Sea Palace

Atmosphere is lively, but so were the people in our large party reservation. Started off with a cocktail at the bar. I ordered a summer Moscow mule mainly because I wanted something light and refreshing (restaurant was warm); girlfriend ordered caipirinha. Overall time to get drinks: 10 mins.
We sat at a great corner table overlooking the views of the city, but the table was set for 8 only. A great start with our server, however, throughout the evening, we had about 5 different servers come to the table. I was already told that Dutch dining experience is nothing like what I’m used to in New York, but I still was shocked to see food come to the table every time without any plates or cups being cleared. How is it okay to still attempt to drop off multiple hot plates while the table was full? We helped move things around, of course, not a big problem but it happened the ENTIRE evening. Also, when we ordered more wine, it took over 20 mins.
Overall, I enjoyed the meal thoroughly. I would recommend starting off the meal with some dim sum as we did. I hadn’t had it in a long while, and I realize how much I can’t wait to eat more back home. We ordered the Peking duck which was delicious, but I’m sure we would have enjoyed it more had we had wine or water… It was comical at one point as we finally got the wine and everybody put out their glasses at the same time. When we asked for water and they asked how many, we all practically raised our hands bc we were so unbelievably thirsty! Favorite dish were the mushrooms (3 types: Korean, Chinese, and Japanese) and flowering sprouts (possibly my new favorite vegetable).
I’m not one for «fancy Chinese» but I think I was satisfied with the food more so bc I didn’t have any of the MSG after effects which I’m very sensitive to. That alone makes for a happy diner.
Food was decent; can’t say the same about service. By the end of the night, we were still moving all the glasses and plates.

Dim Sum lunch for 2 was delicious! Cost about 35 euros and we ordered 5 items! PLUS, you’re FLOATing on the water enjoying the views… a must try! I would give it a 4 ½ star if I knew how since the service could have been more efficient

Such a nice looking place with very very nice views. The food myself and my girlfriend ordered was decent but not amazing, we had a few lunch items so not a great sample size, but overall my experience says: ok food, great venue

Surpassed expectations ! Great food, great service, nice atmosphere ! Probably because we got there early when service just started on Sunday at noon. Highly recommended ! 10 dim sum plates with tea for € 55

Place looked entertaining but food was subpar. Food didn’t have a kick and was mostly bland. We ordered chicken fried rice and ended with a shrimp fried rice which was very oily. Waiter tried to justify that the shrimp was order so we ended up ordering another chicken fried rice (impolite). Which was salty. Another unsatisfied customers. although another waiter helped us when we were leaving and was very courteous kudos to you who ever you are.
Your food is ready:
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The food is outstanding. The service could use a little help. The atmosphere is lovely nice view from my table looking at the water. Would definitely recommend.

We went to the dim sum lunch. Food is good but variety is limited. Service is ok to average.
Would go back

Cool location. Booked in advance and didn’t have to wait for a seat (we saw other walk-​ins having to wait).
Very overpriced and very average food — comparable to what you’d get from a takeaway. Dumplings were nice though.

Is Sea Palace overpriced? Yes.
Will I keep going there? Yes.
Why? Because it’s one of the better dim sum places in A’dam and it’s a fricken fun floating restaurant. The servers are all super nice too. The only problem I’ve had here was ordering way too much food, but that’s OK… more for later! :)

Okay, I’m a foodie. I admit it. I travel a lot all over the globe and like to eat, good food. I tried out the Sea Palace on a recommendation from the Double Tree staff.
Everyone gets to wait in the bar after you enter. Minus one star for assuming I wouldn’t order wine with the meal and treating me like a number. After an obligatory 20 minute wait I’m ushered to my table and provided a menu. Service is quick. They take my order after just a few minutes. Won Ton soup, dim sum, and honey fried pork are inbound.
The won ton soup was hot, full of dumplings, but not the best I’ve ever had. The bowl is small and pricey at about $ 6 US. The pork dim sum is very good and on par with what I’ve tasted elsewhere. But at $ 9 US or $ 3 apiece it too is overpriced. I’m seeing a trend… Crispy fried honey pork just delivered. See you in ¹⁵⁄₂₀ minutes.
Hmmm. Main dish is okay. But not what I was expecting. Pork is toughNo soy sauce at the table, no salt, no pepper. Nobody checking to see if there is anything I need. Appears it’s all about running as many people as possible through a meal.
I gotta say, my Mrs makes a hell of a pork loin in a sweet sauce these guys need to taste. The main dish is okay, just okay. But the serving size is large. Looks like tomorrows lunch. Maybe sitting overnight will improve it… maybe…
I recommend you save some $$ and find a Mom n Pop place in Centraal Amsterdam. Service will be more personal and food will be tastier. No reason to pay high prices for middle of the road food.
Work on it Sea Palace. Your cousins in San Jose put you to shame.

