King Lobster Palace
Orange, CA 92865 (714) 282-9788
- Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: Yes
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: No
- Alcohol: Beer & Wine Only
20 Reviews for King Lobster Palace
Came back for a quick lunch and ordered the squab off the menu. It was okay... maybe a tad skinny. Had a few dim sum items that we liked from before. I'm actually updating because I was very pissed off at the service today. We were half way through eating the squab and one of the servers (an elderly lady) came by and asked if there was anything else we needed or wanted. I said no thanks. She then picked up our ticket and brought our bill back. I was like WTF? I was still eating. I said to hubby that the restaurant is not full so why the rush??? He shrugged? I continued eating and ignored the bill until I was done. But what's up with that?? I'm docking one star!
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1 Previous Review: Show all »
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07/27/2008
As we drove down Jeffrey Road to get on the 5 freeway we saw the crowd of about 50 people outside… Read more »
went here with some coworkers for lunch and i knew i had to try their house special lobster...i mean they are the king of them. Plus $13.95 for lobster is hard to pass up.
the lunch special came with rice, eggroll and a single dumpling. the lobster was ok but a bit hard to eat with coworkers staring at you...i wanted to get primitive and use my fingers and suck out all the goodness, but i had to hold myself back and be civilized with the knife and fork.
Overall the service was excellent my coworkers had dim sum and weren't to familiar with how it works and the host was very kind and attentive. They even offered to exchange a dish they didn't like.
I will most likely come back here for dim sum since their prices are pretty good.
It is definitely good to find a decent dim sum place not too far from home. I really don't mind driving to Rowland Heights for good food but sometimes my wife just wants to stay local. When we found out that there was a place in Orange we definitely wanted to try it out.
The food comes around in carts which is good and bad. Sometimes it's been sitting around too long that it's gone lukewarm. That's the bad part. If there is a good number of people in the restaurant then it is a good thing since they move the dim sum rather quickly.
It wasn't very busy when we arrived, but most of the dim sum we ordered was piping hot. I liked how they have my favorite tofu skin wrapped thing. It's quite good here. I like their chili sauce too, it goes very well with this tofu thing. I didn't try the tofu with mushrooms and usually I would try the chicken's feet but my wife said it was just average so I didn't bother.
The bbq pork buns were very good and I liked the panfried buns too. In fact I ate the entire order except for 2 bites. The radish cake was so-so. I like it much thinner and fried just a little bit more so it is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Taro puffs were very delicious. I didn't eat the spring rolls as I am not a huge fan of fried foods.
I wanted to try something sweet but I guess I ordered the wrong thing. The red bean buns were not good. Too dry. Next time I might try the sesame balls or the egg custard.
We were too full to eat any more and more different things were coming out. I think the steamed items are far better than the fried items. I ate too much carb and went into a food coma shortly after. Still, this is a very good alternative to driving to Rowland Heights and surely far better than the offerings in Irvine.
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I went to King Lobster with a friend for lunch yesterday. I've been wanting to try it, since I've heard some good things, and that its at least better than the swill they call dim sum in Irvine.
As I walked in the door, I was surprised to see a very nice and clean environment, and thought to myself, "Wow, this can't be good. I've never had dim sum in a clean Chinese restaurant before." I was partially correct.
We were seated promptly as it wasn't that busy. The first thing I noticed was that we weren't given a choice of teas. I asked the waiter for my favorite chrysanthemum tea that I always get with dim sum, but he didn't know what it was. I was like, okay, whatever, and started to order.
We started off with shrimp rice rolls, sticky rice in lotus leaves, black bean spare ribs, siumai, hargow, and BBQ pork buns. Everything was fresh from the steamer and was piping hot. It looked delicious. After a couple of bites though, I noticed that everything was actually kind of bland. The flavors were just too light. I mean, the food was good, but it could have used more seasoning.
After we finished eating, we saw carts come out with different types of food. We were full at that point, so decided not to order anymore. Next time, we have to be sure to come later so we can try more things.
All in all, King Lobster Palace is better than anything I can get in Irvine. If I don't feel like driving to Rowland Heights or Cerritos, I would definitely come back here.
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I'm finding more and more reasons to not have to go to LA so much. And the latest reason is the $13.95 for their House Special Baked Lobster lunch special at this place.
