Ocean Palace Reviews
Submitted by Jessica C on 11/13/2021
Jessica C 5 stars rating.
Great dim sum, atmosphere is nice and clean, just wish there were more carts going around but I guess that's because we went there on a Friday. The dim sum is made to order. Loved the scallop rice rolls ($5.35), tofu pork roll ($4.25), ginseng shrimp dumpling ($8.75). I really wanted to like the panfried turnip cake since I grew up eating it prepared by my grandma and usually the dim sum places I've tried make it quite good, but it was a bit bland for my taste here. If you are not there for the dim sum and are present with a few people in your party, I'd highly recommend the family pack where you can pick 4 dishes for $36! It's SUCH a good deal. My family got the clams with black bean sauce, salt and pepper squid (which I enjoyed), beef and Chinese broccoli, and house special noodle. Not bad for $36. I'd definitely come back, just not on the weekends since I hear you have to wait like an hour for some dim sum.
Tina Zhuang 1 stars rating.
ordered 4 pack family plate, a soup for 13.95 and 3 dim sum dishes for and 2 beers. Already finished some dim sum dishes. Shrimp is not fresh, lobster and clams doesn’t taste good. The other stuff doesn’t taste good neither. Service was ok, but environment is not that clean here.The only good thing is it’s CHEAP. But it doesn’t taste good. I rather to be expensive and good taste. Will NEVER be back.
Submitted by Tina Zhuang on 08/29/2022
Victor Law 5 stars rating.
We needed food for a family party and ordered a number of dishes from Ocean Palace. This restaurant was recommended by relatives that live in the area.
Overall, we were happy with the dishes we ordered. The portions were decent and the food had good flavor. Considering we order catering-style trays of food, it was pretty fresh and tasty.
The Salt and Pepper Tofu was still somewhat crispy which is hard to maintain when it travelled in a covered container. The sale and pepper flavors were good. The spice was just right.
The Fried Shrimp with Walnut in Mayonnaise Sauce was very crispy, yet still tendered. They were not overcooked. We appreciated that the sauce was kept separately so to maintain the crunch of the fried shrimp.
The Salt and Pepper Fish Filet was crispy and moist. The fish was cooked just right. The salt and pepper flavors came through well.
The Special Fried Rice was decent and consistent with other fried rice from any other chinese restaurant.
The Sauteed Clams in Black Bean Sauce was fresh and delicious.
The Fried Lobster in Salt and Pepper Seasoning was not overcooked. The lobster meat was good and the flavors were impactful.
The Fried Dungeness Crab in Dry Garlic was another nice flavor and different enough than salt and pepper that others enjoyed as well.
Finally, the Rice Noodle with Beef and Chinese Broccoli was delicious and a personal favorite of mine. I appreciated a separate container of sauce and they were generous with the sauce. I always find that most restaurants keep the sauce to a minimal. This place is better and I was able to fully enjoy the rice noodle swimming in the sauce. The beef was decent and each piece I had was very tender.
We really enjoyed the dishes from Ocean's Palace.
Submitted by Victor Law on 08/26/2022
Susan L 3 stars rating.