Wunderschöné Location, abends beeindruckend!
Personal sehr zuvorkommend und freundlich. Alles sehr sauber! Unsere Dim Sum eher enttäuschend, Teig zu weich, Füllung verkocht und fast nicht gewürzt, Pekingente sehr lecker und knusprig, innen zart. Schweinebauch sollte knusprig sein, aber leider in Stücke geschnitten, in Fett schwimmend, total wabbelig und überhaupt nicht knusprig, die dabei servierten Zuckererbsschoten knackig und lecker!
Dessert: hausgemachtes Eis, der Hammer! Unbedingt probieren Lotuseis, Mangoeis, Schokolade und Kokoseis, alle auf sahniger Basis, kein Sorbet! Einfach himmlisch!
Wir würden auf jeden Fall wieder hingehen, 2. Chance!

Came at 1:15pm and told there were no open tables until 2pm.
2:15pm told by the same girl that there was a 30 min wait. I asked to be put on the waiting list, and she gets a piece of paper to put me on the «list»
So if there is a 30 min where are all the other people who are waiting ahead of me?
Manager interrupts and tell her to seat us because the first floor now will be dim sum as well.
Waitress takes our drink order and tell s us there will be a 45 min at our table for dim sum.
I ask to speak with the manager, and she goes to speak with him after placing another tables order. He doesn’t come by himself, but sends her back with the dim sum menus.

The food when it arrived fifteen min in? Mediocre.
Last dish never made it…
Oh and just now my gf asked a waiter for the check?
Literally walked off on us.
Run!!! Do not eat here!!!

The sea Palace (yes their sign is with a lower case ‘s’) is pretty middle of the road when it comes to their food. I mean it was good and all but just not spectacular. Each of the dishes which came out were maybe a 6 out of 10. That’s not to say the atmosphere itself wasn’t great. Is certainly a big Chinese decorated atmosphere. Everyone inside really looks like they were having a lot of fun with this. The bar is specially stood out being this big circle in the middle of the whole place. The service was also good. There was always somebody coming by asking if we were ready to order or wanted another drink. This is a nice change of pace for sure. Another sort of a bummer about it’s is the cost. I imagine because it’s such a big place and in a prime tourists location (close to Central Station) they have to have higher prices to recoup those costs.
For all of these reasons I doubt I will be going back. Unless someone wants to go there for a special occasion perhaps.

The more I go to the Sea Palace, the more I love it. We try to convince everyone we know to give it a try! I know that some like Oriental City (
) more, but I have been there-​only once to be fair– and I still love the Sea Palace.
Get a nice variety of Dim Sum between noon-​4pm (the 2pm listed in my last review was a mistake!) and split it between friends. Everything is so tasty. My favorites are the fried shrimp dumplings and the Honey BBQ pork buns. Don’t forget the Chinese tea!

This place is known for its slow service at dinner, which it is. Nevertheless this place is more famous for its Dim Sum!
Don’t come here for dinner, you won’t really like it. Instead, grab a bunch of your friends, reserve a table for Sunday around 13:30 and enjoy a FANTASTIC and quite filling lunch!
I insist, it’s apparently not a good place for dinner. But trust me on the Dim Sum Weekend lunch. It’s beyond awesome!