No.
Fucking.
Way.
It's no Newport $eafood, but for this price I could care less. It's great to finally have a cheap and easy alternative to my favorite lobster joint.
And they also have dim sum. FRICKEN FINALLY! After two long years, a decent dim sum joint is now soooooo close to me. The dim sum joints in Alhambra, Monterey Park, San Gabriel and Rowland Heights are now dead to me. DEAD.
No longer do I have to:
-Put up with the ridiculous wait for a table
-Crappy service
-Get ignored when you want a drink refill
-Being unable to understand the dim sum cart hustlers
-Feel like I'm being hurried to finish my meal.
In your face, LA dim sum!
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I love the cha siu bao. It was sooooooo yummy. Spring rolls were good too, it was all vegetables. No shrimp. I don't like shrimp. The restaurant was very clean!
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I like!
This place has some good dim sum. The menu is pretty broad, but I must say the food we ate wasn't disappointing.
Service can be slow, but when you ask for something, they do bring it right over.
Shumai, pork ribs, beef balls, sauteed string beans, and everything else was quite tasty.
Highly recommended....
There's no need to explain my love for eating lobster. American style, Asian style, whatever style... it doesn't matter. So with a place called King Lobster Palace and after reading dozens of glowing reviews, we had high expectations... perhaps a bit too high. I read about the 9.99/per pound special listed on their website but the waitress said that it was only for those "small lobsters" that don't have much meat in them. For the good stuff, it was going to be market price at around $13 per. Whaa? Was this a marketing ploy to get customers through the door? I thought it was strange, but we were starving and didn't want to make a big fuss. They brought out a 3.5 pounder for us to inspect before its last moments of survival and for a split second there, I felt bad for the lobster. Then my stomach growled and that feeling passed rather quickly.
We ordered the ong choy with garlic just to have some veggies to balance out the lobster meat fest. I flat out didn't like it. For those who know ong choy, it can be a little tough to eat if not cut into smaller pieces, especially the long stems. It tasted undercooked and there wasn't much of the garlic flavor at all. When the House Special Lobster arrived, it looked absolutely stunning in presentation (I would've taken a picture but I left the memory card at home, doh!). We dug right in. The shell was slightly crispy, nice onion flavor, and not too salty. The lobster meat was tender and flavorful, and easy to scoop out with a fork or finger. For only my wife and myself, there was plenty of lobster to go around. No fighting with family members for the best pieces at the typical banquet table.
I give the lobster 4 stars, but 3 stars overall for the place. After finishing the meal, it's obvious that the place is nowhere near the level of Chinese joints in the SG Valley. The grading scale is curved because it's located in OC, and that's understandable. Prices are still pretty high. I guess charging a few bucks each person for rice and tea is becoming the norm these days, but I still find it annoying. Yes, service was friendly and attentive but they did just open. Give it some time. If you ask me, everyone seemed a bit TOO friendly and it's still catered to the bak gwai crowd (if you know what I mean). In a way, I actually miss the rude and surly service at those bustling hole-in-a-wall Chinese joints. It's all part of the charm.
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Alright - dim sum's been calling me now for about a week and today I finally decided to answer it's call. So I go to good ole' Yelp and type dim sum in Anaheim. King Lobster Palace was the closest to my work and I seen a 4 star average so there you go, this is it!
As I drove up to the lot, I think to myself is this place even open? There were literally 5 cars in the lot, usually that's a bad sign for me and I would keep going but based on the reviews I stopped.
So I ordered to go, shrimp har-gow ($3.60), pork dumpling shiu mai ($2.60), and chinese brocoli w/ oyster sauce ($4.60). Total came out to like $11 something, much more than I normally spend for lunch, but they give so much food that it will be lunch and dinner so not bad.
http://www.yelp.com/bi...
I asked the dude in the front how long they been open and he says 2 months, maybe that's why they don't have too much of a lunch crowd yet. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because when I ordered the chinese brocoli, the dude in the front didn't even know they served chinese brocoli for dim sum. Next time I go I'll try the lobster lunch special and if I like, updated review to 5 stars because I'm definitely gonna check it out again next time dim sum be calling.
