Foods from Palais Imperial
Comments
2012 Sep 29
I will admit that Palais Imperial was our thrid choice for dinner tonight. We started with The Keg on York but there was a one-hour and half wait so we walked over to Smoque Shack where it was a 30minute wait. With a toddler in tow, we decided that it would be too hard to wait so long so we went to Palais Imperial which we passes on the way and saw it was not 100% full. It was 90% full but we got a table in the corner right away so we were happy.
We sit down and are asked immediately what we would like to drink. We order jasmine tea which arrives within a minute. Then, if we are ready to order. I said we need a couple of minutes and one minute later, the waiter was back!
I would have liked to peruse for another minute but was fiarly ready so order the yeung chow style fried rice, the tofu and pork casserole and beef with chinese veggies.
This is when the wait starts! I guess we were bound to wait for food one way or another tonight! We waited a good 30 min and still no sign of our food. We wait another 5 and order one hot and sour soup to bridge us over. The soup is good and spicy enough but could use a little more vinegar. Then, we wait again... Another 20-30 min later, we get the fried rice and the beef with veggies. Luckily for them, after all this waiting, the food was up to expectations and is very tasty and fresh. The beef was particularly well seasoned and soft and with the right chewiness. It was a little oily this time.
We wait another 10 min before the 3rd dish arrived. It was good too but just would have been if it came before we were done eating all the rice!
Anyways, it seemed we were not the only ones to whom this was happening judging from the tables around us.
I hope it was a one time kitchen mess up. The food was good so i will come back.
I have been here a few times over the years and the quality can vary a bit. Service will probably always be a bit unreliable but the food tonight makes it worth returning to.
We sit down and are asked immediately what we would like to drink. We order jasmine tea which arrives within a minute. Then, if we are ready to order. I said we need a couple of minutes and one minute later, the waiter was back!
I would have liked to peruse for another minute but was fiarly ready so order the yeung chow style fried rice, the tofu and pork casserole and beef with chinese veggies.
This is when the wait starts! I guess we were bound to wait for food one way or another tonight! We waited a good 30 min and still no sign of our food. We wait another 5 and order one hot and sour soup to bridge us over. The soup is good and spicy enough but could use a little more vinegar. Then, we wait again... Another 20-30 min later, we get the fried rice and the beef with veggies. Luckily for them, after all this waiting, the food was up to expectations and is very tasty and fresh. The beef was particularly well seasoned and soft and with the right chewiness. It was a little oily this time.
We wait another 10 min before the 3rd dish arrived. It was good too but just would have been if it came before we were done eating all the rice!
Anyways, it seemed we were not the only ones to whom this was happening judging from the tables around us.
I hope it was a one time kitchen mess up. The food was good so i will come back.
I have been here a few times over the years and the quality can vary a bit. Service will probably always be a bit unreliable but the food tonight makes it worth returning to.
2012 Mar 17
The food was not bad but the excellence of the shrimp dumpling and the novelty of the chicken in pandana leaf dim sum only partially compensated for the rude service at the beginning.
Three stars
Please see my full review at:
sybaritica.me
Three stars
Please see my full review at:
sybaritica.me
2011 Jun 27
After eating and enjoying Royal Thai for years (not my favourite Thai food in the city, but there are some dishes that they do very well), my hubby and I decided to finally try Palais Imperial for dinner last weekend.
We had the veg spring rolls, the green beans with pork, the chicken fried rice, the chicken imperial style, and a beef dish whose name eludes me. Everything was deliciously flavourful and each dish was very distinct and memorable, a quality that I generally find lacking in Canadianized Chinese food where many dishes resemble each other in flavour but differ only in the meat or a few of the ingredients, thus running together into an indistinguishable blur.
Overall, we were incredibly impressed, and if our next experience at Palais Imperial is anything like our first, this will likely replace So Good and Veranda D'Or as our favourite Chinese in the city.
We had the veg spring rolls, the green beans with pork, the chicken fried rice, the chicken imperial style, and a beef dish whose name eludes me. Everything was deliciously flavourful and each dish was very distinct and memorable, a quality that I generally find lacking in Canadianized Chinese food where many dishes resemble each other in flavour but differ only in the meat or a few of the ingredients, thus running together into an indistinguishable blur.