We were staying in the city at the Hilton DoubleTree Hotel across the way, and could see what seemed like a lit up floating restaurant out our large hotel windows. We did our usual thing and checked Unilocal before even considering them. They had decent reviews, so we walked over one evening to have some Amsterdam Chinese cuisine.
We checked in at the front and were quickly ushered to what seemed like their bar area and were told to have a seat at one of the immediate neighboring tables. The bartender took our orders as we sat and waited. It seemed weird that we were in this in-​between area when we could clearly see a handful of tables open. So we sat… and waited. Our drinks never came, but we were told that our table was ready. We advised the bartender and were on our way.
We were grateful to be seated at a long table by a window so that we could look outside. The restaurant was apparently very busy as we watched just one or two waiters covering what seemed like the entire restaurant. We were given our menus and we waited and waited to order. Then we waited and waited and waited for our food to arrive. Thankfully we had brought things with us to keep our young four-​year-​old occupied while she waited. Our food finally arrived and it was pretty flavorful and seemed fresh. The only problem afterwards was that no one had ever come back to check if we needed more hot tea or water (which we did), wanted to order anything else or brought us our bill. We tried flagging one of the waiters down for well over twenty minutes, but the waiters always darted from section to section with their eyes focused downwards, seemingly never coming to our section. I watched as other patrons around us looked frustrated either trying to place their orders or ask for something as well.
After getting a little aggressive, we were finally able to flag someone down to request our bill. Then there was another long wait until someone brought it by. Quite a long, frustrating night it turned out to be. Our daughter was getting very tired of all the waiting around, which was making it hard on us.
All in all the food was pretty good here (from what we ordered), but I wouldn’t recommend coming here if you’re on any time constraints. You throw that all out the window once you step inside their palace! Minus one star for turning our dinner hour into a multiple hour event!
#92 /​100
Unilocal 100 Review Challenge 2014

We were staying at the Doubletree right next door.
Apparently this restaurant can see like 900 people. With that being said, we thought our party of 10 can just walk in and have no issues getting a seat.
We tried to call ahead to get rsvp but miscommunication via phone and reservation was not made.
For what ever reason we arrived and tried to get seated… apparently kitchen was going to close in 30mins (we non locals did not know this). The host lady scrambled around to get us seated (place was totally empty actually yet there was confusion as to where we should seat).
Our waiter was a bit cold and I almost took out his right eye ball as I returned the menu to him (Totally accidentally btw). But by end of the night he became less cold.
Over all our orders were taken (rushed) but everything arrived correctly and I was really impressed at how fast the food came out.
The food was good. I think everyone enjoyed their meal.

Sorry Sea Palace — you’re to be reserved for curious, don’t-know-any-better tourists and I only hope no one ever have the displeasure of actually dining here!
The one positive is of course, the location. Just a few steps away from Centraal Station and placed in an undeniably beautiful floating restaurant boat, it’s hard to imagine that with such amazing presentation that the inside could be so unpleasant.
Service is a nightmare here. We sat down with a group to enjoy a nice meal and ordered the duck, along with several other dishes. Our duck was served immediately (great), though cut and served horribly by another waitress, but as we started to eat we realized after a long while that none of our other, simple veggie dishes had arrived. When we flagged down our waiter to ask, he rudely told us that we only receive the other dishes when we’re completely done. Um, okay? Despite that really really strange rule, can we just have them now? Well, according to him, no. He proceeded to lecture us and try and tell us the wrong of our ways, even though we politely tried to explain that this ain’t our first (duck) rodeo, and we’ve had Peking Duck many times in far better establishments (including Beijing. Like real China. Not a floating boat in the Netherlands.)
Anyways, he finally tucked his ego away and brought our dishes as requested. The food is blah, overall. Not even close to authentic and extremely overpriced, one veggie dish we ordered was completely the wrong veggie listed on the menu, even after asking him to make sure it was the correct one. Another asparagus dish was too spicy and just drowning in a pool of oily peppery mess. And though we ordered one bowl of rice, we were served 3 (???) and charged for all of them.
It also took us 20 minutes and asking 3 different times before we were given our check so we could finally get out.
Also, all these dishes are seriously overpriced. I would highly recommend you skip skip SKIP this restaurant, head a little further into the city to the nearby Chinatown, or even Oriental City near Dam Square and have a truly enjoyable Chinese food experience.

Maybe it is a bit touristic… But for a non-​Chinese-​food lover, I have to give them all credits. Next time you want me to eat Chinese, take me there and I will! I love their Peking duck, the great flavors and the good combinations. If you think you know Chinese food from the take away — be aware. You don’t recognize them on the menu. But go out there and try! You won’t be disappointed.
Oh, and try their special mojito. Not exactly Chinese, but still. Oh, and they make a great Bloody Mary too by the way
And maybe most important: Do make reservations!!!

