Come Eat With Us: Royal Palace Restaurant

This new restaurant in the new DJunction building across the Merdeka traffic lights, Penampang is the eat of the town, especially on Wed., Sat. and Sun. when all dimsum is RM1.98 (US$0.57) per steamer. After 3 failed attempts, Hubby gave up and brought me there yesterday, a Thursday.

We like it. Probably because we have tried about 4 other new dimsum places in the last 2 months, and been disappointed each time. One of them is Four Seasons in Asia City. A 5/10, this place serves dimsum on trays according to your order. Our order took 30 minutes and was cold when it arrived. And it didn't taste any better than Foo Ping, which, like I said, I fiercely avoid. Four Seasons is also expensive (hargow at RM6.50 per steamer, almost twice that of Royal Palace), the place was littered with tissues on the table, on the floor and service was very slow. Notice you're getting two reviews by the way.

Royal Palace is big, with about 30 tables and the decor is quite pleasant. Dimsum is served from trolleys so they are hot. I was happy to see that the size of each dimsum was dainty as they should be, because dimsum (meaning 'point the heart' in Cantonese) is meant to be eaten slowly, over cups of good tea, good company and even a couple of newspapers. Dimsum should not be monstrous like those in western countries (I suppose western mouths are bigger in size and volume) or eaten quickly like a burger. I love the dimsum in Melbourne, especially those in (have to ask Yi) , but honestly after a couple of golfball-sized hargow, siewmai, egg-sized beefballs and jindui, my throat becomes constricted and I'd be bulimic. Haven't they figured out that if they serve dimsum dainty, people will have more stomach room to eat, in variety and quantity, thus ensuring the restaurant's cash machines will always be full?

Right. I have learnt something from the waiter at Royal Palace: come on those discount days at your own peril. You not only have to grab the dimsum from the buffet table yourself, you may not get that many choices. Ok, I made the second point up myself but you go figure. What you pay is what you get.

Everything considered, I'll be eating at Royal Palace whenever my mouth craves for dimsum. Besides being only 5 minutes away (yay, no need to go downtown!), it really is the best so far. However, nothing's perfect. They could do with more variety (where's the fried cuttlefish, the malaigo, the stewed beef tripe, the black sesame rolls ) and since the size is already small, it would be very welcome if they would give the traditional four instead of three (with the exception of hargow, which comes in four) pieces of dimsum per steamer.



Yi: My first pic using the food mode in the DSLR (beaming with pride). Wait till I learn to shoot RAW and tinker on the computer...



I think I'll be nice and give my first 8/10 of my restaurant reviews. Just to make sure its not a mistake, we've booked a table for tomorrow night, a sort of pre-Mother's Day dinner. Keep you posted!

Edit:
18 May 2007

Looks like many of you dislike the food at Royal Palace. I was there yesterday for dimsum and this time the choice was even less, forcing me to order a tasteless bowl of noodles for RM12 (US$3.5). However, I still think the dimsum is better than any other in KK...

Mother's Day dinner last Saturday was a real bummer. Mother-in-Law (henceforth MIL) had ordered Set B, the better set dinner. When the 3rd course came, somebody questioned if we were getting the right dishes and sure enough they had been giving us Set A (the cheaper set) instead. To compensate, the captain agreed to let us have a complimentary dish, and I chose fried noodles (not to be too opportunistic). When the bill came, they charged us RM28 for the noodles, the captain couldn't be found and the one we talked to said she doesn't know anything about it. The place was packed and we decided to settle the bill rather than wait. Although the food bill was RM228 (Set A), we paid about RM270 because of the taxes and tidbits etc. That would have been fine if the food was good, but it wasn't! We thought maybe the quality was down because it was full house but from your feedback, it seems nobody had a good thing to say about dinner at Royal Palace. So I'll go with your comments and my judgement and give them a 6/10 for their dinner food.