Imperial Palace Restaurant

Little out of the way for Auckland central dwellers but the food is delicious. Ambience is that of a standard Chinese restaurant, loud and busy. Service the same, friendly but rushed. The dumplings, however are yummm and decent sizes. Would come back again.

Yes, as a previous review has said this restaurant from the outside does look kind of like a warehouse and once inside I felt is more best described as a small cabaret style theatre it having tables set up in front of a stage. Anyway we got there at 45 minutes before yum cha finished but still could order l off menu. So we did. The food we ordered was pretty quick to come out… included turnip cake, pork bun, pork rice wrap… and overall I was not impressed with it. I have tasted better from the vendors who sell the same at food stalls in the local night markets!!! Then comes my bigger gripe… The place was not so busy when we arrived as close to end of yum cha, and so the staff had started resetting tables for a function at night. Fair enough… but they seemed oblivious to customers still eating as making no effort to try to be quiet when moving tables around and yelling at each other, even when standing nearby you. I can understand they have to reset as have limited time between services but I work in the hospitality industry and know «how «such should be carried out. So that you do not disturb other customers is one thing!!! I was going to give three star but while writing and remembering the food and noise etc I decide is only worthy of two. Guess the price was okay, but we won’t be going back in a hurry… ever!!!

Its an average yum cha place in Auckland and located in the suburb of Panmure. The outside of the restaurant looks like some rundown warehouse and not the most welcoming sort of place that you would go for yum cha.
When you enter inside, the grand design of the building transforms the feeling of the rundown warehouse to an event centre. As you approach to the lower eatery area, there is a huge stage with all lighting. The chairs are nicely covered with proper chair cover too. Enough said of the deco… guess these things captured my mind alot.
The food served are yum cha style for lunch, in case you dont know what yum cha is they are steam little basket of dumplings, prawn and beef balls, as well as chicken feet! YES YOU READ IT, CHICKEN FEET! (Its pretty yummy if you can stand the thought of licking… :P)
To be honest the food is average and pretty similar to what you would expect from a chinese restaurant. The staff is friendly and wear a mask too for hygienic reasons.
For a group of us today, surcharge was 10% and average of $ 20 per adult.
Tips for yum cha — go with a big group! There’s plenty of parking in front of this restaurant.