One of the best places for Chinese Food in Waterloo. The Orange Beef is particularly good!

So amid the pandemic times, the cravings for dim sum were real. Heard about crystal palace but I've never been so decided to try it out. Ordered: Har gow (shrimp dumplings) Good size, 4 in an order. Average. Shrimp were flavorful. The skin fell apart quite badly even after a cooling period. If you don't know, crystal skins on dumplings bream quicker if you try to grab them straight out of the steamer. We had about 20 min from take out pick up for it to rest and it still broke a part.... Siu mai Pork and beef dumplings were a good size, again 4 in an order. Preferred the beef over the pork. The beef siu mai tasted like a regular dimsum beef ball. No crunchy water chestnut textures though that you usually find. The pork tasted very porky - I wouldn't order this again from here. Lotus leaf glutinous rice with chicken 2 in an order The pork and mushroom mixture in between the rice was very minimal. The flavour was lacking. I thought the rice was the better part of the rice dumpling ; others thought that the meat part was better. Not the biggest fan. Szechuan green paper / eggplant with shrimp paste So the sauce is on point. Nice soy and black bean sauce; not spicy at all. The shrimp paste is your typical shrimp fish ball flavour. It was fried really well. The surprise this time was the Glutinous dumpling with Pork. Fried nicely. The filling was a good balance of salt and sweet. The outside was sweet and sticky. Overall, it was an ok dim sum place. The pick up was fast. The food was hot. Very limited dim sum menu. read more

My favourite place for Chinese food!! It's so amazing and the staff is really kind. They have very yummy combination plates. My favourite is #4, with deep fries mushrooms that are just like chicken balls but vegetarian :). They even let you know there's egg in the rice in case you're vegan!! Definitely place an order and once things reopen, check it out!! My favourite local spot!! read more

Crystal Palace Restaurant - Combos 4 & 9 - Chinese Near Me - Waterloo, Ontario

The food is Chinese-Canadian and absolutely exquisite. The various dishes stimulate one's appetite. Try any of their soups, especially. The flavour of every dish I've had is memorably by good. read more

I saw this place on Uber eats and was excited to try it! I'm a lover of dim sum so I thought this place would be a good pick. Unfortunately the food didn't quite meet my expectations. It wasn't bad, don't get me confused, but it just didn't taste as good as dim sum I have had before. The har gow was probably the best thing I got, and there eggplant stuffed shrimp were good, however the pork shumai, beef tripe and bbq pork buns were kinda meh. I am a lover of bbq pork dumplings too, so I was sad I didn't love them. I think unfortunately I would go somewhere else if I wanted dim sum in KW in the future. read more

Friday February 11th, 2022 First time I've ever order from here, and I think I just found my new go to place for Chinese food. The box of chicken balls, were nice and golden, crispy, and delicious! Egg rolls were again, crispy, golden, and delicious. Beef vegetable and almonds. Beef was tender and fell apart in your mouth. Veggies were perfectly sautéed. Chicken fried was, what it was. Not many can make l no intakes in that. But here, the rice. everything was fantastic. The portion sizes were about average for takeout, Wouldn't mind seeing a little more of the Chicken fried rice in the container, If I could give them more then the 5 stars allowd, they'd definitely get more. Great job Crystal Palace, great job. Thank you read more

Two, weekday buffet. Since most of the asian restaurants in the area we were hoping to eat at (Watami, Hot Wheels Cafe) are closed Mondays, we ended up at Crystal Palace for its weekday lunch buffet. For $7.95 lunch buffet, you can't go wrong. It's priced similarly to ordering a combo in the plaza near the University of Waterloo, yet buffet-style giving a choice in what and how much to eat. The hot tables were filled with all the usual: sesame chicken, fried rice, fried noodle, onion rings, chicken balls w/ sweet and sour sauce, chicken wings, various veggie dishes, etc. A cold area had tiramisu, jello, mussels, shrimp (not deshelled) and ice cream (that was frozen solid and hard to get out). The quality of the food wasn't great, but for Westernized Chinese food in Waterloo (unless you drive to the far end of Kitchener), there aren't that many choices, and probably none other that have a buffet. Good deal for the price. Will have to return again to try the dimsum. read more

Food is definitely authentic. If you're craving dimsum in waterloo and not wanting to pay the ridiculous price at Cameron, then this is your next best bet. The waitresses do speak english so there shouldn't be a language barrier. The dimsum came out hot and at a decent rate. Theres not too much selection vs the ones in Toronto or Markham, but what can you expect from a smaller city? Dimsum is by order and not rolled out on carts (the place is probably too small for it anyways). We also ordered the beef ho fun which was surprisingly better than I expected (much better than the stuff you get from UW Plaza). The prices are very reasonable as well. I would recommend and would come back again. For four of us, it came up to be $60, after we ordered some dimsum and a plate of beef ho fun, not too shabby. read more

