Golden Palace Seafood Restaurant

Everyone has their favorite dim sum restaurant around Honolulu, and they'll defend their choice passionately. Although I've tried far fewer places than Reid, I too have developed a favorite haunt.

The first visit to Golden Palace was exactly a year ago when an international student took us there, explaining, "This is the best dim sum, like back in Hong Kong." Sitting on King Street just Eva side of the Maunakea intersection, the siren call of Golden Palace has drawn us back countless times since.

A quick primer before we begin... dim sum refers to a style of eating where many small dishes are brought to the table, usually on carts that meander around the dining space. Servers lift lids from little bamboo or stainless steel steamers, allowing customers to select as many steamers as they wish. The numbers of dishes are recorded on a bill left at the table until the meal is complete. Literally translated as "order to one's heart's content," dim sum dishes are typically shared family style alongside hot tea.

When we arrived today at 1:30pm, the Golden Palace dining room was about half full. Dim sum dining is best in a somewhat crowded restaurant, because they circulate more food carts and replenish them continuously. More carts mean more options and the freshest dim sum.

The first cart rolled over to our table as we were sitting down and we selected three dishes.

Har gow

Siu mai

Ginger tripe

Har gow are shrimp encased in a translucent rice wrapper. The seasoning was very subtle, allowing the delicate shrimp flavors to shine. Siu mai are open-faced pork dumplings cradled in a wheat wrapper. These were very moist and flavorful, but with a coarser texture than I would like. Of the first three dishes, the tripe is my favorite. (Does anyone know the Chinese name for this dim sum?) I don't know how they prepare it, but it tastes like it was braised in a light ginger broth until tender. The end result is succulent and satisfying-- the best preparation I've had of this dim sum.

A second cart rolled past, allowing us to select several more items. Unlike the first cart, this one housed a small griddle for frying dim sum tableside.

Server with griddle cart

Potstickers

Cheong fun

Roasted pepper with shrimp

The potstickers were not nearly as oily as they appear in the photo. The exterior was hot and crispy with moist pork and ginger inside. The cheong fun was the single disappointment of our meal. They were greasy and almost flavorless. I've had these before and they were much better, so perhaps this was an off day.

The roasted pepper stuffed with shrimp was a dim sum variety I've never seen before. The combination was novel, but not one I'd order every visit. The pepper, shrimp and sauce were even better on their own than as a combination.

Green dumplings

Bean curd rolls

Choy sum

To finish out our meal, we picked up three more dishes. I have no idea what those green dumplings above are called. They used the same style rice wrapper as the har gow, but inside were some type of braised leafy greens with large chunks of garlic. It was the only garlicky dish we ordered, and provided great contrast to the other dim sum.

The bean curd rolls were stuffed with imitation crab, baby corn and shiitake mushrooms. I wished for more mushroom--that's a minor complaint--but overall the rolls were juicy and delicious. We finished off with an order of choy sum from the kitchen just so we could get chlorophyll into our meal. It was perfectly cooked to a nice al dente and served with oyster sauce.

Overall, the meal lived up to my expectations. The dishes were moist and, with the exception of the cheong fun, full-flavored. And the best part? The dim sum dishes cost a flat rate of $1.50 per plate. The price of the feast above, which fed three adults and a toddler until we were comfortably full was a grand total of $17.56. Golden Palace provides great dim sum at affordable rates. There are other great (better?) dim sum restaurants in the area, but here you get bang for your buck.

Dim sum service stops mid-afternoon at which point they switch to a dinner menu, so go early and go often!

Golden Palace Seafood Restaurant
111 North King St.
Honolulu, HI 96817
808-521-8268