Crown Palace — Restaurant in Marlboro Township

We have been patrons of Crown Palace in Marlboro for 20 years, visiting once every two to three months, and there were definitely stretches where you could find us there weekly. We've also have a love-hate relationship with them. The 4 stars I'm about to give Crown Place is given purely on food alone, because food is what we value the most; there are bad qualities that may cause other Yelpers to give a much lower score.

First, the "good". Their food is wonderful; best Cantonese Chinese food in 20-mile radius, hands down. Our favorites include watercress pork tofu soup, steamed tofu stuffed with shrimp, garlic baby vegetable, steamed sole, Mongolian beef (although the last time we ordered it, it was lacking flavor), seafood pan fried noodles, and there are a few being left out of this already long list. Their weekend dim sum is also very good (you can see a few of our favorite dim sum choices in the attached photo). They used to make braised pork belly with preserved vegetables that can almost rival my mother's (a huge compliment; my mom was quite the chef), but unfortunately that had been taken off the menu in the recent years. Many special functions were held here too; my wedding rehearsal dinner took place there, my best friend's wedding banquet was there, just to name a couple. The great food alone gives the restaurant 4 stars.

Now the "bad" things.

They billed one amount and charged a higher one on the credit card. This just happened today, which prompted me to write this belated review. Knowing the weekend dim sum is a mob scene, we called in our order for takeout. The bill out to be $16.05. I wrote a "0" in the tip section, signed it, picked up the food, and went home. When I went online to check my credit card transactions for the weekend, I see a higher charge at $19.26. Curiously, it is exactly 20% higher than what the bill came out to be. I would hate to suspect Crown Palace of credit card fraud, but the amount is just too coincidental. Oh by the way, I'm terrible at math, so whenever I tip it's always a full dollar amount, to make it easier on my brain. In other words, I did not tip the exact number of pennies to make it a $3.21 tip.

Other poor things we have regularly experienced over the years include waiters with poor attitude, waiters forgetting to refill tea, and a couple of times finding gnats in our soup (we think this happens in the summer time when they prop the kitchen back door open).

Will we go back? History shows "yes". Crown Palace's food is the most authentic in the area, and ranks very high even when talking about the entire state of NJ. In the past, we had frowned over the poor service and the gnats, but those were the things that we could overlook. Today's credit card peculiarity is very shady and may prompt us to use cash there from now on. These "bad" things might warrant a 1-star rating for most restaurants, but the great food is really propping up my feelings for...

I went with my family to celebrate my 60th birthday and was super excited and we were all in good spirits. I wanted to share my favorite restaurant with everyone as I have been going for many years. I have been going to the other Crown Palace in middletown many, many times and raved about the food, but was in for a surprise. Upon us taking our seats our waiter David came to our table and spoke in a very thick accent which was hard to understand. Being of ethnic background we have family members with various accents and thus understand it's not always easy, we repeatedly said we are sorry and if he could repeat himself and tried our best to understand to which David was shaking as he got angier and louder towards us. Throughout the entire time we could not understand a word that he spoke and so we tried to guess our best and respond accordingly. He literally snatched menus out of our hands and even did a pfft/get out of here gesture towards us. The food that I was so excited to share with my family could not have been any more disappointing. First of all this restaurant only used to serve authentic chinese cuisine, but now sells americanized chinese food, flavorless egg rolls and gross chicken and broccoli. Everyone complained to each other that the food was either dry or flavorless. I found myself apologizing repeatedly because I bragged to everyone that they were in for a treat that not only was the food amazing but that the staff was top notch. I had called the middletown crown palace originally to make reservations and I was told that they could not accommodate a large group of people and was told to call Marlboro because they would be able to accommodate a large group. My reservation was at 7:00 pm. I unfortunately forgot to check to see when they closed which turned out to be 9:30 for a Friday night. Rather than one of the staff alerting us that they were about to close we were abruptly met with lights being turned off all around us and the sound of vacuum cleaners being turned on. I truly feel as though we were a bother right from the get go and the staff needs to work on their people skills. I was so excited to celebrate my 60th birthday at the perfect restaurant but they truly made it memorable but not in the way I wanted it to be and I can't...

𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗗𝗶𝗺 𝗦𝘂𝗺? 𝗔𝗿𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗘𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗗𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗻!

Since my parents and I learned about Crown Place when I was very young and enrolled in a nearby Chinese school program, I have been going there for dim sum for almost two decades.

The essentials of dim sum are always available, always wonderful, and always something I yearn for. The Har Gow, Shu Mai, Rice Rolls (all the varieties, including Beef and Shrimp), Spare Ribs, Crispy Taro Puffs, Beef Tripe, Char Siu Buns, and last but not least, Tofu Pudding are unavoidable for me. Throughout the nearly two decades that I've eaten here for solely Dim Sum, only some new faces joined the familiar ones I can still recognize.

I would advise anyone who wants to eat dim sum here to come as soon as the restaurant opens and to not complain if their preferred item isn't yet available in the first or second rotation. The adage "The Early Bird Gets The worm" and "The Early Diner Gets the Dim Sum" both refer to reasons for arriving early. Having said that, I strongly advise arriving early for large groups because the wait may exceed an hour if you arrive later in the day when the dim sum offerings are unmistakably ending. Be patient with the kitchen so that they can prepare your favorite dishes; do not point the finger at the waitstaff or servers because some dishes take longer to prepare than others before being served to the table. As a regular at this establishment, I'm confident that I can speak for many like-minded diners when I urge that you refrain from approaching a cart and interfering with their movement about the eating area. Doing so will annoy other customers and have a poor effect on their experience. Additionally, you are only responsible for your own actions if a dish with limited quantities, like their immensely popular tofu pudding, sells out...