View MenuRestaurant InfoAt Crystal Palace; located directly between Kitchener and Waterloo; it's always your choice, whether that means your placing an order for take out, pick up, delivery or you're dining at the restaurant. We are proud to have the largest selection of Cantonese and Szechuan food available in Waterloo. We offer a comfortable, relaxing atmosphere and are fully licensed by the L.L.B.O so it's no wonder reservations are recommended on the weekends. Or if you're too busy to come in yourself we offer fast city wide delivery for a small fee. We have some great deals available so come in during the week and check out our all you can eat lunch buffet for just $6.95 a person or try one of our many combination plates for one, all available for under $10.00. Go ahead and try us today we'll quickly become your go to restaurant for delicious Chinese food in the Waterloo area! 10 King Street South, Waterloo, OntarioHoursmore...See more text
I love the dim sum. The lunch buffet is ok. Haven't been there in a while but they are friendly and they would speak Cantonese to me and ask how my day is going. A nice place for lunch if you want some quiet time during the week!
The food was decent for the price but the biggest problem I had was just placing my pickup order. I called and clearly ordered 2 dishes (describing them by number and name). They said their PC was slow, then once that was fixed I had to repeat 2 more times and was told i am talking too fast (but I am not a fast talker and was trying to be clear). Then the lady put another person on the phone who took my order no problem at all.
Their chicken balls are better than other similar restaurants but fried rice and chow mein, egg roles are a little bland. At least the food does not seem too greesy.
One very strange thing we noticed because my wife is Chinese, she can read the mandarin on the menu stating that soup comes with the combo plates but it is not written in english. Since I ordered and picked up, I got no soup so it appears that you have to be asian to get that soup. I guess next time I will get my wife to order. The staff speaks mandarin so probably best to get her to order next time : )
Our party of 8 was looking for an enjoyable New Years Eve supper and it turned out to be the worst dining experience any of us have ever encountered. The take out orders were given priority over those who chose to eat in so we waited for over an hour for our first dish to arrive. The next 2 dishes arrived 30 minutes later and 20 minutes after that. Of our friends, 2 couples never did get all of their food. One soup did not arrive, another took over an hour to be served. The spring rolls arrived when they were finished eating and one dish never showed at all. At no point was there ever a word of apology from the server. When asked about when food was coming by the table next to us, she replied, yeah, yeah, it's coming. Then after all 4 couples paid at the front counter, the lady at the till accused us of only paying for 3 couples. One paid cash, one by credit card and 2 by debit. How hard is that to figure out. By far the absolute dining experience ever. Thank God for good company to pass the time! The food we did get was not as good as we have had at other Chinese restaurants, and one of our dishes was not even cooked thoroughly and had virtually no vegetables in it.
I went in just before noon, to which I was the only customer, which made for a relaxed dining experience. Now I think larger, more sumptuous smorgasbords like Mandarin may spoil one's view of an average buffet, but this is a smaller-than-average one for sure. I don't even think they have a dinner buffet. Two carts for hot food here, and one for dessert(Jello, Neapolitan Ice Cream, some mysterious white-and-pink cake, and some pineapples?) I found the chicken balls and wanton/sweet & sour adequate. The Sesame chicken seemed dry, as was the other lookalike chicken(no dishes were labelled). The ribs had tasty meat, but bones were present, and one could swallow one if not careful.. The fried chicken was tolerable.. Both the chicken and the "beef" in the dishes with the mixed vegetables seemed almost under-cooked. The ice cream tasted as Neapolitan should. Hostess/waitress(same woman) seemed friendly enough. I'd say then can get $7.95 for an all-you-can-eat Chinese Buffet...probably even a dollar more...but don't expect luxurious dining. If you like Manchu Wok-like food, come here(and since a typical three item combo at Manchu Wok costs what this does) that may be a good idea.
$2.00 for a can of Nestea may seem obscene, but I've gathered over the years that buffets bilk you on drinks(makes sense).
For a while I used to eat my lunch there regularly but not anymore. It wasn't long before I realized that they have absolutely zero appreciation for your business. It takes them forever to replenish food in the buffet trays, sometimes with half of the trays empty. If you want to eat their buffet lunch you might want to come before 11:30am or you may end up with a selection of leftovers. The restaurant owners are incredibly profit-minded. There was one time when I was in the middle of my meal the male owner abruptly took my plates to a table at the back and asked me to seat there beside another customer. He then quickly cleared my table and seated two more customers. When I was eating there, I always give them about 15% in tips (as a courtesy), rounded to the nearest dollar. Lately the lady owner seemed to have figured out this pattern and had since been voluntarily deducting the tips for me as if this is something she was entitled to. I have since been eating my lunch in the Chinese restaurant nearby and I will not come back again.
What happened to the old-man-boss? I never see him anymore! He was so rude but hilarious
The dim sum is good! definitely not as good as Cameron, but it is not as pricy, which is an important factor if you don't plan on spending $100 on lunch.
Anyway, I have noticed their food is slowly slipping from yum to sorta yum but mostly bleh. The chicken feet used to be so juicy and flavorful, but now it is bland and so bad that when I eat it I actually realize I'm sucking on a chicken's foot. Before, it was like bliss!!! Their ha-cheung is also very bad now. The shrimp is not tender like before and the white-stuff is too thick now.
I still enjoy the har-gow and siu-mai, but I can't say I love the other dim sum items.