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We brought a few more co-workers and celebrated my birthday here. The food was really good and great service. Just a few things:
They have Pu Erh. Like I said, it's not dim sum without Kuk-Bo (Chrysanthemum and Bolay Tea). Tried their house special chow mein, dried. Very very salty. I think they might have accidentally added too much soy sauce. The smelt fish (Toh-Chun-Yu) is not crispy enough but the taste is there. It would have been excellent if it's a little crispier. Spare ribs were very fatty.
Overall, the food was really good today. Everyone liked it and agreed it's definitely better than China Garden. It's definitely a plus that it's so close to work!
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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08/07/2008
When we arrived at the parking lot, we saw some Chinese coming out from this place. Immediately, we… Read more »
I think the OC Weekly made a great point just as all other Yelpers!!!
Definitely meet up with the San Gabriel Valley standards
http://www.ocweekly.co...
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Wow! Big ups to OC Weekly for managing to tackle my foodie-article A.D.D. and settling me down enough to get myself over to King Lobster! As far as Friday lunches go, my brother and I are pretty legendary when it comes to finding amazing food on these special days for us. He told me about the old Spoons across from BevMo turning into this random Chinese restaurant...
Let's be honest: you're either a fan of American-style lobster or Asian-style lobster. There is no way you're die-hard about both. Although I was reluctant to try one of the lobster lunch special dishes, my bro did bring up an excellent point: "The place is called KING LOBSTER so you think we should try lobster?" We asked the owner (operator?) which lobster special he recommended and without hesitation he told us that the most popular one was the House Special (hmm, isn't that the revelation of the century). So in the meantime while waiting for our House Special Lobster lunch special (with choice of soup, fried or steamed rice, egg roll, vegetables, AND sio mai... AWESOME for the $13.95 price tag!) we flagged down some of the dim sum carts... DIM SUM on a WEEKDAY?!?! YESSSSS!!!
Har gow was absolutely stunning. There is definitely something different in the shrimp filling here... perhaps it's the lack of MSG, but whatever it is, it's FANTASTIC. Shrimp wrapped in rice noodles with buttery sauce was quite good, as were the spareribs. Impressive eggplant with fried shrimp ball, but the accompanying sauce doesn't need to be there -- just go with a little soy sauce (and even their soy sauce is light and really tasty). There wasn't a dim sum dish that we ordered and DIDN'T like.
The house special lobster dish showed up right on time and it was TO DIE FOR. I know I say that all the time but this time I actually mean it. Especially for the short wait, the right price, AND the huge portion, I'm awfully glad my brother and I just decided to split it and go for some dim sum! You can definitely taste the hot-wok-oil-butter-garlic crust on the outside, and as OC Weekly wrote, yes, this IS the easiest lobster to eat in Orange County!
The restaurant is clean and bright, there was no wait (Friday lunch? come on, people, get out and eat something!), and everyone who served us -- from server to busperson to owner/operator -- was extremely kind to everyone. No rudeness or unnecessary delays here. Our only negative comment was that it was slightly "Westernized" -- and maybe, just maybe, just a little bit, we did miss that sprinkle of MSG when it really mattered -- but otherwise no complaints here. No, it isn't Chinatown or MPK dim sum, and no, it isn't fancy shmancy Chinese. But what it is: GOOD!!! Everybody needs to go try King Lobster Palace!!!
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Big Asian stamp of approval for this place from me mum...she loves it. We recognized the waiters/owners from various, well established, Chinese restaurants...Sam Woo...Ma's Islamic Cuisine, etc.
They have a $13.95 lobster special which isn't bad. Don't expect too much lobster-meat but it'll satisfy any craving you have. The style is similar to Newport Seafood in Little Saigon, lightly battered and wok fried, but without the lobster sauce, which I miss. Their market price lobster is reasonable when you compare it to other places.
I lost a round of credit card roulette here...$125+ all in for 4 people, 3 dishes, 1 soup, and 4 lbs of house special lobster. None of the white boys wanted to eat the deliciousness that was the roe, so I basically porked out on that until I nearly died. Ahh so good.
Also, the dim sum is probably the most authentic and tasty dim sum in Orange County. Their fried taro balls were actually made with real taro. Granted they only had 3 carts running on the 4th of July but they can make everything as the orders roll in. I know there are some tin kart purists out there, but to be frank, I didn't even see those in some places in Hong Kong so I think times have changed...
