Peking Palace

I miss the fried rice and pan fried noodles. This was a good place and the staff was nice.

My work ordered in today for a lunch meeting of about 25 people. About half way through the meeting and everyone’s meal my manager found a roach in the fried rice… need i say more?

Last time I was there, I got a fly in the take-​out box. Enough said.

There are better Chinese restaurants out there but in La Jolla and University City, we have limited Chinese food options so relatively speaking, Peking Palace isn’t that bad.
A) «I have a Chinese food craving and want it NOW!!»
B) «I want EXCELLENT Chinese food»
If you’re feeling like «A», then go to Peking Palace
If you’re feeling like «B», then go elsewhere like the «Convoy area»
Peking Palace is decent for take-​out lunch. I always drove by this place going to the mall and suggested we order take-​out at work. I’ve had the garlic shrimp here and that was pretty good.
One time we came here during lunch (dine-​in) and the food wasn’t so good as it was incredibly salty (shrimp in lobster sauce).

Not surprised this place is closed. I had been wondering why it wasn’t closed sooner.
Disgusting Chinese food — an insult to the cuisine. Why can’t we have a decent Chinese restaurant in UTC???

Sadness, the best «Chinese» food in the area is officially (I assume) closed.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but… this place is closed. I’ve never been here, but on a lunch outing today, my coworkers and I attempted to dine here, only to find the doors locked. At first we thought they were just closed for lunch, but after a closer inspection through the windows, it appears that the owners have moved on.
Please correct me if I’m wrong… this place is next to Cozymel’s, correct? If I’m mistaken, lemme know; otherwise, this place is sadly a no-​go.

Quite possibly the yummiest Chinese food I’ve had in San Diego… and I am crazy addicted to Asian food (esp Chinese and Thai). The highlights for me? Mongolian beef, crispy hunan beef, and beef lo mein. The sweet & sour chicken was delish too — thick pieces of white meat chicken, lightly breaded, mostly chicken. Very tasty! Everything I tasted was good though.
My complaint? (there’s always something, right… lol) We had a party of 5 and knew we were going to need extra room. They wanted to put us at a table that should seat 4 (but not if ordering family style), and just add an extra chair. Ummmm… NO. We wanted one of the large round tables that had the lazy susan in the center, knowing full well we would be ordering a lot of food. The hostess was not happy about seating us there. It was a battle to get the table. The restaurant wasn’t busy, so I don’t know what the problem was. Then between the five of us, we had 3 bowls of soup, 3 plates of eggrolls, 2 fried rice dishes, steamed rice, chow mein, and 5 entrees to share. There’s no way we would have fit at that other table. I just couldn’t believe the ladies response about it. She really didn’t want us to sit there. Oh well!
The ambiance is nothing special. The décor is dated, for sure. But the food? Delish! My belly was quite happy. :)
I can’t wait to go back. :)

Ok, so I’m not the biggest fan of chinese restaurants… I prefer the quick take out joints, Panda Express, Rice King, etc. I would have never eaten at this place based on the outside appearance and the fact that I’m in UTC and there is plenty of other places to go. However, I was meeting a lunch date here, she picked it out, and she was pretty cute and that outweighed the shady set up here.
We hit this place up at about 1:15 on a Wednesday and there were like 4 other parties in there, and only about 10% full. Supposedly they get a lunch rush, but it looks like it ends quick. I looked around, the place was clean, didn’t smell like an asian refridgerator (you know what I’m talking about), and we were served quite quickly.
I ordered an Ice Tea, the broccoli beef lunch special, and it came with soup, which I upgraded to Won Ton for 50c. With the soup we got those crispy noodle deals with the sweet and sour sauce, and I don’t even like Won Ton soup, but I found mine quite tastey. The broccoli beef was plentiful, came with a baseball sized scoop of rice, and a veggie egg roll.
I must say, that the lunch special was great, and very reasonably priced. Their lunch specials were all under $ 8 (from what I saw).
My only complaint, both of our fortune cookies were related to investing and said something to the effect of, you will make a large amount of money in the stock market. Market is down 74 points today, so maybe they mean going forward from this point, which is probably true considering my 401(k) is basically worthless.
This place is worth it for lunch, I will check it out again and so should you.

THIS RESTAURANT CLOSED
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Ni Hao! Peking Palace has become a mainstay in our family night out! There is one dish you must try. The Cashew Shrimp. Never tried anything like it! Also, there is a fabulous thick fish soup. We’ve tried other items that are always prepared well but these two items we order each and every time!
Take out is good but I also like to dine at the restaurant. They play classical background music that makes a family dinner a bit more relaxing.
I have enjoyed the service (especially last Friday night). I believe the quality of ingredients used are top-​notch. The décor is traditional Chinese. The booths are nice and comfy (especially with kids). Even though there are other families present, it never seems loud. Perhaps, the high ceilings muffle any conversational noise.
Hope you give them a try and enjoy this casual dining experience as much as we do!

Peking Palace is actually pretty good! I mean its not like down & dirty real chinese food, but it gets the job done & its not so bad. I’m from the Bay Area & have lived in SD for 6 months now. SD is nice & all, but the food here really sucks… ESPECAILLY the chinese food selection. Me & my husband got the cheapest family dinner & it was $ 30…it came w/​soup for each of us, an eggroll, a crab rangoon, & a full size plate of mongolian beef & sweet & sour chicken. Suprisingly, it was good & it was reasonably priced. I’ve been to China Max & all I had was the salty pork chops… it was good & all, but it was like $ 15! Dumpling Inn is good too, but they don’t really have a vast selection of food. I plan on going back to Peking Palace real soon. Hopefully everything else on their menu is good.
Oh & the minus 1 star was for the interior… it wasn’t super dirty or anything… but the walls kinda grossed me out. It looked like the walls had dried sweat on them.