We went on a Sunday and arrived around 11am for Dim Sum. There were so many ppl waiting out in the lobby for a table. I had to put my name in the waiting list and according to the host it was an hour wait. They will text when table is ready. Yep, waited for an hour after walking around the warm strip mall on one of the hottest day of summer. There weren't many carts going around and served only the most popular plates like shu mai and ha gao. From the cart we ordered:
Shu mai
Ha gao
Chicken feet
Cheng fun (contained shrimp)
It was ok and the food came out just barely warm. I just dipped all the food in hot chili oil and I am a semi happy person. LOL! We also ordered hot jasmine tea to wash down the heaviness of the food and it was warm too. :/
You could also order dim sum dishes off the menu which has picture and mark the quantity amount on a checklist. There were dishes that were not on the checklist so you would have to flag down the waiter to let him know what you want which we ordered flat rice noodles with beef which wasn't great as the noodles were stuck together and lack any flavor. From the checklist we ordered:
Turnip cake - need more flavor, dipped in hot chili oil to make it better
Truffle shu mai - truffle overpowering
Truffle soup dumpling - the outside layer was a little too thick and again Truffle overpowered the dumpling taste
Cha sui bao - kind of small and one of my favorite among all the dishes we ordered
Tripe with black bean - I had better and it had no flavor
Sesame ball - another favorite but a tad sweet for me
Eggplant - not memorable
Shrimp and rice noodle with fried bread - interesting but ok, I don't recommend dipping in sesame sauce (yuck)
So when my son waved down a young waitress to ask for a check, she told him 'sorry no speak English' and walked away. Umm...majority of the young waitstaff speak English, some speak broken English and some speak English very well. Even the older waitstaff attempted to speak English to us but this waitress appeared that she don't want to be bothered since I believe the tip would be distributed evenly among everyone. There were quite a bit of customers in the restaurant who were non Asian so I assume that she would also say the same thing 'no speak English'?? So rude!
Enough ranting...we left the restaurant in a food coma...too much carbs. I probably won't be back and will find a better tasty dim sum restaurant. Don't expect good service either since you are in Chinatown. And if you don't wanna wait get there when it opens around 1030am on the weekend.
Submitted by Susan L on 07/19/2022
David HA 3 stars rating.
It's a nice venue. Haven't had dimsum in awhile since I moved away from NYC. Weekdays are obviously easier to get in for seating. I wouldn't get any soup dumplin there though. They brought that out and didn't give us spoons for them. So I had to ask for some. Silly me though, I know why they didn't give me a spoon cuz there was no soup in there cuz it leaked out either prior or on arrival. Besides that I would try it out. Although I wish that one place that's closed down was open. I heard good things about it. Also wish they did cart style which is what I known dim sum for and wanted to give my wife that experience.
Submitted by David Ha on 07/13/2022
Shelby Louise 4 stars rating.
I came here for a wedding and the food is wonderful. There were so many different dishes to choose from and they were all very delicious. The service was very professional and the restrooms were clean. I do think they need to do something about the smells coming out of the bathrooms though.
Submitted by Shelby Louise on 06/19/2022
PL 5 stars rating.
We have not been to Ocean Palace in a few years, and it is a pleasant surprise to see that the place looks great - clean and well organized! We went on a Friday dim sum lunch. We ordered six items, and they were all terrific - cuttlefish with curry, chicken feet, beef tripe ginger, rice roll with bbq pork, fried taro puff, and shrimp pork shu mai. On this day, we placed the order on a piece of paper, and they brought out the dishes. I'm not sure if they have the dim sum carts on the weekend as many places do. Anyhow the food was excellent. We will go back here more often than a few years!
Submitted by Pl on 06/07/2022
Joanna Chao 5 stars rating.
A very yummy foods! Big hall and clean,
Good service as well. But there is one thing need to strongly mention!!! Please upgrade the light bulbs to day’s light color. So people joint the event can take a good picture! Hopefully the management team will see my suggestion!
Submitted by Joanna Chao on 05/31/2022
Lia X. 5 stars rating.
My new favorite dim sum place!! When we arrived, the wait was 1.5 hours and it was worth the wait! I don't even think I got a picture of all the food because it looked so good, I just ate it right away. Service was excellent - prompt, attentive, and polite. The dim sum quality and variety of Ocean Palace is top notch - first place I've been to in Bellaire where the rice rolls actually stay together while I'm eating, they offer my fave pork Xiao buns, everything was so flavorful, but I didn't go into a high sugar food coma immediately after like at some other places I've tied in Bellaire. I will definitely be back.
Submitted by Lia X. on 05/06/2022
CHEF EATS 5 stars rating.
This is the place to go for dimsum. Having tried a lot of dimsum in Hongkong, this was pretty good. The selection was huge. We enjoyed all of the dimsum that we ordered. Service was very friendly too. The price was just right and the place was clean.
Submitted by Chef Eats on 02/20/2022