Bottom line, don't let the ghost of Spoons haunt you. This place has all the authenticity of any Chinese restaurant next to a 99 Ranch market but with the English speaking servers.
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So I have only been here for the Dim Sum, which I must say is a very high 7+, maybe low 8 out of a scale of 10. I find the flavor of the food to be a bit on the bland side. Most things like the Har-gow and the shrimp with rice noodles needed more soy sauce. I felt that the rice noodles had too much noodle covering the shrimp/pork/beef, making it practical inedible when it was getting cold...no probably that is what Dim Sum is all about, fight for the food and scramble for it while it is hot. The things I thought were very pretty good were the pork buns and the fried sesame buns.
On the plus side though, I do not have to drive 30 minutes for descent dim-sum, there is no long-ass wait as for most Dim Sum places. This doesn't beat the usual place I go to for Dim Sum in rowland, but it also doesn't have the 30+ minute wait of people. I will be coming back for dinner as I have semi-high hopes that they have a descent dinner menu when I took a look at it.
Went here again last night and tried some lobster finally. Any type of lobster you get is at market price so it's variable to many many pounds you get.
We got the House Special Baked Lobster and it was fantastic. The lobster is cut up into many easy-to-eat pieces, fried in a very light batter, and baked the rest of the way. It's sauteed with savory-sweet sauce that doesn't overbear the lobster, a mountain of green onions, and ginger. The lobsters they have are female so if you love lobster roe/eggs they include all of it in the dish as well.
I'll be back again soon!
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1 Previous Review: Show all »
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06/16/2008
Woot woot real Chinese food hits somewhere a little closer than Monterey Park and Rowland Heights!… Read more »
Great Chinese Seafood Restaurant! Great decor, great service too!
We had a party of 5, and we ordered 5 dishes and it was plenty of food.
-Diced French Beef Steak w/ seasoning - this dish was really good, the meat was tender and tasty, served on top of some onions. I really liked this dish.
-Deep Fried Crispy Duck (half) - nicely done! It was like roast duck that they deep fried that made the skin crispy, but the duck meat was still moist. they also included the little buns and sauce like you would have with peking duck
-House Special Chow Mein H.K. Style - pretty standard dish at these type of places, but it had a lot of seafood! big scallops and shrimps
-Sauteed Ong Choy with garlic - tasty greens!
-Steamed whole fish with Ginger and Scallion - fish was a flounder - nicely cooked
I would definitely recommend this place if you're in the OC. Best Chinese food I've had in Orange County.
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This is my first restaurant review, but I just had to add my two cents about King Lobster Palace. I wandered into this restaurant a week ago. Looking hesitant, I was asked if I'd had dim sum before. I replied, "Yes, I usually go to Artesia." The gentleman asked, "Which restaurant?" When I replied, "Great Seafood House," he smiled and told me that he owned Great Seafood House (now Great Seafood Harbor) for 18 years. That's about how long I have been going there--pretty much since moving to California. I can't tell you how pleased I was to learn that he had opened King Lobster Palace two months ago. I had dim sum that day for lunch and went back several days later for a take-out dinner of two entrees--seafood chow fun and fish with black bean sauce. Both were very good, even though the chow fun was different from what they served in Artesia. There is no question that I will be a regular at this restaurant as it is ten minutes from my home instead of 25 minutes to Artesia and the quality here is very good. As much as I enjoy the dim sum at Great Seafood Harbor, I have not been very pleased with menu entrees since the ownership change. I am one very happy lady with this new restaurant!
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Wow, who would of thought in predominately caucasian, chain restaurant haven, Orange, we would get an authentic Chinese Seafood Restaurant to open!!! No more driving to Monterey Park or Hacienda Heights!!!
This is the seventh restaurant owned by the restauranteurs, all of course were Chinese Seafood.
I work across the street and have had my eye on this place since they started remodeling it months ago.
open.open.open..................what??? they opened yesterday????small banner...grand opening 5-15-08........oh no they didn't!!!!!
