Cancel

    Open app

    Search

    Forbidden Palace

    3.8 (192 reviews)
    Closed 11:30 am - 10:00 pm

    Forbidden Palace Photos

    FORBIDDEN PALACE ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Casual
    Quiet
    Happy hour specials
    Good for kids

    You might also consider

    More like Forbidden Palace

    Recommended Reviews - Forbidden Palace

    Your trust is our priority, so businesses can't pay to alter or remove their reviews. Learn more about reviews.
    Yelp app icon
    Browse more easily on the app
    Review Feed Illustration

    Reviews With Photos

    Edamame half, because he had already grabbed a bunch from his sister!
    Meredith S.

    Wow! Ok, first, the restaurant is clean and the decor is fun. This is our second time eating here. Yes, there are robots (totally running food, but not 100% automated - the servers run up and make sure you each diner gets what they ordered). The robots are cute, but let's talk about the food! The menu is HUGE, which to me means it may not be that great. And yet it was! Yes, I have pics of lots of food, but I want to talk about mine. I ordered Pho! In a place that is not really known for Pho. And it was fantastic!! Flavorful broth, all the noodles! The rest of the family ordered Chinese favorites and Sushi - they loved it! I understand that the robots are supposed to be a draw, but the food is what should keep you coming back!

    Cucumber salad
    Lee F.

    Lately, I have been craving good Asian cuisine, where I could sit down and enjoy the meal. After a few Google searches, I found Forbidden Palace, so I thought I would given them a try before heading to a local theater production. I called and made a reservation for 6 pm on a Saturday night. Once there, I was greeted quickly and seated at my table. I was impressed by the decor and the delicious smells coming from the kitchen. My human server was quick to take my drink order, iced tea, and gave me plenty of time to peruse the menu, which featured both Chinese and Japanese dishes. For an appetizer, I had a delectable cucumber salad. I opted for the black pepper steak served with white rice as my entree. Neither disappointed! The portions are large and reasonably priced. The service from Stu, my robotic waiter, and my human server were excellent, as well. Overall, a splendid dining experience! I will be returning again to try some of the other offerings.

    Great food and customer service! Good this restaurant on TikTok!
    Katina M.

    Great food and customer service! Found them on TikTok!! I will definitely go back but will try the lunch menu next time.

    Menu 4.25
    Sally C.

    I have heard all good things about this restaurant and I FINALLY made it. Sadly, it was Easter Sunday but I was just happy they were open. It's in a strip mall near Harris Teeter. Very large inside with booths and tables that have the lazy susan. Love that. The bar is a very good size and the bathrooms were clean. They have lunch specials and Happy Hour!! Love that so much! The service was very friendly. We had water and they give a few free crunchy type noodles. I had the Dan Dan noodles under the Taiwanese style. Ramen noodles with a Peanut Sauce. It was spicy!!!! My fault because I told them I wasn't scared. I should have asked for less spicy but I did drink about 1/2 my water intake for the day. I did like the flavor though. The best part of this place is there is literally something for everyone. Sushi, Dim Sum, American Chinese, Cantonese and Vegetarian just to name a few. I definitely will be back and want to check out the HH which includes $3.50 wine and beer and appetizers. Oh....and they have the robots that bring your food to you. So fun. Definitely check them out....and great for groups that can't decide on a cuisine.

    Happy hour menu
    Chelsea C.

    This place has been here for years! This is my go to Chinese spot order out or dining in both great experiences. Food is always 100!

    Hot and Sour Soup - not very flavorful
    Nancy H.

    Had really high hopes because we are always looking for a great place that has both Chinese food and sushi. This is super common where we are from and always miss it. We ordered an array of both cuisines and sadly there were only a few things that ended up being great. For appetizers, we shared the crab rangoons and the shrimp spring rolls. Both were decent, but the crab rangoons had an incredibly thin wrapper, which just isn't the norm of what we are used to. Although the filling was good, this wrapper just threw off the ratio. We also got hot and sour soup to start which was lacking flavor. Sushi was mediocre. see both got one roll, a shrimp tempura and a spicy tuna. Spicy tuna had no spice and just didn't seem to have that fresh fish flavor. The shrimp tempura was a bit better, but still not amazing. Kani salad also weirdly tasted a bit fishy. For entrees, we got chicken fried rice and house egg foo young which were the two things that we would actually come back for. Both were served piping hot and had lots of flavor. The egg foo young was definitely the winner of the night!

    Salt and pepper shrimp. There were 7 pieces but we were hungry and gobbled them up quickly.
    Tracy H.

    We were greeted immediately and escorted to our table with a robot. Kinda cute. I like the decor. Everything was clean--including the bathroom. Service was good as well. The food was delicious. We had some dim sum (shrimp/leek and also bbq bun), salt and pepper shrimp tempura (appetizer), and Pad Thai. I took home some Mongolian chicken so I can have that for lunch Monday and Tuesday. The serving size was good. The food is good. Not blow your socks off but it's good. I'd come back. Pay attention to the prices in the menu. This is not your neighborhood Chinese joint type prices. But I can't complain because they're laid out in the menu. But when you're hungry, it's easy to order like money is no object. LOL!

