Golden Palace (dim sum) – London, England (7.5/10)
Mar 26th, 2009 by admin
Background:
I’ve been thinking about dim sum a lot lately (see my recent post What’s Your Favourite Dim Sum). After a five month hiatus, I am firmly back on the dim sum trail and have decided to work hard on updating last year’s post Where To Eat Dim Sum In London. I chose Golden Palace in Harrow as my first restaurant to visit out of a long list of about ten dim sum places. Quite a few people have recommended it for dim sum, so I was keen to try it out, despite its non-central location.
First impressions:
At the weekends, the restaurant opens at 11am. They don’t take reservations for dim sum, but you can call ahead to put your name down (I didn’t really understand the difference, to be honest!). We arrived at 11.45 for our noon ‘reservation’ and there were still quite a few empty tables. It soon filled up however, and the next wave of diners arrived at just after 1pm, although the queue was never that long.
The decor won’t win Golden Palace any interior design awards, but then we didn’t travel all the way to Harrow for elegant decor. The restaurant is large and airy, and even full of diners, it never felt too crowded or noisy. And I very much appreciated the friendly service.
Menu:
There is a substantial dim sum menu, with photos, that took me a while to study, as well as a weekly specials menu. A surprising number of vegetarian dim sum items pleased the husband in particular. Golden Palace is also well known for its vegetarian dishes, including mock (gluten) chicken, pork and duck, although I think the main menu is only available on weekdays and evenings at the weekends.
What we ordered: (unless otherwise stated, each dish costs £2.50)
The vegetarian dishes -
- vegetarian wontons (deep-fried) – a little greasy, but not bad
- vegetarian dumplings in spicy soup – too oily
- ‘Northern’ style vegetarian dumpling (steamed) – this consisted of just rice marinaded in something, and very filling (not in a good way)
- vegetarian curry flour balls (steamed) – appalling gloop, avoid at all costs
- steamed monks’ vegetarian buns – the best out of the vegetarian dishes that we ordered, light & fluffy and very hot
Non-vegetarian dishes -
- wor tip (grilled pork dumpling) – huge sized dumplings, very meaty and garlicky, served with dipping sauce of vinegar and ginger slivers
- prawn dumpling in spicy soup (£2.90) – not bad at all, but avoid if you don’t like oily dishes (although I never drink the soup)
- dried shrimp cheung fun (grilled) (£2.90) – I haven’t come across this anywhere else in London (though there is a plain version at Pearl Liang). More dried shrimp and slightly more grilling would have made this perfect for me. The hoisin sauce was preferable to the peanut/sesame one
- prawn cheung fun (£3.60) – the disappointment amongst the non-vegetarian selection, with a very unseasoned filling, although the prawns were fresh and crunchy
- har gau (steamed prawn dumpling) – very good quality, with a perfect skin that was translucent and not sticky
Desserts - I rarely order dessert for dim sum, as I’m usually too full by the end of the meal. However, Golden Palace has a good selection, so we thought we’d try a couple. What I really wanted to try was the sago and pomelo in mango cream, of which I had a version at Lung King Heen in Hong Kong, but unfortunately they had run out of it!
- water chestnut pudding in batter – hard to describe, I’m afraid, but this has a crunchy texture and is neither greasy nor too sweet. It’s also quite stodgy, but great for sharing
- deep fried cream custard bun or lai wong bao (literally ‘milk yolk bun’) – I haven’t had this in years, but this was delicious – a crispy outer skin, fluffy interior and sweet (but again not too sweet) filling that resembles an egg yolk. Don’t order if you’re expecting a Western style custard bun, like the husband was!
The verdict:
Dim sum for three people including tea cost a very reasonable £35 (the restaurant even offers 10% off the bill if you pay by cash). Admittedly, not everything was of the same quality, but I think after a couple of visits testing the various dishes (at £2.50 for most dishes, a mistake here and there won’t hurt the wallet), I’ll know exactly what to order. I’m looking forward to returning to try some of the other dishes, including deep fried sautéed prawn and chive dumpling, grilled turnip cake, yam croquette, deep fried Thai cuttlefish cake and sago & pomelo in mango cream.