Crystal Palace Restaurant - Chinese Near Me - Waterloo, Ontario

I ordered sesame balls (my favourite dish) for delivery. When they arrived, I opened the container to see 3 flat whimpy excuses for a sesame ball. I decided to give them a try. Not only were they flat, but they were unnecessarily greasy that I immediately felt sick to my stomach (and actually threw up about ten minutes later). They also gave me barely any bean paste, it looked like someone took it out and left what was stuck to the walls of the sesame ball. I will not be eating here ever again nor would I recommend it to anyone. I also got pan fried dumplings and stir fry chicken with rice noodles. They were okay, didn't stand out though. Overpriced for the quality of food if you ask me. read more

I grew up in Markham so I know about the art of eating dim-sim: Tea (5/5) - "Too legit" Teapot (5/5) - "Looks like the one I pour in my dreams" Tea Cup (5/5) - "Ceramic like all the dinnerware, It even had a small chip in it" Table (5/5) - "Environmentally unfriendly layers of disposable plastic covers" Chopsticks (5/5) - "The light yellow ones" Crystal Skin Shrimp Dumplings (4/5) - "Oddly legit" Rice Noodle Roll (3.5/5) - "Almost legit" Rice Noodle Fried Dough (3/5) - "Very bland; no seasonings or sauce" Egg Tart (2.5/5) - "At least it was the puff pastry kind" Curry Octopus (2/5) - "Unsatisfying" Chicken Feet with Black Bean Sauce (2/5) - "Rather off-putting" Spareribs with Black Bean Sauce (1/5) -"Completely off-putting" Deepfried tentacles!? (0/5) - "What the &$#! is this" It was also not cheap! So try not to order everything that comes to mind. There is authenticity to this place, the owners are Cantonese and some dishes do hit the right spots. If you're feeling homesick it will definitely help but don't expect anything to blow you away. read more

NEVER go here. Food is awful, service is even worse. You will be sat at a table with super-weird, disgusting plastic over top of it. There will be nobody eating there. Waited 20 minutes for a clearly old egg roll followed by something that could be described as a pure mess. Chicken balls were nothing but re-heated deep-fried dough with no chicken. Rice was old. Friday night and nobody there. You have been warned. read more

An honest Chinese restaurant serving probably the most authentic Chinese food in the KW area. Saturday and Sunday mornings are very busy with dim sum patrons, which is a great time to go and try various delicacies as the hustle and bustle and loud conversation is all part of the fun. We've been going here for years and it's definitely one of my family's go-to places. I highly suggest Crystal Palace for your Chinese food cravings! read more

This area doesn't have a plethora of great Chinese options but this is one of the better places even if its ambiance hasn't been great in the past. They've recently made a very conscious effort to significantly improve the look of the place. Contrary to the view of another reviewer, the food is pretty authentic (you can judge by seeing the number of Chinese families eating there on Saturday mornings for dim sum) though I suppose it depends on what you order. While I was born in the area, I travel to China often Dim sum is decent (I wouldn't say it's stellar by any stretch but again, relative to the other options in the area this is probably the best place for dimsum relative to value). read more

Been here for the weekend dimsum quite a few times. Most of the menu items are decent but not outstanding. Probably as good as it gets value-wise for dimsum in the KW-region. IMO - stay away from the siu mai. read more

My first experience with dim-sums. The beef ribs are very tasty and the egg tarts have a slight durian taste, which I like. The food is a bit pricy for its portion, but the servers were friendly and I would come back again with friends. read more

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We went for dim sum. The service was so great that I really wanted to like it! I couldn't :o( I think everything tasted fatty and a little off to me. Luckily my husband liked it, so the food didn't go to waste. read more

Food was very bad. The fried rice was very wet and gummy, with zero flavour . Chicken balls were chewy and tasted like wet dog. Egg roll was alright. Will not order again. Only plus was delivery was quick. read more

We ordered delivery. Chow mein doesnt come with noodles. Yes they warned so okay. But the Ma po tofu was in a "rice dish " category. There was no rice. They forgot. Thank god my boyfriend has minute rice in his cabinet or else id be slurping my food. No utensils either. Not a big deal but im hungry. And i like everything in my package. read more

The food was okay, but the wait time is over 40 minutes on a normal day. If you're in a rush, I would suggest picking a different place.

Good Chinese food, generous portions. They serve dim sum steamed to order all the time. They also offer a lunch buffet. I will be back!

In moving to the city from the country, my wife and I have taken advantage of the joys of delivery. Crystal Palace was our first Chinese delivery and we were pleasantly surprised. We ordered a variety of items, and in typical Canadian Chinese tradition, they were pretty much as we have experienced elsewhere. The noodles were a bit soggy, and the vegetables were somewhat over done, but all in all it was a fast hit to the stomach and that was what we were looking for. The General Tao chicken was above average, a little hot but good. We were given extra egg rolls, don't know if that was a promotion or a mistake, but it was appreciated. read more

This place is a 3.5 star for me. Sometimes it's a 3 and sometimes it's a 4. I only go here for dim sum, their other food looks like westernized Chinese food. The dim sum is not bad, price is ok and there is quite a selection of dim sum dishes. Most of the time the quality of food here is ok, however there will be the odd time when the chicken feet doesn't smell that fresh, or the curry squid would still have sand and still be cold in the middle. Other than that, the food is usually decent, which I would say is 95% of the time. Location is convenient and the service is good too! Give this place a try if you haven't already. read more