    This is our favorite place to go on friday night. Food is always great and the staff make it even better. Sit at the bar and get the best service from Jim. And don't forget to tip the sushi guy Leo.

    See all

    5 months ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    9 hours ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    13 days ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    1 year ago

    Helpful 3
    Thanks 1
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0
    Photo of Lee F.
    36
    13
    10

    3 months ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    8 months ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    2 months ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    3 months ago

    Food was delicious. Good presentation. Servers very friendly. The bot that brings you the food is efficient!

    Helpful 1
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    7 months ago

    We only ordered appetizer. Pretty good price on house wine. Service is good. Decoration is nice too.

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    1 year ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    1 year ago

    Huge menu with tons of options... good food, attentive staff. We eat here a lot as we live close by... never a bad meal

    Helpful 1
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    1 year ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0
    Photo of Nancy H.
    409
    1498
    3607

    3 years ago

    Helpful 2
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0

    4 months ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    3 years ago

    Helpful 1
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0

    5 months ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    2 years ago

    Helpful 1
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0

    5 months ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    10 months ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    4 years ago

    Helpful 6
    Thanks 0
    Love this 8
    Oh no 0
    Photo of O. P.
    1
    61
    2

    1 year ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 2

    6 months ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    1 year ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    3 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    1 year ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    1 year ago

    The food was amazing. I am not a review poster, but the chicken and broccoli was so so good. And the little robot servers are so cute.

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    1 year ago

    Great food and atmosphere always fresh and tasty can't wait to go back again they have the best fried rice ever hands down

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    9 months ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 1

    1 year ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    1 year ago

    Good food. Nice service. Cool layout. I had the imperial chicken. Definitely affordable

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    10 months ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 1
    Photo of Bill S.
    1
    40
    26

    1 year ago

    Helpful 1
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0
    Photo of Junior G.
    257
    2
    36

    3 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    3 years ago

    Helpful 1
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0

    1 year ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    4 years ago

    Helpful 1
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0

    3 years ago

    Helpful 2
    Thanks 0
    Love this 3
    Oh no 0
    Photo of Tim D.
    5
    32
    6

    3 years ago

    Helpful 2
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0

    4 years ago

    Helpful 1
    Thanks 0
    Love this 2
    Oh no 0

    1 year ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    Page 1 of 5

    Ask the Community - Forbidden Palace

    You might also consider

    GuangDong Taste

    GuangDong Taste

    4.2
    (501 reviews)
    2.3 mi
    $$

    I love the salt and pepper squid. If you are ordering food, you are ordering for multiple people by…read morehow much food you get. The restaurant has great looking decor.

    A wonderful spot for Chinese food in the 757. Overall service is well. The place is very spacious…read morewith a lot of round tables with lazy Susan's. I always get the hot tea, a great start to the meal. Overall, I think the seafood fried rice is okay, I'd rather go for another meat like chicken or beef. They have pancit, which was decent. The mapo tofu is very tasty, but I wish there was more ground beef. Spice level was decent, but I would like it spicier. The garlic eggplant is one of my favsssssss!!!! A sweet soy sauce/oyster sauce taste. The Peking duck is very good, skin is crispy. The char siu pork is also very flavorful. THE WALNUT SHRIMP, it's always a winner. This is my husband's favorite. The white sauce just pairs so well with fried shrimp. The dumplings and Rangoons are thick. The dumplings are covered in sweet soy sauce. Very tasty. The pork belly was crispy just like Filipino lechon. I really enjoyed the custard buns. I do love that they have dim sum available to order all day. We have been here many times, and the dishes are always very good. They put a lot on the plate. This is definitely a place for family style. A must try!! We will be back.

    Photos
    Dining Room
    Dining Room
    Seafood delight (scallops, squid, shrimp)
    Seafood delight (scallops, squid, shrimp)
    Snow pea leaves and garlic

    See all

    Snow pea leaves and garlic
    Judy's Sichuan Cuisine

    Judy's Sichuan Cuisine

    4.3
    (785 reviews)
    2.4 mi
    $$

    Soup dumpling from Judy's Sichuan is just the perfect comfort food on a cold winter night!…read more Five stars for juicy, plump soup dumplings. The best.

