Koi Palace - Dublin — Restaurant in Dublin

We arrive early because this place gets packed and as I drive into the parking lot in front of the Koi Restaurant I'm saying, "Holly Sardines Batman" the place is already packed?  What I didn't figure was this being "Labor Day" and the restaurant opened at 10:00am instead of the usual time of 11:00am to accommodate arriving customers.

This restaurant is located upstairs with other restaurants opened downstairs but there isn't anyone inside of any of them?!  That's because, they're all upstairs at the Koi Restaurant!  For first time customers, including myself, there a stairwell and an escalator to the second floor which helps when you're done "stuffing your face and waddling out the door like a stuffed duck", the escalator comes in handy.

So we enter, or least try to because it's already crowded inside just trying to get your name on the list.  I finally get to the front and tell the gal that it's a table for three because my wife's visiting her friend for the week.  We're #22 and was told the wait time was about 20 minutes.  I'm thinking that's pretty reasonable considering how popular the place is.

They also have a "monitor" above the cash register that shows assigned numbers of guests checking in.  The seating capacity is 268 with customers out the front door and mingling all over the place like ants.  I mean the place started to pack outside soon after we arrived.

40 minutes later, were back inside with the crowd and the "numbers monitor" because they called customer #21.  The next thing I know, there calling #39?  Now, I've graduated from schools along my way and I'm pretty sure 39 doesn't come after 21?  Then again, maybe something else is going on, because I hear thank you so much, blah, blah, blah.... I'm thinking no problem; let's give preferential treatment to family members and friends just arriving.  Something fishy is definitely going on in Chinatown.

Wow, I'm having an "Andy Rooney moment (60 minutes) 5 minutes later our number is called.  Anticipation is growing with a growing crowd; this dim sum has to be good.  It's funny, this place is called the Koi Restaurant and the word "Koi" is Japanese for "carp".  "Now, stay with me, if you have ever fed these fish in large numbers, they are all opening their mouths at the same time....."  "That's what this place looked like, a bunch of hungry people waiting at their tables for dim sum to arrive!"

Anyway, just as I'm sitting down my phone rings and I'm thinking not now.  It's my alarm company calling me to say that they received an alarm activation at my home and want to know if they want the police to respond.... ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!  I've waited almost an hour for this and I'm not leaving now!  I tell them not to send the police and cross my fingers (no entry was made).

So now I'm thinking, crisis averted for now, where's the carts with the dim sum?  Then I realize we have a menu where you pick your dim sum?  Whaaaa?  I grab a waiter who clarified that we can pick from either the menu or from the carts.  "OK, that's a no brainer, cart please!"

So I wave down one of the girls who comes over with a few plates of dim sum to choose from.  She starts speaking "Chinese" at me and I'm like, "I know I look Asian but I don't speak Chinese" and when I reply back in English, the look she gave me..., I thought she was going to kill me!  She gave me a dirty look, pointed to the dim sum, I nodded my head, she marked my dim sum slip and went on her way!

My kids and I just stared at each other in disbelief.  "Wow."  This went on several more times and I just overlooked the dirty looks.  We had a variety of dim sum to try and although it was very good it wasn't worth waiting like I was going to a Raiders game!  We still enjoyed our meal and had to ask for a doggie bag for our left over sticky rice.

I would've given the place five stars * but the long wait, funny numbers game at reservations, and the dirty looks from the servers...

We arrived before they opened at 5:30pm. A line quickly formed behind us all Asian. We thought wonderful the food must be good. A man came & opened the door. He opened it, took one look at my niece, & let go of the door. We were shocked. It almost closed on her. He turned his back on us & walked to the desk. I said we thought you were opening g the door fus us, but you just let go. Je didn't even bother to look at me & said oh, Sorry.

We were the 1st people in the restaurant we asked if we had a reservation. We answered no. We were then asked why don't we have a reservation? We didn't know we needed one. Once seated, we were give one menu for the 5 of is. We waited quite some time for someone to take our order, yet many other tables had placed their orders as we waited &bwatched. Finally we put our order in. We had to call her back because she left without taking our complete order.

They brought my brother in laws food fast. 30 minutes later he is finished eating & we (4 of us) were still waiting for our food. We finally had to ask why we were the 1st customers seated did most of the tables had their food were we still waiting. He did not answer but walked into the kitchen. We waite. Aaked someone else who tried to walk away while I was talking to her, until I asked why she is walking awY, could I talk with her.

The thing is, all I ordered were spring rolls, & fried rice. The rolls were an appetizer but too 45 minutes to come out. My brother in l was finished his suckling pig before our plates finally arrived. We noticed that although they brought dimsun in steam baskets, at other tables the servers stood at the table & transfered them to a plate. Not at our table.

We were the only black, non Asian people in the restaurant & we felt like we were not welcome there. Hence the low rating. They really gave us horrible service. If not for making us wait to order, waiting for our food, & being ignored, it was a clean & fresh smelling place. The food was fresh, but not so good tasting. Their was an overpowering taste of ginger in my beef fried rice, & the spring rolls had seaweed or something that looked like seaweed in it that gave them...

As stated in some of the other comments, if you don't speak there language/ look like them prepare to be treated as such. My friend and I were seated and asked what tea was wanted, we said jasmine and soon enough was served. Everyone has a tea kettle warmer for each table and EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. but ours was Lit. Obviously I wasn't gonna make a fuss about it, but this was only the beginning of the disrespect. They didn't have neither the cow stir fry,nor the scallops and ham fried rice. So half our order was changed, ok I guess. Until our duck and crispy fried pork came out cold... how does CRISPY FRIED PORK become that cold? They Obviously gave us dishes that were sitting out, while everyone's else's were piping hot. We were then recommended bland food, the seafood crispy noodle and shrimp rice roll. The crispy noodles were great, and the seafood was good, but the sauce was very bland. The shrimp rice rolls were extremely poorly made, but still tasted decent. All the food took over an hour to give to us, and the servers were avoiding us at all costs. To top ALL this disrespect, turns out they DID have the fried rice. A table that came in 10 min later got served what my friend wanted, BUT SUDDENLY WE'RE NOT ALLOWED? To be treated like garbage, and then be forced to tip %18 was just grotesque. The daly city location treated us correctly, and thought since this one was closer surely we'd get the stellar service/ food like we did there. Definitely WON'T be coming back to this location again, plenty of other stores that are more than willing to give you good food with...