Household name? NOT

I first heard about Yan Palace from a friend who told me she enjoyed the authenticity of the old-school ambience and traditional dimsum goodies at Yan Palace. I was surprised to hear that Yan Palace’s history dates back as far as/ further than the other “famous” dimsum place, Red Star Restaurant, and yet I had never heard of it. So, I couldn’t wait to try the place out since I’ve been on the hunt to find a really good dimsum place (ever since Red Star’s standards dropped).

Well I finally tried the place during a weekday lunchtime with my parents, and horrors of horrors, it’s actually way bad: worse than red star, or crystal jade. The place was amazingly still decently crowded on a weekday lunch-hour and I really really wonder why.. Let me share my experience.

Given that there were just three of us, we hadn’t ordered that much and I can’t remember all that much anyway, but here’re some reasons not to go to Yan (at least for dimsum):

1) Prawns: I consider prawns the one key ingredient for good dimsum since it’s practically in all dishes. The prawns Yan Palace used were frozen prawns I swear. Not that I saw them being taken from the fridge, but rather that they taste bad. Bad prawns are just no-go for a dimsum place. So, I will not elaborate on other dishes that had prawns since it suffices to say they were bad as soon as prawn was a key ingredient.

2) Cheong Fun: I had the prawns cheong fun and besides bad prawns, the cheong fun itself was too thick and too gooey; again, a definite no-go.

3) Shanghai Xiao Long Bao: The skin of my dumpling was broken straight from the steamer, so I had no comments on the lack of soup at first. My parents however, had unbroken dumplings but they too said their dumplings were completely dry. Again, big no no to have soupless xiao long baos!

Ok, those are the ones I still remember. There is some redemption to the place though. Their beancurd-skin-wrapped dishes were very good. Interesting fillings were used instead of the more usual carrots/ mushrooms used by other restaurants. Service was also quite adequate.

But then, I again stress that no dimsum restaurants deserve any customers if their prawns suck. I’m never stepping in there again.