Koi Palace Restaurant
(650) 992-9000
365 Gellert Blvd
Daly City,
CA
94015
37.6661
-122.4685
Neighborhood: Serramonte
What People Are Saying About Koi Palace Restaurant
The Editor
Contributor
Citysearch
The Scene
Walk through the moon-gate entranceway to see a series of tanks filled with seafood and display cases featuring luxury ingredients like shark's fins and dried abalones. The dining room, with koi pond and Day-Glo jade-green decor, bustles with Chinese families celebrating a special occasion or enjoying a low-key meal.
The Food
There are a few meandering servers carrying steamer baskets during dim sum service, but opt for the checklist approach, where everything is made to order and the flaky pork-filled taro puffs, spicy glutinous rice rolls with XO sauce, and shrimp-stuffed eggplant don't have time to get cold. At dinner, gamy roasted squab boasts crispy skin and tender flesh; wafer-thin slices of briny-sweet geoduck sashimi sit on a bed of ice; and fresh seafood, like Dungeness crab steamed with rice wine, garlic and scallions, is handled with a light touch.
User Reviews
ydtsai
April 24, 2009
We went to the restaurant with 4 adults and 1 toddler. I don't know where does the restaurant come up this rule: If you are over 5 people per table, you will be charged 15% tips(lunch) automatically. I am pretty sure ,it was not on the menu. and plus, our 5th people is just a 18months toddler.. We were forced to pay 15% tips with their so-call high-class service. I even talked to their manager about this. The manager insisted we should be counted as 5 adults and don't want to let me go if I didn't pay the 15% tips. Is this robbery or what? We will never dine there again.. Eddie
read full review
EricLien
January 03, 2009
If you have to get a number and wait, you are a 2nd class customer who would have to wait and wait. For a regular customer who passes tips first to the head waiter, you get seated ahead of those with numbers waiting. I know of some customers without numbers who would go to "another waiting spot" to get manager's attention to get prompt seating without a number being called. I don't know if this is the restaurant's usual practice with or without the owner's knowledge, but the promptly seated customers are expected to tip more. This way the staff gets more tips at the expense of the 2nd class customers who are unfairly made to wait longer.
read full review
foodielover
June 14, 2008
The restaurant is huge and you definitely need reservations for dinner. The food is comprised of expensive and good if not high quality ingredients but is it reasonable to spend $388 for a banquet table that serves 10? I didn't feel the food was worth the price. Only 3 memorable items: the appetizer which consisted of shrimp on top of a eggplant square, battered & fried, shark fin/birdnest soup where you actually see a lot of shark fin and they give you a huge bowl of it (a lot), and sliced cantaloupe with a mango jello piece where all good. Another platter of roast duck (which was good) served with seaweed, ?cuttlefish, and beans/vegt was so-so. The white chop chicken was cooked just right but bland as were most of the other dishes. The steamed prawns were presented in a circle and pretty good. I think our guests were not used to the exotic taste of fish stomach (with vegts). I grew up eating Chinese food, but I'll take tripe over fish (it was huge) stomach any day. The steamed rock cod was cooked just right but I don't like rock cod that much (again, a very large, meaty fish). Unfortunately, most of the waiters do not speak nor understand English. They have to go get a higher ranking waiter to translate. It was so loud on a Friday nite around 7:30 PM that I couldn't hear what our friends across the table were saying until the crowds thinned out and went home. It's not a place to have a nice quiet dinner but obviously quite popular. You have to be aggressive and flag down the wait staff if you want anything. YOu can probably do better at some of the peninsula restaurants (HK Flower Lounge) for the same price.
read full reviewThe Details on Koi Palace Restaurant
The Extras:
Parties of up to 400 people can be accommodated for banquets.
What to Drink:
Though the wine list focuses on chardonnays and cabernets that don't mesh well with Cantonese cooking, there is also a wide range of rice wines available.
Category:
Payment Methods:
American Express, Visa, MasterCard
Restaurant Special Features:
Family-Friendly Dining, Private Rooms, Family Style Dining, Group Dining