This was the first place i tried when I moved down here. My bf at the time decided to surprise me with Chinese food when i got home from class. he went though the restaurants on the run service and it was so expensive! The food wasn’t that fantastic, I’d rather make the drive over to Mira Mesa for better Chinese. We got sweet and sour chicken and I don’t even remember what else. All i remember is that the chicken tasted disgusting and was really tough.
All these other reviews are making me wonder if i need to give them another shot though.
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Another shot was given and my opinion remains the same. We ordered:
Crab Raggon — it tasted funny, the sweet & sour sauce sucked, and was there crab in there?
BBQ spare ribs — over cooked, dry, not much meat on them
Orange chicken — tough and chewy, the sauce was kind of bland too
Mu Shu Pork — This was probably the best thing we ordered, but they still managed to make it chewy and the little pancake things just fell apart if you made a wrap. The flavors at least were good though.
Pork Fried Rice — salty, overcooked, too much egg.
also the food is too expensive. Shanghai Café (
) is even better than this.

Based on what I’ve heard, Peking Palace was bought in the last couple months by Chins Restaurant and they seem just the same as I remember when I went there a couple years ago. We got Peking Palace Hong Kong pan fried noodles and hu nan crispy beef. I prefered the hun nan beef because the noodles weren’t quite as thin and crispy as I usually like. Affordable prices and pretty decent Chinese food for being in the UTC area.
Major downside of the night was a ridiculous wait for Chinese food because a nearby party who was taking up all the service.

I frequent Cozymel’s a fair amount and have always seen this place but never tried it until I read the Unilocal reviews of it. I’ve been searching for a good chinese food place near my place and it looks like the search continues.
Maybe I didn’t order something they specialize in but I try to judge all of the chinese places I eat at by their General Tso’s /​House Special Chicken when I first visit.
Their cup of «Egg Blossom Soup» is $ 2.50 and pretty much anything you would want to order is minimum $ 10 so it certainly isn’t cheap, but not overly expensive either. I had the General Tso’s chicken and was not impressed — it was bland with only a hint of spice and didn’t taste anything like what I was expecting. The portion was generous however.
I may try this place again but for now it get’s 3 stars.

you walk in and you’re greeted by a super friendly hostess.
you sit down and you’re served by a not so friendly waitress who stomps a lot.
we decided to split the spicy wontons and spicy hu-​nan chicken. the wontons weren’t really my thing. they were floating in some kind of chili infused oil and the grease factor just bothered me.
as far as the hu-​nan chicken, i don’t know if i found any actual chicken meat in there. there was a lot of what looked like super deep fried and battered skin though. it wasn’t bad, but for $ 10.99 that’s not going to cut it.

I’ve ordered catering from here through Restaurants on the Run delivery service for business meetings, and although I thought the food was really good, each dish was packed in the standard Chinese take-​out cartons, and it was always quite messy to serve and clean up. I wasn’t getting the feeling that my co-​workers *loved* the Chinese food for these meetings (they absolutely *loved* CPK). So, I eventually stopped ordering traditional Chinese food for work.
In the last several months, I have lunched at Peking Palace a couple of times with friends, and I suggested this place because it was convenient to their work locations. I had very good experiences. Similar to the customary complimentary chips and salsa at Mexican restaurants, they do fried wonton strips with sweet & sour sauce for dipping to start. (Mr. Charlie’s Fortune Cookie in RB also does this but add spicy mustard.) I get giddy when I see these munchies on the table. I also toss some of this crunchy goodness into my egg flower soup. Extra points for offering a choice of white, brown, or fried rice with the lunch specials, which also come with one egg roll and a choice of soup – egg flower or hot & sour, and for an extra charge, wonton soup.
I ordered Moo Goo Gai Pan, one of my favorites to try at Chinese Restaurants. I remember this tasting fine on my earlier visit, but it was on the salty side on my most recent visit last week. I finished it off anyway.
My Entertainment Book includes a discount valid for dinner here, so I might check it out.

pros… great place to have peking duck, with the peking doilies, the very thin pancake wrappers. most other places like to serve the other type which is more thick like the outside of a cha siu bao (steamed stuffed bun). we also like the the honey walnut shrimp here too. most stuff is pretty good, not to oily or greasy either. used to come more often but no going to ucsd anymore. the wait staff is knowledgable and friendly. it is tucked away on the outskirts of the shopping center, but good eats.
cons…the service can be leisurely, with it not being crowded, but the place is pretty big. it is a bit on the old side, perhaps needs a remodeling makeover. and parking on the weekends, just cause it’s in the mall.

Great Chinese restaurant that isn’t greasy. Their prices are generous with the amount of food they give you, and they don’t skimp on the quality of their ingredients. They’re located next to UTC mall near Wells Fargo and the old Robinson’s May.
The food isn’t the MOST authentic, but its good. When you sit down, they immediately whet your appetite with the descriptive dishes. Their meat dishes are well done and the veggie dishes are delicate.
Recommend: spicy eggplant, string beans, pau hu beef, pan fried noodles.

This place gets 4 stars for convenience and speediness. On numerous occasions they’ve helped keep me out of the kitchen and from doing dishes after a long day. Their food is decent, I think they have a great variety and never skimp on meat or veggies. I am also a fan of their hot and sour soup, lots of ingredients and has a good consistency, not too starchy. Located in UTC next to my gym, I am usually tantalized by the smell as I walk towards the gym. Its right there that my will is tested, I reluctantly enter the gym, but the image of tasty veggies and oyster sauce fill my head. After the gym I mysteriously find myself ordering to-​go and munching on the deep fried chips on my way home not realizing that all that hard work I just did at the gym is slowly being undone, but I don’t care. Its also inexpensive, which aids in the compulsion.