Crown Palace

I come here with friends a few times a year for dim sum on the weekends. The dim sum is probably average as far as dim sum goes, but there aren’t a ton of places in the area that serve it. We almost never have a reservation and getting a table with a large group is never an issue. This is a very large restaurant, and there are a lot of tables.
They have a huge variety of steamed and fried dumplings and meat filled rice noodles, which they cart around. I don’t know what any of them are called, but my favorite dumpling is this large-​ish fried gooey rice dough ball with tiny pieces of pork inside of it. Whenever I see it I ask for as many servings as they’re willing to give me and hoard all of it. They also have a few different types of buns. The ones filled with eggy custard are to die for, as are the steamed pork buns
We say yes to everything they put in front of us until we’re completely stuffed. Definitely wear stretchy pants! Service is fast, and you pretty much start eating upon arriving. It usually ends up costing somewhere between $ 10-​$ 15 dollars a person, which is insanely reasonable. I usually can’t eat anything for the rest of the day.

This is the most average Chinese restaurant I have ever eaten at. Don’t take this the wrong way: I’m not saying the food or service is bad. It’s not. Just average. The food is okay, unspectacular but not bad. The interior and those terrible banquet chairs have not changed since the 1980’s, and the waiters in tuxedos ring with an air of nostalgia, but that is part of the charm. There are not many of these old-​school sit-​down Chinese restaurants left in Monmouth County. But that is about the only thing they have going for them. They have a menu full of the classics, but nothing to differentiate them from any other Chinese place. There are takeout joints that make it better. Not worth the extra money you will shell out to eat here.

Great restaurant. I can’t complain about a single thing everything I ate was incredible my whole family had a great time. I love this place.
Right next-​door «SM Asian Market» there’s an Asian market that you can shop for everything Asian from tuna feel fresh fish and beef. They have everything a sushi or Asian restaurant has.

Food is inconsistent as well as the service. Depends on what day you go. It appears they provide better service to non-​Asians (maybe because they tend to order more drinks?). We don’t ever go there for dinner as overpriced for the amount and quality of the food. However, great lunch prices although the dishes are small but tasty.

The food is pretty good here and authentic. The wait staff leaves much to be desired, however. They have the dingiest uniforms that make you lose your appetite. The food is served fast, typical of a Chinese restaurant and the prices are reasonable. All dishes are quite good, but nothing stands out as exceptional. Nevertheless, the food is fresh and cooked to order. This chain is much better than any other Chinese restaurants in the area.

I remember this place 10 years back, it was really great back then as i recall. Nowadays the service is good, food is good, price is ok, and the distance for a frequent visit has died down. better options in the NJ-​NY area but a good local go to in my books!

Ok it’s a mess coming in cause it’s a popular joint. Amy from front of the house makes sure that you are attended to and kept things organized.
There is a bar and they serve excellent bloody mary’s but the person manning the bar is not there all the time. It would be nice if he is just stationed at the bar. Make sure to ask for olives.
There’s Wifi in the building three of them, but no one seems to know the password. Which was a little frustrating.
But once you are inside, Ana, who is stunningly beautiful made sure I was well taken care of, checking on me often, asking if I needed anything. Amy made me special by putting me in a nice place since I was dining alone. The other staff seems to also care that I was having a good time. And went out of their way to bring me dishes.
Yes I’ve had better dim sum but this is not bad at all. There’s a good variety and once they came they came often enough. I wish they had soup dumplings. But what I tasted was pretty good. More came and there was no more room in my belly.
The egg custard is flaky and lightly sweet, very delicious.
Over all the staff of this place made it well worth the trip. I was a very happy camper.

The food was okay-​had better. The hostess was friendly and got us drinks. As for the waiters, there was not one single one but a bunch of them coming and going at first, then they all disappeared. The result: fumbled orders. Mine was missing and so was my sister’s. Instead of an apology, we were told we did not order those entrees. So why am I sitting here? We all came to have dinner. Drinks (water & soda) were lacking. We would then have to try to find a waiter to get us drinks. The bubble tea for $ 3.25 was mostly water in a tiny wine glass.