Their service, unsurprisingly, is bad. The head waitress who always works there comes off as cold, robotic, and rude.
I do love the new decor though...the crystals...in Crystal Palace...so cute, right?!!
We ordered 5 dishes to share. When one of the dishes arrived, it didn't look very authentic so we told the waitress that it was what we used to ordered. The waitress apologised and asked if we wanted something else instead. We had actually waited a longer than usual for the food so we thought it could take a while for the replacement to arrive, so we said no. Moments later, the lady owner came to confront us and said "hey.....why are you returning the dish? you ordered it and it was cooked accordingly". We felt so embarrassing because her tone was loud and she wasn't in anyway willing to accept the fact that it wasn't done properly. We didn't want to make the matter worse and accepted the dish. It was horrible experience.
To make a long story short , they messed up my meal so i came back and said to them ' i only wanted chicken in here' so she apologized and said that she would remake me one , my husband was hungry and he didn't want to wait more so we asked for $ back ohh wow , she opened it and said you already ate from here i said yes i tried it, the noodles were sour because i didn't notice it was because they added pork when i clearly said chicken'' she started to shake (her hands) i said please we would like refund she kept going on how we already ate some (they gave us a take out and when we opened it wasn't even full) anyways we insisted because my husband just didn't want to eat there anymore or wait more we were hurry so she took the $10 and some change and put it on the counter angry and her hands shaking and said' YOU ARE NOT WELLCOME HERE ANYMORE OKAY' i just look at her and said god bless you lady, i didn't know what else to say i felt sorry for her because she was SO MONEY HUGRY FOR THAN $10 LIKE IT WAS HER WORLD COMMING APPART , it was sad to see that there are ppl like that on this earth ( i guess there is worse) , so yes i felt bad for her, just spreading my story for others to know! Thanks for reading!
Tried the lunch buffet here twice now, and twice I liked the food, but it takes them so long to replenish anything, it really detracts from the quality. Trays sit empty for a very long time before they get refilled. It is really not worth the time and money. They need to get their kitchen staff to start cranking stuff out more consistently.
This is a good place for a couple looking for Dim Sum or other favourite dish. The food is good (not exceptional in my mind), but the service needs improvement. This is not a family restaurant. They do not have crayons or kids menus. The tables have vinyl covering, which kids pull at and make eating there a challenge. Kids did like the aquarium. Server brought food and then took off. Had to wait a long time to process bill. Service was poor.
My girlfriend and i regularly frequent this place...
My girlfriend and i regularly frequent this place when we have a craving for amazing Chinese food ! It's great in a group or even with just another person. I always recommend it to anyone that is into great Chinese food or dim sum. As for the service...we've never had a problem with the owner or any of the wait-staff. They have always been courteous and polite to us, even as far as helping us choose items from the dim sum menu the first time we were there. You people need to get over the fact that the wait-staff aren't going to come around to your table every 5 seconds to "see if everything is ok" which is great because i find that to be REALLY annoying,just get over yourselves and your ego. Great prices for the amount of food that you get.
We love the food at this place, it offers a variety! The dim sum....two words for it...NUMBER ONE! The food even tastes better with hot sauce! We love it.
At first the service kind of skechy, but we should understand that their English is not very well-spoken, so it may not be the best first impression due to the accent, but the owner there is quite nice.
Our fortune cookies are always positive :D :D :D :D
SHOUT OUT TO DJTP CREW! ROCK ON!
service? what service - RUDE, RUDE, RUDE!
the floor / place is FILTHY - old red dirty carpet that is worn to the floor, buffet - sticky, caked on food on the serving spoons, slop on the floor.
service is cold, roll the eyes when you pull out a debit card, no thank-you, rude!
This place has the best orange chicken you will...
This place has the best orange chicken you will eat in K-W. The service is not the greatest but when they serve up food that tasty I would visit anytime!
I used to go there often because while the service was terrible, there was a particular dish that only they served (chinese yellow mushroom with chicken). Unfortunately, the waitresses' and owners' poor attitudes, impatatience and rudeness eventually drove me over the edge. They have no regard for their customers whatsoever, and value only the profits they bring in.
I know the owner can come across as rude, but he's not rude. He's just not obsequious. I once brought a homeless person in there for a meal and was starting to worry when my slightly enebriated guest started to make a mess on the table. The owner and the homeless fellow ended up having a wonderful conversation. The owner laughed with him and was very gracious. I think all who have named him rude have misjudged him.
My food is always hot, fresh and delicious. I have tried other Chinese in the area and always end up returning to Crystal Palace, as the others' food quality can't compare.
This restaurant was awsome. the food was amazing...
This restaurant was awsome. the food was amazing clearly the best dim sum in town. Anyone that didn't like this restaurant either doesn't like chinese food or is just simply dump.
Its hard to say something bad about this restaurant, cause the food is the tastiest chinese in town.. when you walk in and you see that most of their customers are oriental,.. doesnt it kinda tell you that the food must be the closest to the real thing? Although the decor is tacky and the service is a little odd, the food is so delicious, that you find yourself craving it from time to time. I noticed that alot of people have rude comments about the service, but i've gotten to know the owners of the restaurant and there actually pretty unique and cheerfull people... there just kinda grumpy because they work 15 hours a day 7 days a week,.. and there old folks.. give em a break.. the food is delicious
