I called the restaurant I was well attended and when we arrived we were warmly welcomed by a nice lady. The food ordered was very well done. We had as entree their fried scallops, super crispy and fresh. For mains I had the Mongolian Lamb which was spectacular and my wife had the duck & pork with mushroom sauce and veggies. Very tasty, the duck was a bit overcooked but still a very nice dish. We also had a bottle of South Australian Cabernet Sauvignon wine which was lovely.

If I could make a suggestion to the restaurant owner I would play traditional chinese music to complete the atmosphere. Some people mentioned that the place look is outdated. You could say so but I believe that the vintage feel makes it even more enjoyable, it is like a trip to the past with fresh and tasty food!!

We went to this place prepared for the worst and ended up having a fantastic experience. And their price is great. If the bad reviews were accurate, apparently they have improved everything in the place.

We will...

My partner and I went for dinner New Years Eve with another couple. Our reservation was at 6.30pm. We should have known by the lack of vehicles in the car park that maybe we should have thought twice. There were only about 4 other occupied tables in the large restaurant. We sat down and we’re just chatting for a minute. Waitress came back a minute later asking if we were ready to order. We asked for a few minutes. She continually came back and forth, hurrying us. We requested numerous times for wine glasses. They were eventually bought over. We ordered our meals, entree- spring rolls, and money bag. Main-beef in black bean, combination omelette, honey king prawns and Mongolian lamb. I also requested water for the table. Had to ask twice b4 it was bought over. Entrees came. Our spring rolls were full of mush. Our friends said theirs was okay. Whilst still eating the entrees, our main meals came out, the waitress took our water jugs away to make room and never bought them back. Honey prawns okay, other meals were not good. Flavourless, hardly any vege’s, just bland meat. Omelette, very bland, partner could not finish. About 7.30pm the restaurant was empty. We were just chatting and staff proceeded to lock things up and clean up. We felt like we were hurried, so we left. On a positive note, the fried rice was lovely. Unfortunately we will...