Overall, we were incredibly impressed, and if our next experience at Palais Imperial is anything like our first, this will likely replace So Good and Veranda D'Or as our favourite Chinese in the city.
2010 Jun 5
For lunch this afternoon I went to Imperial Palais. I am not super experienced with "dim sum" however I thought the food was quite delicious. To further the comments of umamiman, the food was not greasy at all.
I found the ordering process a bit weird I must say. When I was seated, the waiter(s) (there were three or four servicing my table?)asked me right away what I was having. They handed me the menu, and expected me to order right away. I asked for a few minutes to decide. I was literally given 30 seconds before someone came back to ask me what I wanted. This happened a few times.
While I was still parousing the menu, a cart came by with all sorts of small dishes, and again I was asked which one I wanted. I found that this was a good idea seeing as though the menu has no prices, or names of the dishes under each picture. I was able to ask about them and find out how much they cost.
I ordered some kind of chicken dumpling, shrimp tofu and sticky rice. The chicken dumpling was amazing. It came with four pieces and there was no mystery meat inside, it was definitely white meat mixed with green onions and something else I couldn't put my finger on. The shrimp tofu was great, crispy on the outside, soft and moist on the inside and they topped it off with a deliciously sweet sauce - hoisin maybe?
The sticky rice was okay, but not bad. There were tiny shrimps and little pieces of beef mixed in with the rice. It needed something, so I doused it in soy sauce and a bit of the super hot paste they provide on the table.
With a coke my bill was 14 bucks. I'm not sure if that is expensive for dimsum, so please enlighten me foodies. Over all however, I was stuffed, the food was of great quality, and although the service was weird, there was no lack thereof.
So if you are in the market and you are looking for "Chinese food" that is better than manchu wok, check out Imperial Palace.
I found the ordering process a bit weird I must say. When I was seated, the waiter(s) (there were three or four servicing my table?)asked me right away what I was having. They handed me the menu, and expected me to order right away. I asked for a few minutes to decide. I was literally given 30 seconds before someone came back to ask me what I wanted. This happened a few times.
While I was still parousing the menu, a cart came by with all sorts of small dishes, and again I was asked which one I wanted. I found that this was a good idea seeing as though the menu has no prices, or names of the dishes under each picture. I was able to ask about them and find out how much they cost.
I ordered some kind of chicken dumpling, shrimp tofu and sticky rice. The chicken dumpling was amazing. It came with four pieces and there was no mystery meat inside, it was definitely white meat mixed with green onions and something else I couldn't put my finger on. The shrimp tofu was great, crispy on the outside, soft and moist on the inside and they topped it off with a deliciously sweet sauce - hoisin maybe?
The sticky rice was okay, but not bad. There were tiny shrimps and little pieces of beef mixed in with the rice. It needed something, so I doused it in soy sauce and a bit of the super hot paste they provide on the table.
With a coke my bill was 14 bucks. I'm not sure if that is expensive for dimsum, so please enlighten me foodies. Over all however, I was stuffed, the food was of great quality, and although the service was weird, there was no lack thereof.
So if you are in the market and you are looking for "Chinese food" that is better than manchu wok, check out Imperial Palace.
2010 Mar 18
My favorite place for Dim Sum. The place I first tried it a few years ago. Now I go back whevener I have the chance.
Last Sunday I invited some family members who had never tried that type of chinese food and they all said the food was great (but that there was a bit too much)
Lots of variety, it all seems freshly made, the restaurant is clean and the service is friendly.
Even when I order a totally unreasonable amount of food, including every possible kind of shrimp dumplings, it still ends up being less than 20$ a person. I've tried some other, cheaper, places for Dim Sum, but I always come back here, it's well worth paying a bit more.
Last Sunday I invited some family members who had never tried that type of chinese food and they all said the food was great (but that there was a bit too much)
Lots of variety, it all seems freshly made, the restaurant is clean and the service is friendly.
Even when I order a totally unreasonable amount of food, including every possible kind of shrimp dumplings, it still ends up being less than 20$ a person. I've tried some other, cheaper, places for Dim Sum, but I always come back here, it's well worth paying a bit more.
RiceLover
Montreal's dim sum is just a little cheaper than Ottawa. For great deals on dim sum, Toronto is the place. Lots of restaurants have $2 per plate deals after rush hours!