Maple Palace Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in North Saanich

Two years ago around October 2017, I was helping them out in the kitchen for a few days. What I saw with my own eyes was a very unorganized kitchen with very slippery floors. The kitchen had cooking oil all over the place, lack of service and hygiene ! The only kitchen helper they had was this very nice guy from mainland China. He sadly only got paid less than minimum wage without any benefits! Shockingly, I even saw a mouse running around in the kitchen! I sincerely hope that there ways have changed in the past two years. I had been very busy and didn’t have time to share my concerns before, but I was reminded of the terrible experience once I was driving by their restaurant. If you have to order take out or eat in there, cross your fingers! I am so surprised the owner said something about my review , a good restaurant owner will improve his business or service , but talk back to local guide about Racial discrimination？ Never heard anything like that !! I had traveled all over the world , first in Europe, then North America, for sure I have high expectations for anything I eat !of course I was born in China , as a native Chinese people, why do I have to hold anything against my own race? This restaurant owner is unbelievable ! Use your common sense! OMG!! When she posted AD on wechat and I helped her out for few days in the restaurant, THAT IS HOW YOU TREAT PEOPLE THAT ONLY WANTED TO HELP YOU? WHEN NEXT TIME YOU NEEDED HELP . WHO WILL BE THERE TO HELP YOU THEN? IMPROVE YOUR SERVICE! AND NEVER AGAIN ARGUING WITH...

April 2024. We avoided this establishment for many years as our previous experience was less than satisfactory. We are thrilled that the new owners have made this a comfortable, clean restaurant with very good service and food. Do not be intimidated by the stairs leading up to the front door. There is a functional elevator available for those who are vertically challenged. The seating is bright leading to our only criticism, the windows are under constant bombardment by the local avians (NOT the pilots) and heating/cooling can be a bit tricky in the late afternoon and evening. Meals were served promptly. The ginger fried beef was excellent and one of their popular dishes (check the serving temperature when it arrives at the table), the Szechuan mixed vegetables tasty and the Singapore noodles delectable. In Sidney, Good Fortune is our goto but now we will consider Maple Palace if we are with our aviation friends as the dining area has a commanding view of airside operations at the airport. In the summer we hope that the outside patio is put into service. A "sunset special" would entice many patrons as the sun settled to the west. The new Amazon facility next door is likely to supply an eager lunch crowd. Sidney has a limited selection of better dining establishments. We are very happy to see that Maple Palace has returned in...

The worst chinese food I've had in over a decade. Almost comically bad. Skip unless the point is to find terrible chinese food.

The worst is the sweet and sour pork which really is stunning... that should be hard to screw up. But this was dry, freezer-burnt, mostly coating/batter, rubbery, not pork-tasting, neon red glop. Just awful. Vaguely gasoline flavour to the one of the two pieces of meat I found.

The almond gai ding chicken was just a waste of nice celery. Because thats what it was. Celery. Plus some inedible almonds - old, or dehydrated and they didn't rehydrate or something. Couldn't eat them. 6 pieces of chicken the size of postage stamps. 3 cups of celery.

The noodles were edible. Same for the rice. But both were as bad as "western" chinese food gets. The only Asian flavor was perhaps a hint of sesame oil? No spicing. No flavor. Western noodles. Main vegetable is celery. At least they fried the rice.

Spring rolls were just poorly chopped cabbage in a spring roll pastry. They at least cooked properly, but as boring unspiced and sad a spring roll as you can imagine. Do you not own an onion, carrot, and ginger? How hard is that to prep?

Anyway. The lady on the phone is nice, and she's very friendly in person. Just don't eat...