You have to come for dim sum. They serve on the weekends with traditional cars being walked around. Many of the staff has worked here for years and they get to know you after a while. Highly recommend making a reservation and getting there early before certain dishes run out and the place becomes a cluster…
The carts vary from a fried cart, a dessert cart, a couple of steam carts, a «sautee» cart, and then sometimes the servers walk around with special dishes.
The one thing that I dislike is that it often can take some time between carts coming by, so I suggest stocking up on everything you can from a cart while its there.
Some of my favorite dishes are:
— Chicken feet– delightfully glazed and tender in a sweet soy scallion glaze
— Black Bean Spare Rib– little chunks of steamed pork ribs in a garlic white sauce
— Shark Fin Dumpling– I am avidly against the collection of sharkfin, but they tell me it is not actually made with the fin… either way, its delicious
— Shrimp in Rice Noodle– a few steamed shrimp wrapped in a steamed rice noodle… covered in a soy garlic sauce
— Steamed Pork Bun– traditional, sweet, delicious
— Fried Salt and Pepper Squid– one of the dishes they walk around with on trays… if you can get it, grab one. Perfectly fried, chewey, lightly battered, and delicious.
A couple dishes to order from the kitchen while you’re there too:
— Peking Pork Chop– a pan fried pork chop covered in a Worcestershire based glaze… these are sweet, goey, and amaaaazing!
— Snails in black bean sauce– These little periwinkle snails are served with toothpicks to pluck them out of their shells. They are delightful with mild flavor and a great black bean sauce.
Don’t be afraid to ask for anything from the staff… part of the fun is annoying them as they rush around… not in a mean sense, but they end up liking to see how much you can eat… trust me, my friends and I eat A LOT when we go there.

I’ve definitely had way better dim sum. The issue is whether I can get it within a 20minute drive (no). Thus, we are left with Crown Palace. The food itself isn’t bad. But it’s not served as piping hot as it would be in a joint with more turnover. The tables also were not set with hot sauce/​soy sauce, per most dim sum joints. And we had to ask a waiter for tea.
We liked the fried taro dumplings and the chive dumplings. The har gao and su mei were decent. The cang fun (wide noodles) were disappointing as was the lo buo gao (radish cake). There was not a huge selection. But like I said, when you’re in the middle of Monmouth County, you can’t be too picky!

The crown palace offers genuine chinese food. The thing is though, the major flaw with this restaurant is the inconsistency. It has come down to a ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ shot on whether or not the food will be good and fresh. I would not recommend this restaurant simply due to its inconsistency to serve good food.

Good for dimsum (weekend lunch). Service is meh; just wave one down or get up to find one when you need something. Two star for non-​dimsum (although it has been a couple years since I last ate a non-​dimsum meal). A new chinese grocery store opened next door though.
Dimsum was better than what I recall which has been over a year or two ago. Unfortunately, I do not know of any other dimsum place in the area.

We had a 1 year hiatus from last year’s lackluster and expensive 10 person banquet meal. This year, we opted out of the standard 6-​person meal and ordered our own dishes. Like everywhere else, prices have gone up. Luckily, the food quality has much improved. I am happy to recommend this restaurant again.
— Beef Filet with Chinese Broccoli (beef was overcooked)
— Crispy Chicken — the skin was VERY crispy and the meat was succulent. It takes 25 minutes to prepare so we had other dishes while waiting for this one. It was definitely worth the wait. Make sure you specify whether you want ½ or whole chicken. We didn’t specify and got a whole chicken.
— Pan-​fried Jumbo Prawns — Crown Palace did not skimp on the jumbo shrimp! It was plentiful, meaty and delicious.
— Crispy fried fish chunks — This is a gourmet version of fish nuggets. Very fresh and fragrant with a scent of vanilla. Both the adults and kids love this dish. We will definitely order this dish again.
— Peking pork chops — This was very tasty with minimal breading and just the right amount of sweet and sour.
— Eggplant Salted Fish Casserole — This dish is not really for the Gringos but it’s the best eggplant & salted fish casserole I have every had. The eggplant was perfectly cooked with just the right amount of salted fish to make it flavorful without overpowering the eggplant. I will definitely order it again.
My 2 kids ordered the bubble tea for $ 3.50 each. This was not worth it though since they are served in small glasses from the bar… not at all the size of the typical bubble tea. I recommend opting out of this.
Most dishes were around $ 15 and the more expensive seafood dish (prawns) was $ 20. We ordered 6 dishes for 4 adults and 4 kids and had enough leftover for another meal for a family of 4. The total tab was $ 107 with 2 bubble tea.

