Koi Palace - Daly City, California

Clark C.

The honey walnut shrimp was very good! The breading was thin and the shrimps were juicy and not overcooked. The sauce had traces of acidity, i am guessing from lemon juice — very much needed and often neglected in many honey walnut shrimp dishes.

The baked cod was very good! This recent one was a tad overcooked. Thankfully because the cod had a high fat content, it was more forgiving, otherwise it would be totally dry inside. The marinade worked well, so was the dipping sauce.

The lobster noodles were spot on! The lobster was cooked perfectly, so were the noodles. The sauce for the noodles was not too much, the noodles were perfectly soft.

The beef cubes were excellent! The beef were cut a tad too big. The sauce worked, and was aromatic and semi sweet. The mushrooms and other veggies worked great to give the dish its vibrant color.

Found a shrimp with the intestine still intact. Some inconsistencies here and there. I have been here many times.

East B. A. R.

Still quite popular after 30 plus years, Koi Palace offers upscale and expensive Cantonese dim sum and seafood dining near Serramonte mall.

Dim sum is one of their claims to fame, but I found the wrappings too soft and they fell apart when picking up a dumpling with chopsticks. Perhaps they added too much water to the four mix. Picky.

The savory dishes were sweet, and the sweet items were too sweet.

The recessed lighting and darker atmosphere adds a little sophistication, compared to the bright white LED lighting you find in most Chinese restaurants. The central dining area has nice lighting and higher ceilings. The area off to the side has lower ceilings and makes the noise level very high. Everyone has to yell to be heard.

Many tables ordered their more expensive seafood items such as Lobster noodles, steamed crab, crab noodles, abalone noodles. Maybe that's the ticket.

Service was good. Our waiter was quite friendly and accommodating. We weren't bothered by the rude and pushy guys in the dark suits with the earpiece.

Koi Palace is a good place to go to if you want to splurge and or impress your family or friends with an expensive Chinese lunch or dinner. Just go on a weekday...if you want to be heard or even hear yourself talk.

Angie H.

I use to love this place, but my recent visit was a major letdown. The quality of the food and service has significantly declined.

The table wasn't set up when we arrived, and there weren't any utensils or napkins. The overall cleanliness left a lot to be desired.

Several of the dishes we ordered were subpar. Food takes forever to arrive, we waited over an hour for XLB and eventually had to cancel it.

Crispy Fried Dough Rice Roll ( 0/5) - Soggy and flavorless, as if it were leftover from the previous day.

Steamed Shrimp dumplings with XO sauce (1/5) - The Steamed Shrimp Dumplings were falling apart, with a soggy skin and an unappetizing appearance. The XO sauce didn't complement the shrimp, and the shrimp themselves were neither juicy nor tender.

Soy Marinated Tofu Cubes (3/5) - Somewhat enjoyable, was cold when brought to the table. Sauce was a bit off.

chicken feet, spareribs with diced Taro (4/5) - Probably the best dish but the portion is tiny.

Mango crepe rolls (1/5) - Difficult to chew, and the mochi filling was tough instead of soft. The exterior was also overly soggy.

Soft grilled black sesame filled cakes (3/5) - Mochi inside wasn't chewy although the sesame filling was satisfying.

To add, when we received our bill, they hadn't crossed off a dish we had canceled. I won't be returning to this location again.

Jean T.

Very disappointed about the food quality here. It was far from before. Service attitude improved. However, soup dumpling skin it’s thick and soup base tastes weird and salty. I can’t tell what is the stuffing for. It’s very mushy. Vegetable was over cooked. I used to love the dim sum here but from food presentation to quality is far behind from the past 🙁

Lisa H.

Good dim sum - more for the traditional dim sum vibes and not the modern style if that’s what you’re looking for. they do the pork ribs and chicken feet especially well! Atmosphere and service is spotty but as expected of a legit dim sum place. Come at opening time to avoid long lines!

Overall though I do feel like for the same price or lower I had better food at HL peninsula.

Rachel C.

I am giving this place a 2 star review mostly because of their service. My cousin made a reservation for 18 people over a month ago. On the day of the reservation, they called her at 10:50am (our reservation was for 12pm), and said, "Can you guys come now?" She responded, "It will be very hard to get 18 people to show up an hour early at a moment's notice. They responded, "Okay, we will see you later." When we arrived, they did not have a table ready, and did not seem at all apologetic that they were not honoring our promised reservation, made over a month ago. Furthermore, we noticed 2 tables close together that easily could have accommodated our group of 18 that seated a party that arrived after we did. We ended up sitting down at 12:45, instead of 12pm. A reservation for lunch should mean just that, and I was rather unimpressed that the restaurant didn't seem to care that they weren't honoring their promise. The food was good, but it wasn't noticeably better than other dim sum places in the Bay Area.

Hilda L.

The food is pretty nice. There is no dimsum if you go in the afternoon though 😢 Soup is great and service was good. The environment is okay with fish swimming in the middle. They do automatically charge you 18% for service fee so don’t double tip! Also…for weird reason it seems like the fish in aquarium are dead 😨

DANNY K. L.

Pretty decent dim sum dishes in comparison to the South Bay restaurants. I especially liked the flavorful daikon cake in the bowl which I don't see too often.