    A group of us came here for dinner on a weeknight while in town for a conference... it was quite a…read morelong drive from the oceanfront and convention center area, but was worth it. I called earlier in the day to see if we should make reservations, but was told they wouldn't be busy. Well, we got there and while they had plenty of tables at 6:30PM, but 7PM that place was completely packed! They had lots of carry-out orders happening too, which all made the kitchen a little slow. We ordered many dishes to share and all started coming out one after another over the next hour until the beef & broccoli was the last dish. Again, I attribute the slowness of the kitchen to their being so busy. At least all the food that came out was very fresh, tasty, and piping hot. Some interesting items that were quite good were their potatoes and green peppers. This dish is something I've never seen before but was pretty good! It features long julienned potatoes that they clearly soak in water before wok'ing with the peppers - that was all that was in the dish, but it was still tasty. Their Fish in Chili Oil & Bean Sprouts was really tasty and fresh! The fish is flounder. Their spicy wontons in chili oil were very popular with our group too. Service here was friendly too and helpful. Like I said, we tried many items, so many more than I just outlined and all were nice. I'd definitely return for a slightly more elevated Chinese menu from what you get at the typical Chinese-American joints.

    Photos
    Judy's Sichuan Cuisine
    Spicy wontons
    Spicy wontons
    Spicy wontons

    See all

    Spicy wontons
    Wang Jiang Lou

    Wang Jiang Lou

    4.4
    (138 reviews)
    3.8 mi
    $$$

    We met up for lunch at Wang Jiang Lou. We were greeted when we walked in and taken to our table…read more The setting is dimly lit, the tables are very spacious, and I like the vibe and Asian inspired decor!! I like that it's spaced out and you're not over crowded. Our waitress Catherine was awesome. She's always nice, friendly, and patient. She gave us the menu specials and allowed us to chat a bit before ordering. My friend ordered the cheese wontons, general tso chicken and dan dan noodles. The wontons were really good. I like that they were sweet and crispy. I'd get them again for sure. The dan dan noodles were spicy and flavorful. My sister and I got the Mongolian chicken, storm fish, and eggplant. This is my go to meal that I normally get, it's always tasty. The storm fish normally comes with a spicy mayo sauce, but they didn't have it this time. The fish was still ok, but the sauce is what gives it flavor, so it was a little bland this time. The eggplant and Mongolian chicken were yum, hot, and fresh!! I definitely recommend this restaurant to alot of people. I just think it's more elevated compared to regular Chinese takeout food. They have many delicious options on the menu, and again the vibe is chill. If you're planning a group dinner this is definitely a great option. The rooms have a lazy Susan on the table to make sharing the family style meals easy. Check them out!!

    I really wanted something light but hearty with carbs and the Shanghainese rice stir fry fit the…read morebill. The rice cakes were nice and chewy just how I wanted. The shrimp weren't plentiful. I found maybe 4 at most. It was also disappointing most of the sauce was on the bottom. So it's imperative you stir everything from bottom up upon receiving the order. The top layer tasted like it had barely any seasonings because of it. I wish I had known the meal came with copious amounts of mushrooms. I otherwise would have specifically requested the order be made without the them. I am not a big fan of mushrooms and especially the fragrant kind like the shiitake variety. I feel like I had mouthfuls of mushrooms in each bite and that's all I tasted. Perhaps I will order something else they are more known for the next time I believe they specialize in Szechuan cuisine.

    Photos
    Wang Jiang Lou
    Yu Xiang Eggplant
    Yu Xiang Eggplant
    Tequila Lou

    See all

    Tequila Lou
    Peter Chang

    Peter Chang

    3.9
    (452 reviews)
    4.4 mi
    $$

    I do not know how much they cost since it was all free…read more This Restaurant is great I do not have much to say except for the fact that Peter Chang is the GOAT of Chinese food in Virginia

    The last experience we had was absolutely amazing. From the service to the food. All around great…read moreexperience. This time, not so much. My family and I (5 people) came in to celebrate my girlfriend's birthday dinner and there was nobody but us in the restaurant. The first thing I noticed was the server. He was dressed in jeans, hooded sweatshirt, a beanie and had a toothpick in his mouth. A bit out of the ordinary but to each their own for proper attire in what I would deem a upscale-ish restaurant. The real issue was him taking our order, seemed rushed. As we were deliberating and figuring out what we wanted. My girlfriend was talking about the scallion bubble pancakes. He came over and said, "I overheard you said the scallion pancakes, did you want to put in that order?" My girlfriend said no, she wanted everything to come out all at once. He said ok and then we walked off. Next thing we know, the pancakes came out WAY ahead of everything else we ordered. By like 15 minutes at least. When my girlfriend said something about it, the waiter said, he said outright " I never heard her say not to order them, she never said anything, and they are out right now". No apology, no I'll go ahead and fix that...nothing. When we we on the way out, we talked to the owner about the experience and the only thing he mentioned was that, the server was new and it's hard to find good employees because they revolve so quickly. Which wasn't really an answer at all. It was definitely a 180 degree turn from the first experience we had here which was 5 stars all around. I think given the experience, we unfortunately won't be coming back

    Photos
    Peter Chang
    Dan Dan Noodles
    Dan Dan Noodles
    Peter Chang

    See all

    Forbidden Palace - chinese - Updated July 2026

    Loading...
    Loading...
    Loading...