Maple Palace Restaurant — Restaurant in Victoria

TLDR - Great variety of authentic Chinese food, consistently superb quality, reasonable prices, attentive service and accomodating with customisation requests and dietary restrictions .

Have been to dine in 2x, takeaway 3x. Nice, unpretentious family-run spot with really good food.

Food: Super good for regional location, definitely best we've had so far in Vic. Pretty authentic as you can get (with maybe a touch of MSG but can't tell, usually can pick up on it but eh. Really great chinese comfort food. Portions might be slightly larger when dining in. Either way, just large enough with room for leftovers. Preparation time is relatively quick. Our orders have been correct each time even with requested adjustments for extra spice and dietary restrictions. No condiments on the table but can ask for extra. Proper Chinese tea with traditional cute cups.. Teapot is small but can ask for more hot water for the same pot.

Service: attentive staff ( it's just one receptionist who also waits tables). Checks in regularly to see if all's good/topups or more food required. For takeaway we once had to wait a little longer than usual due to high number of orders, and she gave us a complimentary bag of prawn crackers, so sweet!

Atmosphere: This place is great if you like good Chinese food and don't care much about the ambience. It's very clean considering it's a bit on the older side (I have OCD and dust allergies so if I'm ok with a bit of antibac wiping it's fine trust me) Note the decor is alright, nothing Instagrammy or gimmicky- think muted vintage 90s to late 00's vibes, with clean toilets, space for families, older light fixtures and some Chinese art. Background music is at a decent volume, can converse privately without raising voices but doesn't hide the kitchen sounds (which aren't too loud anyways and adds to the charm a bit)

Essentially the food stands out and you're able to have a conversation which is really nice. You know the food is good when you can hear loud conversation and kitchen sounds from the back hehe. All in all, one of our favourite places in Ballarat and the food keeps us returning for more.

Thank you Maple Palace, keep up...

Went to the Maple Palace for dinner. Firstly this was not a palace. It is a large room adjoining a motel. From the moment you walk in you question whether or not this is a Chinese restaurant. Western music playing in speakers and not a single Chinese decoration. The interior is dull and bland. There are no condiments on the tables, no soy sauce, no chop sticks to be seen. The menu however is for Chinese food with Chinese and English text. We ordered a Wanton soup, a Peking sauce chicken ribs, a sizzling black pepper beef, steamed rice, and a Singapore noodles, along with Chinese tea for two. Out came the tea in a pot for one, gone in a flash. The came the wanton soup. Not the biggest bowl. Then came the waitress with a pork dish. Not ours. We ordered the chicken. Then came the girl who took our order, and said we ordered the pork. Nope, wrong. That's what you get for assuming the waitress gets the order correct without reading it back to you. 10 mins later she come back with the chicken ribs in Peking sauce. Battered chicken, no rib bones, in what tastes like sweet and sour sauce. Was not expecting the batter. Even looking at the menu, the dishes that have batter are clearly marked, not this one. Very disappointing. Other dishes were bland and flavour less. When I pointed out the issue with the menu, there were no apologies, just a $5 discount off a $105 meal. And this was supposed to be Ballarats best Chinese. You...

We ordered our food on the website and were gave a 20 minute pickup time. When we arrived to pick up our food it was not ready. After waiting 40 more minutes in store and asking multiple times what was going on only to be told “your food is coming” They told us that our food hadn’t even started to be prepared and it would be still a long time of waiting. So we went home and asked us to call them when ready. After getting home they ended up calling us 1 hour and 45 minutes after originally ordering our food. I understand they were busy but they had 2 staff standing at the counter who could have called when we originally ordered instead of letting us waste most of our evening or told us when we originally arrived it would be over an hour wait.

When we picked up our food and finally got home the vegetarian food we ordered had prawns in it I called them and they said they would organise a refund but when I called back a week later to follow up as they hadn’t refunded me and the lady told me they can’t refund me and if I go back into the store they would make us a new meal!!

Such...