Roadtrip: Koi Palace (Daly City) 17 years later

In 1996 I had a meal that changed my view of dim sum. I had grown up eating the typical, run of the mill stuff back home in Honolulu, siu mai, char siu bao, blah, blah, blah.....I was in San Francisco, had a car, and decided to visit this new (at that time) Chinese Restaurant that was supposed to be "possibly" the best in the country. Hyperbole? Perhaps. But I'll say this much, that visit to Koi Palace changed the way I looked at dim sum, in terms of quality, flavor, and how things were put together. I'd longed to return. In fact, I once mentioned Koi Palace to a supposed "foodie", who looked at me, laughed, and said, you're "the only person I know who wants to go to Daly City and eat"....such was the depth and breath of much of San Diego when I arrived here in 2001. Gladly, much has changed since then.....and so have I. So when we made plans for this little road trip, I really wanted to see Koi Palace circa 2013. I also wanted to share that experience with the Missus.

We arrived just before opening. Folks were already milling around just inside the door. When they started seating, all the "Popo's" pushed to the front of the crowd....it was chaos; though controlled chaos, as the host had kept track of who was in line and ignored the folks who cut in front of the line.

17, almost 18 years, is a lot of water under the bridge, and I have to say the place really shows its age; dark, somewhat dank, scuffed tables...well, I felt right at home. The Missus on the other hand, "the best dim sum in the states, huh?"

We started things off with the Steamed Shrimp Dumpling with XO Sauce:

In many ways this was just perfect; the shrimp plump, full of flavor, steamed to perfection, the XO sauce added that wonderful, deep savory flavor....the much over-used "umami". My biggest problem with this were the wrappers, too thick, too sticky, and falling to pieces when you picked it up with chopsticks....the juices leaked onto the table....of course, this is Koi Palace, so they just placed the next dish right on the oil slick.

I have a rule, "never order Xiao Long Bao at a Cantonese Dim Sum chop", but I broke that rule after seeing Crab Roe Xiao Long Bao on the menu. And I'm glad I did.

This was very good. The dough was just chewy enough, the filling had a wonderful balance of sweetness, which wasn'y cloying, along with pork tones. There was enough "soup" to keep me happy. And yes, you definitely could taste the crab in this. I'm glad we ordered it.

We also ordered the Seafood Pan Fried Noodles, which was good, but not great.

The cooking technique of the seafood was excellent....down to the the oft mishandled squid which was very tender. The sauce/gravy was really bland and there was too little of it and some parts of the noodles were hard instead of crisp.

The Turnip Cakes were average.

The texture was too gummy, like too much flour was used. Not much flavor; I think we make better at home, though that XO sauce that came with it was killer......

The other dish that was "killer", though not in a good way was the Cheong Fun with Fried Fish Filet. It sounded like a good idea, but was a mistake in retrospect.

I've noticed this fad recently, especially at Sichuan Restaurants where fish filets are being coated with a sweet flour, that reminds me of artificially sweet cake mix. It's not a pleasant flavor to us and this was no exception. I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed that. The sauce(balanced salty and sweet) and the rice flour roll(thin and of perfect texture) were excellent, but that fish and the batter was just not our thing.

Things ended on a high note though, as you can see.

This wonderful example of porky beauty is the Koi Palace Suckling Pig. It ain't cheap at $18, but I'd pay that much just for the skin, which was just spot on, perfect in texture....light, crisp, swiney deliciousness. The meat itself was on the chewy side, but the pork flavor was just so good. I hadn't eaten swine so good since we got back from Pork-u-all, ummm Portugal. This is the real deal.....

I think the place needs to be freshened up a bit, that carpet looks like it hasn't been cleaned since 1996. Perhaps more effort goes into their other location(s).The service was pretty good, efficient, non-intrusive......

As to what the Missus thought about Koi Palace, "I expected more, I think Sea Harbour in Rosemead is better...." I read some time ago that Jonathan Gold was of the opinion that Koi Palace was the best "Hong Kong style restaurant in the US".....or something like that. Personally, I'm not so sure.....but that suckling pig was really good....

But in response to the person who made that remark about Daly City all those years ago, "yes, Daly City is a great spot to find good eats; just ask the hundreds of thousands who've been to Koi Palace."

Koi Palace
365 Gellert Blvd
Daly City, CA 94015
 

Comments

[caninecologne]

I've always wanted to see what the big fuss was about with Koi Palace...Gotta say, the pig skin looked excellent! I could eat just that and be happy.

[Kirk]

And die with a smile on your face CC!

[Faye]

Steamed Shrimp Dumpling with XO Sauce looks so delicious. How much was that dish? I just visited Emerald and it's sad that the dim sum here can't be as good as Koi Palace. Perhaps I just haven't found that unicorn Dim Sum place here in SD yet. The suckling pig looks divine - just kinda pricey at $18 but I'm sure it was worth the price.

[kat]

porky goodness!

[nhbilly]

Wished that I found your site sooner. The amount of time I've been to SF I could have stopped by this place. Next time... Glad someone else loves crab roe. When I buy crab I usually pick the female since they so yummy with their roe. The time that I ventured to Sea Harbour they were closed for a wedding. I never had a chance to try.

[Kirk]

Hi Faye - I believe $4.95.

It is Kat!

Hi Billy - I hope you get a chance to stop by and check them out!

[Sandy]

The first time I went to Koi Palace was in 1999, and they have since expanded the Daly City restaurant. I've had some excellent dim sum there, and I noticed it seems best on weekdays (not that I've been there that often). Hong Kong Lounge on Geary Blvd is really good (family favorite), but that place is a zoo on weekends.

[Soo]

Mmm... Sucking pig. :-) Now I'm craving it! Where is that stupid bullet train my tax money went too?

[Kirk]

Hi Sandy - We went on a Friday so the place wasn't packed to the gills....still, I wasn't as impressed as I thoguht I'd be.

Hi Soo - That pork is worth the price!

[Peter]

Regarding the Turnip cake.

I've been eating Dim Sum in London for pretty much all of my life and since the mid 1990s, I've noticed that the flavour of the Turnip Cake has been getting weaker as the years pass.
I used to love that particular peppery radish flavour to the point that whenever I was in Hong Kong where you could get bowls of it served steamed in a bowl (not very common in the UK), I'd eat the bowl by myself.

But I digress.

What I was going to say that I think the lack of flavour, around my part of the world at least, is more to do with the difference in quality of the produce. Vegetables just don't taste like they used to and I notice it most in the Turnip (mooli/daikon), taro and eddoe. Even sweet potatoes (US: yams)don't seem to have the same flavour as they used to. When we make our own turnip cake, it just doesn't have the same flavour intensity.

As for the cheung fun, my favourite is always zha liang. My family have long used that to measure the quality of the Dim Sum chefs. The lightness of the youtiao, the thinness of the cheungfun and perhaps most important of all, if the chef is happy sending out one that has been left to get soft.

[Kirk]

Hi Peter - We search out different varieties of daikon. You might want to try something from the Korean varieties which are spicier. The typical Chinese varieities have a higher water content, though there's a variety that is often sold as Taiwanese Daikon and is known as Giant Luo Duo that is quite good. The turnip cake here was very bland, blander than most others I've had.