I didn’t actually get to eat here, though I’ve wanted to since I first moved to Amsterdam. Not sure I’ll be going back to try again.
They’re on the water so a friend and I pulled up with our boat to have dinner. They didn’t allow us to dock at their 1 spot (so much for the restaurant being on the water) but the manager allowed us to tie the boat to their fence and jump over it.
The first floor (there are 3 altogether) was not even half-​full but we were told it would be between 30 mins and 1 hour before we got a table. I asked about the tens of empty tables and the other floors but they said there was nothing available. Feeling like we were stepping into that Seinfeld Chinese restaurant episode, my friend and I jumped back over the fence and went to the Zeedijk.

Looking like a fish out of water in Amsterdam, this floating Chinese seafood palace looks like a postcard from Aberdeen Harbor Hong Kong, which is probably where it was towed from. The barge interiors are a fabulous overload of traditional Cantonese grandiosity better than you’d find at any fancy Chinese wedding banquet hall.
We came for late dim sum. Ordering is off a sheet with a pencil where you indicate the quantity, with a helpful picture menu for the less savvy of us that can’t read phonetic Chinese.
The dim sum menu was pretty extensive with both the usual steamed shrimp (har gow) and pork (sui mai) dumplings, and more unique items I’ve not seen in America. All our selections were tasty but nothing stood out. I forgot the name of the special noodle dish but it had preserved vegetables and duck. It was pretty good and I thought better than the dim sum.
Service was ok as they were winding down and it wasn’t crowded. Still, they forgot one of our orders and had to go and get it made at the end. Caveat: Make sure you reconcile your dish count (even though they take the finished ones away) with how many items you ordered on your sheet!
To sum up this dim sum: You could easily get dim sum for cheaper in Amsterdam Chinatown on Zeedijk, but you wouldn’t get the opulent experience.

My Asian food odyssey in Amsterdam also included visiting this spot.
Be mindful of all the gaudy, tacky, red and gold decorations. because once you look beyond that, this place? Pretty, pretty, pretty good! And even better on a Sunday afternoon (when one is hungover).
I would recommend heading in, later in the day to avoid the crowd. And be sure to repeat your order so the waiter won’t forget anything!
Now for the dim sum, it’s damn tasty! Dumplings are good, pastry not overcooked and flavours just right. Deep fried pieces? Also excellent and not too greasy. Will have to go back to confirm this happens more than once!
Service is. well it’s Amsterdam, what do you expect?! I’ve had worse. Besides, the food makes up for it, and in Amsterdam, that’s worth something.

Ein schwimmendes Restaurant mit angeblich an die 700 Sitzplätze. Nach drei Besuchen zum Lunch haben wir den Dreh mittlerweile raus. Oft wird Touristen erstmal die teure Speisekarte gereicht. Erst wenn man nach der Lunchkarte mit Fotos der Speisen fragt, bekommt man eine Karte, bei der die Gerichte die Hälfte kosten… Bestellt wird über einen Ankreuzzettel. Auf diesem malt die Bedienung so lange immer mal wieder hin und her, bis man nicht mehr weiß, was man alles wirklich bestellt hatte. Am Ende wundert man sich, dass die Rechnung dann doch wieder stimmt. Das Essen ist recht gut und scheint authentisch zu sein. Viele Speisen mit «Glibber» und andere Sachen, die ich in Deutschland noch bei keinem chinesischen Restaurant sah. Insgesamt immer wieder ein Erlebnis, das Sea Palace.

Jedes Mal, wenn man Leute mit in das Sea Palace nimmt, sind sie erstmal angetan von der riesigen, «schwimmenden» Location. Doch, die Location macht schon was her, insbesondere eben von außen.
Das Personal ist immer unglaublich gut gelaunt und zum Scherzen aufgelegt. Das ist schon bewundernswert, egal, ob sie das nun wirklich aus tiefstem Herzen sind/​machen oder nicht — falls Letzteres, so merkt man es ihnen nicht an. Wenn man jedoch mehrere Bedienungen an einem Abend hat, so kann es auf Dauer auch ein kleines bisschen anstrengend werden… ;)
Das Essen ist teils sehr gut, teils nicht so. Wir waren bis jetzt immer in etwas größeren Gruppen da und haben entsprechend umfangreich bestellt. Da sieht man es auch am besten: manche Gerichte sind in Handumdrehen in die Mägen verschwunden, andere wiederum bleiben fast komplett liegen, was sehr schade ist. Alles in allem würde ich das Restaurant als empfehlenswert einstufen. Günstig ist es allerdings nicht unbedingt.