Koi Palace — Restaurant in Daly City

Ate here two weeks in a row. First meal was some of the best dim sum food I’ve ever had. Great textures and savoury flavours. Couldn’t wait to take my mom back the next week. Now let me preface this by saying I’ve worked in hospo for a long time and I always try to see things from opposing perspectives; but I have a hard time finding excuses for them. We came on Memorial Day around 1:15 and we’re fully prepared to wait for the long wait the 1.5hour wait time we were told for the table because we knew the food would be worth it, and they had extended holiday hours until 3pm for lunch. Ended up sat by 2:10 and ordered by 2:20. Despite my hunger I am a patient person, but after 25 minutes passed we had received only 2 of the dishes we ordered and I became concerned. I finally checked the docket they print and although I couldn’t read the Chinese characters, I could only see 6 lines of print and we had ordered 11 items. I alerted one of the FOH team. He told me two of the items we ordered were sold out [JUST TELL THAT TO THE CUSTOMER WHEN THEY ORDER THEN] then went to check on the other items. It appeared the other ones weren’t rung in. But at that point they could only make two of the items because the rest of the kitchen was closed! It was 2:50 at this point (remember they closed late late that day) and while on our previous visit they (and EVERY other restaurant we go to near closing) reminded us of last call for additional orders they had never said anything about it this time. No efforts were made to apologise or give alternatives. At one point we were told we should have ordered with our server (RATHER THAN THE GUY WHO CAME TO THE TABLE AND PICKED UP OUR MENU CARD?!). At another point we were told “next time come earlier” (WE GOT THERE AT 1:15 AND ORDERED 40 MINUTES BEFORE CLOSE—YOU FORGOT ABOUT US AND DIDNT PROPERY CHECK ON YOUR TABLES). I was so frustrated I didn’t realise enjoy the food, most of which was cold when we ate it. So a three star review… I had been looking forward to that meal for a week: dimsum holds a special place in my heart and was looking forward to sharing the experience with my mom, we drove an hour out there and waited 45 minutes for nothing but disappointment (with a compulsory 18% gratuity) due to the staffs poor communication and complete lack of hospitality. Buuuuttttt the food is really good… I’ll probably begrudgingly go back again because I value food over service. I suppose the lesson in this for me and for others is be certain your order had been acknowledged and don’t be patient if your food...

BEST DIM SUM EVER!

Couple of co-workers have been raining praises on Koi Palace. Decided to check this out over the weekend.

We arrived at 11am on a Sunday - a bad mistake. They have a decent sized parking lot right in front of their restaurant, however, we took approximately 15mins of waiting to get ourselves a lot! It was so crowded and lots of people were waiting out in the cold.

Squeezed our way through to the host desk, there was barely any standing space left inside! Were issued a ticket number and were told to it will be approx an hour wait. Urgh.

True enough, we were seated an hour plus later. They work on a semi-traditional dim sum style where you place your orders on a order chit and have the option to 'order' additional dish from the servers who would walk around showcasing/selling their dim sum dishes.

They have a good selection of dim sum and main dish options. We ordered BBQ Pork Rice Roll (4/5), Shanghai Crab Roe Steam Pork Dumpling (10/5), Water Chestnut Cake (4/5), Pan Fried Daikon Cake with XO Sauce (5/5), Dumpling filled with shrimp and pea shoots (5/5) and a Dried Fried Beef Chow Fun (3/5). Everything was superb except the Chow Fun. The key highlight was the Crab Roe Steam Pork Dumpling. Ultra yums!

Everything came up to approx $60 which was considerably more expensive compared to other dim sum restaurant. The quality and taste makes it absolutely worth it.

Hands down the best dim sum we had so far. We are definitely coming back for more!

Oh, one annoying thing was the noise level. It was extremely noisy. Not the most ideal place to bring babies or dates, you will find yourself shouting across the table. If you are noise in-tolerant, i would recommend being...

Been here before for dim sum and it was awesome - my girlfriend wrote a glowing 5 star review previously but even back then we had service issues. Decided to take my visiting relatives here for dinner - huge mistake.

I understand that there can be a bit of a long wait but I only asked the hostess lady for a status ONCE and in a polite way but she rudely responded telling me off and that she has "no way of knowing". Mind you, they wear earpieces to communicate when tables are ready or whatnot so I didn't buy that bullshit. The lady that led us to our table walked wayyy too fast and lost us without realizing that my aging aunt was extremely far behind as she could not keep up with her marathon pace.

We got to the table and proceeded to look through the menu, asked our waiter for any suggestions but he seemed more pissed off that we didn't know what we already wanted than to offer any helpful suggestions. After ordering, we waited a LONG TIME for our food and dishes did not come out together. We waited almost 20 MINUTES for FRIED RICE to go with our main dish after which point I cancelled the order. They got all frantic and all of a sudden it "magically appeared" probably because they didn't want to lose their profit. I hate to waste food but we still refused - I get that there's a lot of other people to serve but fried rice is not a dish that should take that long to make and I would assume it would've already been made in bulk for a place of that scale at that time of day.

It's good for the food if not for the horrible service experienced. Thanks a lot for wasting our time and souring my relative's moods. Learn better customer interaction and service, we will not be...