Lucky Palace Chinese Restaurant

I’ve visited the other Mayflower in Milpitas and was very happy with the quality of the dim sum though I’ve never been impressed with the service. Still, I decided to give the Union City location a try as I live very close to it.
Disappointed does not even begin to describe how I feel about this place. We went for dim sum on a Sunday morning, right around peek time. There was a wait but we were assured it wouldn’t be too bad. And they were right: we were seated in about 10 or 15 minutes.
The relatively short wait belied the rest of the visit. While a waiter took our tea/​drink order, it took a very long time for us to receive our drink order. And food? Forget it! The ladies with the carts weren’t very attentive and the usual waving did nothing. Furthermore, the carts were extremely slow getting to our section of the restaurant. We had a total of three carts come through in our hour long visit without us having to make a fuss to get them by.
The regular waitstaff was also unattentive and rude. When I asked, politely, for a small dish to mix my dipping sauce in – standard procedure, not unusual — the older gentleman who was helping us didn’t quite understand what I meant so he gave me another dish of duck sauce. I asked for another dish, without the duck sauce, and he just gave me a highly annoyed look and muttered under his breath before returning 10 minutes later with the dish.
The food itself was okay but not what I would have hoped for. Honestly, we got so few dishes that the mediocrity of what we did receive was highlighted. The shrimp dumplings were slightly tough with a thick, chewy skin. The rice noodle with shrimp was similarly lacking. The siu mai was slightly tough and overly salty. That was all we got because so few dishes came around and the waitstaff was completely unhelpful. I’m never going back here again and I’d tell everyone NEVER to patronize this place. The service is horrible and the food is lackluster. If I could give this place 0 stars, I would.

I am Chinese and I have never been particularly fond of dim sum. This past week it was my mom’s birthday so I decided to take her to Mayflower since it’s always crowded. It was a Thursday afternoon and the place was packed wall to wall. I was pleasantly surprised by the service despite where we were seated: on the raised platform for wedding banquets.
The chive and shrimp dumpling was probably the best I had ever had, generous amounts of shrimp and still crispy from the pan. The seafood rice noodles were very flavorful and had lots of vegetables and did not skimp on the pricey seafood. In every dish there was a large amount of meat, no dish had fluff in the dish to beef it up. The egg custard tarts were flaky and just the right amount of faint sweetness. I may be a dim sum convert from this experience.
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Update: 6÷28÷06
Dined here for dinner tonight, and it was yum-​o! Ordered the XO sliced beef, which came with a healthy portion of broccoli, the szechaun (sp?) shrimp with snap peas, fried tofu, and the crab noodles. The quality of the food and then preparation involved were exceptional, but I would pass on the bland crab noodles. They also offer complimentary taro, red bean, and corn dessert at the end. Mildly sweet and satisfying.

had high hopes w/​the new ownership. disappointed. won’t go back.

It’s not Lucky Palace anymore, but a new location for the Mayflower restaurant (which can be found at the Great Mall and McCarthy Ranch in Milpitas). Still, the food is great. It’s a little more upscale compared to it’s predecessor. It has its advantages and disadvatages.
What I liked about Lucky China was their dim sum dishes. I liked their pan fried noodles which had the right amount of saltiness and spice. Nowadays at the Mayflower it’s bland, somewhat greasy, and doesn’t have that spicy kick it used to have.
Like I said, Mayflower still has its good points. The service is great (we’ve gotten to know one of the managers) and the food is flavorful. I would recommend their XO beef, lobster with noodles, and the beef clay pot. The XO beef is very tender and the beef clay pot is very reminscent of a home cooked stew my mother makes. As for the lobster with noodles, I would say it’s something that sets it apart from other chinese restaurants. Overall, I would recommend this place for it’s dim sum (during the day) and it’s dinner. especially for family style eating.