Great for lunch buffet, but not great for dinner. I go here for lunch only now. Extremely slow service if you order from the menu, not great if you want to eat and run! I normally do not complain about things, but it was so bad I have to say something. You would think to grab a quick Chinese food dinner wouldn't be an issue. two of my co-workers and I decided to grab a quick bite to eat before a movie. My friend went in early to order, we had previously decided on what we wanted, the woman refused to take the order until we had arrived (15min later), no reason given. Finally she took our order, we got a glass of water. We waited, waited, & waited. No egg rolls, nothing came out. We asked how much longer, she didn't know or find out for us. Meanwhile there was only 3 other tables, they were waiting as well. We waited a total of 45 min with no food, we couldn't wait anymore because we didn't want to be late for our movie. We had to cancel our order and leave, we didn't even get an apology! So disapointing! I had dinner here prior to the current owners, and it was fine. read more

I keep going back to this restaurant out of convenience. As a student I don't have much options to Chinese food near my house. Their service is by far the worst of any restaurant I've been to in Waterloo. I've been here over 20 times, and I've noticed that only one of their waitresses is pleasant. The rest are very rude. Even from the second you step into the door they're rude. Their dim sum and regular menu is a bit expensive for this quality of Chinese food (but then again I might be comparing too much to Toronto restaurants). But the menu does have a lot of variety, which is nice. Take out is very convenient as they're on just-eat, and delivery is usually prompt (but I also live down the street from them) Like I said, I keep coming back out of convenience, but I wouldn't exactly recommend it to anyone that had other options read more

Very disappointing. We went for dim sum. The dishes choice was limited. The 10 choices that we ordered, were all bland, totally tasteless. The bbq pork buns were very tiny and barely contained any pork. Price were comparable with other dim sum restaurant. There were no soft music, the restaurant was so quiet, and we went on a Sunday 12noon. Very odd place. Parking was bad too. We won't be returning. read more

worst ever! the lady messed up my order and when i came to her for refund because i coldnt wait anymore she started shaking and barely gave me my $ back and accused me of eating it, as she gave me $ back she said you are not welcome here anymore' i was speechless so unprofessional!! do not go here , even when they dont receive good tip they dont even thank you , money hugry! god forgive them! read more

Not very authentic. Or maybe because I'm not Chinese that I didn't get the real stuff, but it's typical Americanized Chinese takeout. And not very good at that. I ordered the house special with chicken and it didn't come with rice. Tasted like fried chicken in BBQ sauce. read more

If there was a way to share negative stars I would do so. This used to be my go-to place for delivery, but I just had what's probably the worst customer service experience I've ever had. I ordered on Just Eat, made the same dietary requests as I always do along with requests to upgrade a couple items part of a combo, again as I always do (same order every time guys, not expecting any surprises!!) Upon receiving my order it was clear that they missed the comments, no problem, it happens, we're human. But when I called the restaurant to inform them (not a situation that I could just pick something out as they were allergy related) I was told "sorry nothing we can do, just pick out what you don't want" not cool. I spent a half an hour on the phone with the hostess going between me and the manager, who claimed she didn't speak English. The solution was that I could come pick up the food (the weather is terrible, which is why I was ordering in) they would remake it the way I needed BUT I would be CHARGED! Not impressed at all. They lost a regular customer today. And I caution anyone with allergies to order from this restaurant. They don't care and clearly will do anything to save a buck. read more

food is very good restaurant is clean. staff/owner is not very friendly actually outright rude. never greets or has anything other to say what do want to drink, no welcome or thank you for coming. either been doing this too long or has no concept of customer service. read more

Decent dim sum. Good value. Service was very good. The pan fried dumplings were not the best. All other items were very good. Do not hesitate to go. read more

Got the shrimp dim sum, they literally fell apart as I picked them up and smelled like something rotten :( one of the dumplings was extremely salty...It was my first time trying their food, I will not be returning. read more

We've been ordering from Crystal Palace for more than a decade, and have always been happy with the food and service. I don't know if they're under new management, but this time, it was awful. Firstly, be aware that they promote giving free egg rolls and fried rice with a minimum order amount (they always have), but they've decided not to honour that when you use Just Eat, though there's no indication of that anywhere. Secondly, the food was not good at all. It ranged from cold to somewhat warm, the GT chicken was 2/3 broccoli and maybe 12 pieces of chicken, and the vermicelli noodles seemed like leftovers from the bottom of the package, broken and then overcooked. When I called to talk to them about the problems, which I NEVER do, their response was, "Oh. Ok, bye." All in all, a very disappointing experience. After so many years of enjoying Crystal Palace with my family, I don't think we will ever order again. We tried Phoenix a couple of months ago, and it was hot, tasty, and they honoured their promotions. I recommend you choose them, instead. read more

Had delivery from them a few times from justeat.ca. They are very prompt and so far always get the order correctly. The food was delicious for a Canadian Chinese restaurant. They always give us a few freebies with our order such as fried rice and egg rolls. read more