Fortune Palace Restaurant — Restaurant in Prince George

From Prince Gastronome

I was apprehensive returning to the gastronomic “Thunderdome” that is Chinese cuisine. My appetite and my colon fought a desperate battle of wills for control over my culinary desires. The decision was made easier by my lack of transportation this week, with my Evolution currently wedged onto Fountain Tire car jacks to get re-shoed. It was either Westwood Pup or a protracted trek through slush to Fortune Palace, often lauded as the best Chinese restaurant in Prince George, the claim is uncontested, probably because the best Chinese restaurant in Prince George is analogous to the best Dixie Chick; no one cares.

Fortune Palace is cursed with a location that appears advantageous, but is actually somewhat frustrating. Located off-highway, it is difficult to notice from the distant lane and once you see it from the adjacent lane; you’ve already missed its only entrance, forcing you to drive nearly two kilometres up a hill to the next intersection.

Palace does benefit from in impressive exterior, with tall spreads of glass fringed by an immense parking lot, which was, as you might expect, empty. The interior compliments the outer first impressions. The tables are nicely space with friendly employees covered in traditional garb, meaning threads no one in China wear anymore outside of a period film. Fortune palace carries one distinction not shared with anyone else. It offers dim sum.

I am compelled to set the way back machine to 2007. Despite being nearly bankrupt, I thought it beneficial spend my last few coins on a vacation in China. I had an assignation waiting and it had been a country I’d always desired to see. Through it all, I never once devoured anything found on a Westernized Chinese menu. Not one chow mein or egg foo young. The majority of the time, I had dim sum. I not only have not found any places offering dim sum in town, but the frozen variety I did manage to locate paled in comparison. Despite having tried the dim sum at Fortune Palace before, I decided to repeat the experience for the sake of this article.

Before the plate arrives, I ordered a bowl of won ton, and thank the Monkey King that Fortune Palace doesn’t follow Great Wall’s example. The broth has flavour and the wontons share the bowl with vegetables and cuts of indentified beef. |Good enough for me. The dim sum that does eventually arrive strangely matches the frozen variety you can purchase far cheaper from the local Chinese store, so much so, that I wonder why anyone would waste their time and money paying a place to cook it for them. Plus, for 10.75, you don't get a lot of food. You get one egg-roll, 4 pot stickers, two XX, and 2 shrimp dumplings. I get can more sushi for that price. I could have easily have finished off two plates with enough room for a dozen fortune cookies.

I am sure they’re regular menu is superior to their competition, so goes the claims made by friends and family. On those grounds, Fortune palace deserves your attention, by any other measure that there is no other Chinese restaurant for miles. Approaching from the South, Fortune Palace would be your first taste of Asian cuisine past the city limits, with your next stop being Great Wall three minutes away, down another highway. Despite not comparing these restaurants on an equal culinary baseline, I can still confirm the claim that Fortune Palace would be the preferred location. I would just avoid the dim sum; it’s borderline larceny.

Food: 3/5 Service: 3/5 Presentation: 4/5 Value: ...

Great place for a good classic fresh well-prepared Chinese food. We were staying in a hotel in Prince George for a month and we got takeout from Fortune Palace twice and had a great experience so just cited to drop by there to eat in the dining room for a change.

We came in almost 9 PM (They’re open till 10 PM) So we were the only ones there and they took our order and came out of the kitchen for us very quickly. All the vegetables were nice and fresh properly cooked but still had a nice crunch & texture. The meat in the dishes were nicely marinated and tender with good flavor. We got the beef and Bok choy, Almond Guy Ding, And their barbeque pork. I asked if they made it in house and they said they did. I asked when they were last made and they said yesterday so I ordered a plate so we could take it back to hotel for snacking. It was also fresh with good flavor..

It was great to see they actually had individual glass containers of soy sauce for the table! I hate those little packets. They almost always squirt on me or get on the table. It was the first Asian restaurant we’ve been to In Prince George that didn’t give us those darn little packets of soy sauce!

It’s a really good classic Chinese restaurant that has a big round family style tables with the Lazy Susan in the centre. Hector and I both enjoyed our meal and we had enough leftovers for another 2 meals.

Nice extensive menu, quite big restaurant with lots of parking. Very clean and...

Here’s a cleaned-up version of your review with improved flow and a note about the great service included:

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My partner and I went out for dinner tonight. He ordered Combo #12 and I had the Tofu Vegetable Hotpot from the vegetarian menu. He said the honey garlic pork sauce was excellent, and all the meat dishes were some of the best Chinese food he’s had in a long time!

My tofu vegetable hotpot was tasty, and the portion size was generous—I only ate half and packed up the rest. Later, I grabbed it for a little late-night snack, but unfortunately, I bit into something that tasted like meat. I started picking it out and realized it looked like a chunk of pork in my vegetarian dish. I’ve been vegetarian for about 12 years and avoided eating pork when I did eat meat, so this was a pretty unpleasant surprise. I took a photo of what I removed, but I won’t post it here—chewed food isn’t exactly appealing 😂

I really appreciate that they offer a vegetarian menu and make the effort to be inclusive of different dietary choices. If you’re vegetarian, just be mindful and double-check your bites—this was probably a one-off mistake, but still worth mentioning.

The service was great throughout our visit, and if you do eat meat, my partner highly recommends the honey garlic pork and...