Crystal Palace Restaurant — Restaurant in Waterloo

Our dinner out with friends for New Years Eve was a disaster! We were there for 2 and a half hours and some of our group never did get all their food. Thank God for great company while we waited! There were 8 of us and each couple ordered their own food. Our first dish was the first to arrive more than an hour after we ordered. Our 2nd dish was another 30 minutes and the third dish arrived about 20 minutes later and was not even cooked! The other couples got their food over an hour and a half span, one dish at a time, and some dishes never did arrive. The waitress at no point made any apology for the delay and we realized later that we were having to take a back seat to their take out customers! This restaurant obviously is incapable of handling the volume so should do the restaurant business or the take out business but not both. To add insult to injury, when the 8 of us had paid, the girl behind the counter accused us of only 3 couples paying. We had to remind her over and over, how each one was paid, but by then, we were definitely out of patience. A very bad experience overall and the quality of the food did not match other Chinese restaurants in the KW area. We will not be going back for sure, nor will we recommend...

Horrible attitude and food.

I came there for lunch buffet, they didn't even greet me or say hello, just showed me a table and the older asian lady just stood behind the front counter at all times (I'm guessing she's the owner). And she had the most horrible attitude I've ever witnessed in my entire life. No manners, arrogant, and cheap.

First impression of the place: Dirty washroom, and washroom lights were broken, I had to open the door to allow some light in to wash my hands.

Food: The owner is really cheap and never did replenish the fried chicken wings and drumsticks tray because clearly they wanted to save money. Chowmein and fried rice are extremely soggy and had stayed there for quite some time. Other buffet trays were pretty much empty! I had to pretty much feast on soggy chowmein the entire time.

Attitude: Honestly this is the most important thing in my opinion because attitude is everything. The older asian lady at the front desk as I mentioned was extremely rude and treated me like a second class citizen. In the end I gave her a big fat 0 as a tip. She well deserved it. Don't ever to there, and if you do, make sure you give her a big fat 0 tip as well. I'm NEVER going there again.

TL;DR: Stay away. Horrible food...

The issue with Crystal palace is in part the poor atmosphere of the location, and mostly because of the lackluster, overpriced dimsum dishes. Dishes were nothing noteworthy at best, and pretty bad in general. Portions are small, even for dimsum. Siumai was a disappointing nibble rather than a satisfying mouthful. Perhaps the most egregious error was the fried squid, which came battered in a soggy, oily, shell that is not representative of how amazing fried squid can be at all. When you go for dimsum, you should expect battered fried squid to be served with a tightly fitting corset of dark, crispy batter that capitalizes on the bumpy, windy texture of squid tentacles. The salty, crunchy first bite should yield to an amazingly tender, juicy white flesh- an addictive, once-in-a-while treat that you can't resist! But in this case, I couldn't even finish half the plate before feeling sick.

Service is minimal, though there were no expectations there. I suppose that there may be peak times where the service and possibly food is more focused, and on point, but otherwise I relegate Crystal Palace to the kind of place that caters to the naive diner, who doesn't know better to seek out practically any other Chinese food options,...