As I expected, the first Saturday dinner was not that busy, but a majority of the patrons were asian. (if there are no asians in an asian restaurant, it probably sucks) In this case, we were probably just hopefuls. There was one big white guy, sitting by himself, getting some serious grub on. He was in heaven, I think he might of even said it out loud.
If you like seafood and you like Chinese, you will love this place.
This is not for the chinese buffet patron. This is for people who want to enjoy quality food made for and by Chinese.
The owner said that the chef is the same one from her restaurant many years ago inside the 99 ranch market plaza in Hacienda Heights that held 800 people. (went to that one too, over 10 years ago)
The food was great. The Hot & Sour Soup was much more flavorful than in the white washed chinese places. We also got the Live Lobster, House Special Baked way. It was good, but you almost feel savage cause you just want to suck on the shells after you've carefully plucked out the lobster meat. Sooooooo many dishes available (148), and so few meals in a week...
I actually got to go again today for lunch, did I mention DIM SUM??
OMGosh...They have Dim Sum everyday for lunch plus whatever you want off the regular menu!!! =p They roll around carts with different little dishes like pork shiu mai, bbq pork buns, shrimp har-gow, scallop & shrimp dumplings, roast duck, deep fried shrimp balls, fried sesame balls, etc. One thing we ordered today that was really good if you like vegetables was the Boiled snow pea leaf with soy sauce, ask them to add a little garlic. so good.
They even have Dim Sum Take Out menus!!!
You gotta try this place!
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Fabulous place! I too had been watching this location, because I drive past weekly. Anyway, flash forward to my birthday weekend, gf asked where do I want to go? Let's try the new restaurant. Same basic building outside, but inside - very nice! more upscale than we were expecting, not too-fancy, which is good. Super nice staff!. Go in for lunch, they have lunch menu items, or alacart. One of the menu items is lobster, baked or sauteed, in a variety of sauces. For $13.95. WOW, FUN! So I try the lobster lunch, sauteed in black bean sauce. and my gf asked for the mongolian beef luncheon special, but waitress suggests the "diced french beef steak w/seasoning" = huh? ! Fat delicious chunks of tender beef - a hit! The lobster is unusual for any 'red lobster' goer, but fab - an entire lobster hacked into pieces and then sauteed in selected sauce! OK, I'm too gringo to appreciate a lobster head, but there is plenty of other more typical lobster meat to appreciate, in a delicious sauce. For $14.00...... including soup (corn or hot & spicy), egg roll, shiu mai, and rice. and we both had leftovers. Such a fab time, and on the way out, I learn they have dim sum, every day from 11 - 3! And there is a dim sum take out menu for any time. OMG! IN OC?! And it is my bday weekend. so I tell my mom this is our destination for her bday present to me, on Tues. I have always wanted my mom and gf to try dim sum, but not feasible to drag them somewhere for 'weird food' - so here we are Tues. at 11, close to home. A warm welcome from the staff!! (Nicest people!) There is dim sum - on carts! - we order the usual suspects - shui mai, har gow, pork ribs in black bean sauce, baked bbq buns, and my fav, sticky rice!!, they all try it and have their favs and not-so-muchs- in the end, the other 3 order lunch specials - the french beef for my mom, the sweet and sour pork for my gf, shrimp fried rice for my mom's bf. I am busy with the rest of the dim sum, but I do add a egg and pork porridge for me, and a mango pudding for us all to try. At the end, we are all stuffed, and we all have some delicious leftovers. Love this place - close, good food, and a really nice staff!
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I have no idea how all the people above rated this place above a star. I wouldn't even give this place a star if I didn't have to. This place is pure trash dump if you ask me. The servers are bunch of rude Chinese people who speaks in Chinese and I've heard them bad mouth our table, just because of the fact that we're not Chinese. At one point I saw one of the waitress pouring water that some customer left on the table to clean it. How sanitary is that?! Don't ever fall for their $10 lobster deal that I've never had. First of all.. it's not $10. The moment you sit down, they will tell you the price was only for grand opening. My family decided to order the lobster anyway (that's what we're there for). The lobster was full of shells and barely.. i mean it.. barely had any meat. You will probably find more meat on a shrimp than this rip-off. You will be munching on the shells. Trust me.. Don't ever go to this trash dump!! Especially if you are NOT CHINESE! I've warned you.
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