Tian Tian Golden Palace Seafood & Dim Sum Austin — Restaurant in Austin

My thoughts on a revisit to Golden Palace but this time, with the full intention on trying their dinner menu instead of dimsum.

🦞 The Ginger Scallion Lobster with Noodles ($64) was nice and fresh. Plump, sweet meat.

🦀Dungeonous Crab with Fried Rice ($58) was also fresh and flavored well. The Fried Rice had fried roe in it however we found it slightly dry and too salty since the roe already had a natural saltiness.

🥢 Seafood Crispy Chow Mein ($22)– The shrimp, scallop, and squid all were jumbo and plump! Although, the noodle texture leans on the harder side, but if you're used to the softer Vietnamese-style egg noodles that soak up sauce, this might not hit the same.

🦆 Whole Peking Duck ($68) – The meat was tender and the pancakes were actually the best I’ve had in Austin. The scallions and cucumbers, though looked a little dry, maybe from being pre-cut and stored cold all day. The duck skin was good, although Bamboo House’s version is still crispier for comparison.

🥟 Dim Sum + Sides Rice rolls are always on point, silky, soft, and clearly made by a skilled chef. Would've been even better if they gave extra sauce on the side or we a pour over like the more traditional HK-style.

Sui Mai and Harcao I still feel are less dense than New Fortune but the flavor was great.

Crab & Fish Maw Soup was thick and satisfying not too salty; love me fish maw!

Snowpea Leaves ($18) were good.

Fried taro puff was a little dry and dense, maybe a touch more moisture or pork fat in the mash could help.

Lava buns were a this time. It was oozy during my dim sum, but for this Sunday night it was dry likely from over warming.

Egg Tarts were very nice though, flaky and warm.

💬 Overall: For those craving more Cantonese options up north, it's a great option with room for some refinements.

In my last post on them, I shared a wedding banquet quote 💍 Well apparently, that GM misquoted us and it's NOT 38k for 13 tables 😂. It starts at $750 per table for a 10-seater and there are different tiers to...

Dim Sum Done Right 🥟🔥 Worth the Wait & Worth the Trip

We came back to Tian Tian this past Sunday for our second visit — first time was during their grand opening, so we knew it was going to be chaotic back then. This time? Way smoother and well worth the drive.

We accidentally showed up right at peak Sunday rush (after-church crowd + busy shopping center 😅). If you don’t like crowds, come around 2 PM — way more chill. Put your name on the waitlist at the front — our wait was under 30 minutes for a table of two.

The staff is super friendly and you can tell they all work together — servers, runners, and the dim sum cart team. It’s fast-paced, so don’t expect your server to hover — but with dim sum, we’re really just waiting to see what rolls by on the carts anyway 😆

Here’s what we got (and loved): • Stir-Fried Green Beans w/ Garlic — flavorful, fresh, a little savory. Great with rice. • Singapore Noodles — ⭐️ one of the stars. I could eat a whole giant bowl by myself. • Chinese Sausage Fried Rice — familiar, slightly sweet/fermented sausage flavor. If you know, you know. • Soup Dumplings — good broth, nice pork filling. • Har Gow & Shumai — must-haves and they don’t skimp on filling. • Congee (Porridge) — comforting and surprisingly filling. Great for kids or anyone who likes soft, warm dishes. • Cattle Tripe + Beef Tripe — tender and seasoned right (for those who enjoy the “special cuts” like we do 😄). • Tofu Skin Rolls (with pork + shrimp) — super filling and delicious. • Chicken Feet in Oyster Sauce — we grabbed these to-go and they reheated perfectly later.

And speaking of reheating — our leftovers later that night were still fire. Always a good sign.

Add some chili oil to anything here and you’re in flavor town 🔥

Overall — great dim sum, great variety, busy but worth the wait, and we’ll definitely be back. Singapore noodles + Har Gow =...

This place has a fun and authentic vibe with the little dim sum carts rolling around, but not everything on the menu makes it onto the carts. Some hits, some misses with the food. The misses: The cheung fun (rice rolls) were disappointing—way too thick, and the beef filling tasted like cheap, starchy sausage. Plus, they don’t pour the sauce over the rolls like most places, which would’ve helped with flavor. The steamed tripe wasn’t great either; it still had that unpleasant intestine taste. The shrimp dumplings had a solid filling but fell apart when we picked them up. The pan-fried flat noodles were also a letdown—flavors were okay, but the noodles were all broken, which is not acceptable. The decent stuff: Shumai was okay—huge portions. Tofu skin rolls were flavorful. Chicken feet had a unique house sauce, which was interesting. Pineapple milk bun was tasty but served in an egg tart dish with paper lining, which made it a weird shape and less fluffy (also almost ate the paper lining by accident). The best thing we had? The fried rice dumpling (Haam Seoi Gok). It's not the best I’ve had, but still pretty tasty. The real star here is the service. When we paid, they genuinely asked for feedback. We mentioned the broken noodles, and they immediately took an item off our check. We also asked about taro dumplings (which weren’t on the cart), and they actually fired up a fresh batch just for us! We were too full to take it, but it was nice to see them taking customer feedback seriously. Also, almost every table was asking for chili oil, so they should probably just put it on every table! Overall, the food is about 3 stars, but the service earns them an extra star. In a city like Houston or Dallas, this place might struggle (I know they are a chain from Dallas) but for Austin—where dim sum competition is low—they have a shot, especially since it’s still their...