Palm Tree Palace — Restaurant in La Quinta

After two false starts dining at fake Chinese food establishments, I desperately need something authentic. Further Google search lead me to The Palm Tree Palace. The name alone passed the Chinese test. From the menu items, I knew I hit gold. Finally, a place that has the right variety of Chinese dishes. The lady who answered the phone was a bit abrupt (in a very Chinese way, but in person, she was very friendly and glad to see us). We were treated with smiles from all the staff when we arrived. We were so 'starved' for real Chinese food at this point that I could have ordered half a dozen dishes, but since we didn't really want to take anything home, we decided on half a Peking Duck, Chicken and Vegetables in White Source, and Fish Congee. Ahhh, can you imagine congee on the menu. And of course, we asked for no MSG and no garlic, not a problem! The cuisine here is Northern Chinese, the Peking Duck came with steamed buns instead of the Canton Style duck with duck skin served with pancakes, and duck meat served as lettuce wraps. The duck skin was very crispy and delicious and the meat was tender. The duck must have been a giant duck because there were more meat piece than I expected. The congee, again was Northern Chinese, not smooth congee like the Cantonese kind. But still delicious, with tender fish and slivers of ginger. The chicken dish was well stir fried, and I didn't even mind the bean sprouts in the vegetable mix. To pass the test as a really great Chinese food restaurant though, it has to score high marks on originality for second and third time visits where you'd try out other dishes. When we came again, we ordered Braised Tofu with Vegetables, and pot stickers and to our disappointment, the vegetables were of the same variety as the chicken vegetables dish, and sauces were the same except more constarch this time, and we didn't enjoy the tiny pieces of square-cut tofu as they were not freshly fried – not crunchy outside and tender inside. That means, if we had ordered both the chicken and tofu dishes for the same meal, we would be lacking a good variety of vegetables. Incidentally, we tend to choose Chinese food when we need lots of cooked vegetables, so, I would think one of the key advantages that all Chinese restaurants should make use of is use as many varieties of fresh vegetables as possible. At home, the famous Chinese restaurants would not get away with this – they have to use different vegetables for different dishes or they would lose all their...

This Chinese food place brings to the table (pun intended) dishes that other places in the valley just don't offer at this price point, like duck and pork buns. I didn't try the duck but the pork buns are good appetizers. A great selection of lunch specials, from $10 - $11.50 and the ingredients are of great quality. I tried the orange peel flavor chicken and I liked that the flavor wasn't overly strong, some places have a overly sweet (fake) taste so if you like that overly sweet taste then this is not for you. The breading was thin and the chicken was tasty.

Pros: Quality ingredients Free hot tea! Great customer service Wide variety of authentic dishes (duck!)

Cons: One lobster in the tank looked like he lost all will to live, someone put him out of his misery 😉😆.

Overall: This is a good and well welcomed Chinese food place to the area. It's a new place but I really hope it stays around for a long time. I recommend it if you like Chinese food. The portions aren't exaggerated like other places but you won't leave hungry. Will definitely be going back to try the various...

My first time being here I loved our server that helped us during our visit. It has live lobsters and crabs which are interesting to watch. Small restaurant but has private dining rooms; I don't know how you can eat in there since I didn't ask. The chow mein was swimming in soy sauce (salty) and giant chunks of onions were left attached to several pieces and not cut properly. I ordered this for my little one but he couldn't eat it. The steamed pork buns are on spot and highly recommend it. The wings are excellent and addictive. They are super moist not over cooked and crunchy on the outside. The cream cheese with imitation crab that was fried with a wrap was not edible. Will never order again.

At the end we got complimentary mango dessert and we weren't expecting it (we didn't want to complain about the food since the little one was impatient) . The dessert was light, refreshing and delicious. It's a must before you leave (very unique).

We will go back just to eat those steamed buns, mango dessert, and wings only. Maybe I will try something new as well depending how...