The entire set of Golden Palace photos can be seen here.
10 – Perfection, 9.5 – Sensational, 9 – Outstanding, 8.5 – Superb,
8 – Excellent, 7.5 – Very Good, 7 - Good, 6.5 - Above Average, 6 – Average
All the London restaurant reviews on World Foodie Guide
Contact details:
Golden Palace
146-150 Station Road
Harrow
London HA1 2RH
Tel: 020 8424 8899
Other posts you may be interested in:
Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide
Dried shrimp cheung fun is my favourite! I also adore har gow (how can you not?). To finish, nothing beats mango pancakes when fresh mangoes are in season and there’s a generous ratio of whipped cream!
Yes Golden Palace is good but only so if Northwest London is considered, for traditional dim sum it’s not a patch on Harbour City in Chinatown. I always found it average when I used to be a North Londoner. The Chinese are good at hyping things up with magnanimous expectations; pilgrimages will be likely if hypothetically a place in Slough is purported as being the bestest dim sum haven bar none (only to be disappointed thereafter). I think if you’re going back, the daily specials are worth ordering as they’re more exciting and surprising to the palate.
Mmmm dim sum (or yum cha as we call it in Australia). Har gow is my favourite too.
I’m not sure the Northern Chinese would claim that vegetarian dumpling as their own ! Is the wrapping won-ton pastry or bean curd skin ? Either way making siu mai with a rice filling and plonking a pea on top isn’t the most creative effort I’ve seen ! Mind you the non-veggie stuff looks good. The wor tip in particular have that “hand-made” look about them.
With your 7.5/10 rating, would it be fair to say you’d only go if you lived nearby or happened to be in the area ?
I like dim sum regardless..it’s fortunate already to find them even outside east asia..
I will post an entry on dim sum from Dublin soon..
Fair, comprehensive, excellent coverage. My problem with Golden Palace dim sum is that they want you to order everything at once. When we order in stages, three or four dim sum at a time, they seem to punish us by making us wait longer than usual for each round.
Im craving dim sum now………..
have u tried wing yip for dim sum, it was really nice the first time i visited (coz GP just isnt so wow as before) then after a few more visit, it didnt seem so nice……..maybe coz i went dim sum 3-4 time in a week and a half =/
But i love your photos, always soo appealing! =D
Helen – yet another great review, quite a few of my friends have been to Golden palace and have said that food is not too bad there, I have to pay a visit soon. I haven’t been eating much chinese (i just came back from taiwan in any case
) lately, but I think I need to make my way to Pearl Liang soon 
Christie – I agree, how can you not like har gau?! But I’ve never had mango pancakes, with whipped cream. An Australian dim sum speciality perhaps? Sounds heavenly though…
Fat Les – most of those awful vegetarian dim sum dishes came from the daily specials menu! I know what to order next time. Some dishes were great, others not!
Gourmet Chick – it is called yum cha, as in Chinese people all over the world would say “Let’s yum cha”, but in English, we’d more likely say ‘Let’s have / go for dim sum’…
Sung – the non-vegetarian dishes were definitely more appealing. I think if you weren’t local or in the area, don’t bother (especially as you’d probably email me afterwards to complain about the rating!). But I would probably go back if I can persuade the husband to drive me, as there were other things other people were having that looked worth trying…
Adel – dim sum in Dublin! Look forward to reading your recommendations!
Daniel – I didn’t have any problems ordering in batches. I ordered 4 times in total. I hate dim sum that sits there getting cold while you try to eat everything too quickly…
vivi – is Wing Yip in Croydon? If so, I haven’t been there in many years and don’t have particular memories of the dim sum there (but it was a long time ago and dim sum chefs move around a lot). Too far for me to travel unless I’m visiting relatives in Croydon!
Kang – thank you! It was my first dim sum outing in 5 months after the China trip! I think you’d like Pearl Liang more than Golden Palace. Please go soon! I’m going back there for dinner in a week.
Helen Yuet Ling
Golden Palace is no more. Landlord chucked ‘em out for not paying rent.
Maria – nooo? What a shame! Thanks for letting me know…
Helen Yuet Ling