Atmosphere: 2 stars! it is stuffy… the a/​c was barely working then add the frying stuffed vegetable cart and you get the oil smell with no ventilation!
Service: 1 star! you will get your tea… you will get the bare minimum services from the waiters… don’t expect «service with a smile!» the younger staff that are walking around with trays of food are the only ones that know how to speak to customers (manners) and always with a smile!
Food: no stars! ½ the food listed on their menu (dim sums) are not available at all! no meatball??? it’s a standard dim sum dish!!! I had to return the beef rice roll because it was spoiled, bit into raw pork shu mai, cold shrimp rice roll, EXTREMELY salty steamed bean curd skin roll, the tripe is sweeter than candy and it is soaked in sauce with a TON of cornstarch! Pan fried turnip cakes are smothered with a pan gravy??? If you want hoisin sauce, homemade chili soy sauce (not spicy AT ALL — it’s just red!)… you will have to walk to the front of the dining room to get it yourself (well. unless you are a friend of the waiter!) When I asked if they have hot oil, I was told that the hot sauce for dim sum is Siracha and it is the BEST because it is from Lee Kam Kee (did they get paid for endorsement???)
I am no way an expert in dim sum… I just been having it since I was born (a long while ago!) This is such a disappointment… This will be one experience that I wish I never had!

Food quality use to be better but now whenever we order takeout the food is bland and oily… even the simple dishes that fearured deep fried chicken comes out of their frier dripping in oil… We will NOT be returning.

I find that most of the good reviews on here are for the dim sum. Had I known that, I probably wouldnt have gone for dinner recently.
Going back 10 or so years ago, this place was where it was at! The food was great, the dining room lively & clean and a packed house. FF a decade or so… the food is mediocre, the dining room looks dated & dingy and we were one of three tables.
The only saving grace was that the fried rice was as good as I remember it! Everything else, uggh… The vegging dumplings had no flavor, the boneless spare ribs were fatty chewy nuggets of rib & the egg foo yung was a nasty ball of grease.
I hate to give a review like this, but the odds of me ever coming back are nil.

Dim Sum is served here during lunch time on the weekends. The food is pretty tasty. The service is a little lackng. We had to ask for water/​hot tea after the food had already been coming in. The place is 3.5 stars, and I’d bump it up to 4 stars if the service was more attentive.

Good for DimSum — we use to live near Chinatown and frequent the DimSum Places every weekend, but since moving to the Jersey Shore, I don’t bother anymore. Its fresh, usually get a table quickly and their New Year’s Eve parties are a deal for foodies. They have all the much loved Cantonese staples that are found in Chinatown — Fung Jaau (chicken feet — yummy), ngau paa yip (steamed ginger os tripe), sit maai (steamed shrimp dumplings), etc
Order yourself a side order of what we call «donut fried fish» its a breaded talapia fish that is just so yummy. dipped in lightly sweet/​savory dough and fried with blacken/​garlic and salt sprinkled over.

Authentic Chinese food but first male server was an order Nazi. Literally put two hands on his arm and said «calm down, relax», he was so rude and desperate for his missed hit of meth.
Service sucked. Asked for glass of ice water from different servers in chinese (no excuse of language barrier here), after the fourth time finally got it, but meal was almost over.
Complained to manager, he reacted like he knew who I spoke of immediately, hopefully the guy will be washing dishes by the time you go.
Beautiful décor, classy place, pricey, nice Asian grocery store next door.

I grew up in the area and Crown Palace was THE Chinese restaurant in the area that everyone went to. Years passed and CP isn’t what it used to be. They’ve been running a lobster special (2 for $ 23.95, cooked however you like it) so, my parents took me when I was visiting since it’s harder to order for just 2. In addition to the garlic style lobster (with noodles added underneath), we also got the HK style wonton noodle soup and our old standby’s of orange beef and Grand Marnier shrimp.
Service was alright and the place was almost empty. Our food didn’t come out super fast. Maybe my palate has gotten pickier over the years and perhaps they don’t have as good of a chef as they used to, but I was deeply disappointed over the meal and am pretty sure the food used to be better. There is Chinese food and there is Chinese-​American. Their food bordered upon Chinese-​American. Everything was way too sweet — yes, even the lobster dish was sweet. And the shrimp was drowning in mayo.
My parents rarely go here and I’ll make sure we never frequent this place again on my visits.