Jumbo Kingdom

Yes, this place is a tourist trap. The first imagery I’m greeted with when entering the restaurant is a European-​looking family taking photos with traditional Chinese emperor garb.
However the patrons are all locals, and retired people. The best time to go is brunch/​dim sum hour.
The food was above par by SF Bay Area standards. Portions were generous and service was attentive/​swift.
The décor was a bit gaudy for my taste, but then I realized I’m sitting on a floating restaurant in the middle of Aberdeen, so the jury can disregard that last statement.
The only reason this place isn’t five stars is because tourist trap = tourist prices i.e. Expensive.
Don’t bother with the libations because everything is watered down and overpriced. Plus, nothing on tap. In their defense, I can’t see the staff hauling kegs across the water but it’s my protest and I’m sticking to my.

*** DO NOT COME HERE ***
I hardly ever write bad reviews but I felt like this one was necessary. As stated with previous reviews, this place is a total (overpriced) tourist trap. Don’t get me wrong, it’s pretty to look at night, but save your time and take your money elsewhere.
Before even getting onto the ferry, the photographer was already pushing us to take pictures. I found it really annoying and ruined the experience because I knew he would just try to force us to buy them in the end.
We came here as part of a tour which included an 8-​course dinner. This has got to be one of the worst meals I have EVER had. I won’t even go into detail with the food because it’s not worth my time to write about, just know it was ridiculously bland. I kid you not when I tell you I’d rather go to Panda Express (nothing against Panda Express, I actually like it) than come here again.
It seems as if none of the waitresses here were trained. They were hitting soda cans on the table left and right, spilling wine, and touching our clean plates with the hands they JUST used to pick up our dirty plates.
As we were finishing our dessert (which was also not pleasant to eat,) the photographer came back and was pushing everyone to purchase his photos. FYI, for 200 HKD, you can get yourself 2 souvenir photos and one on a plate.
Please don’t waste your time coming here. Go somewhere actually worth going to. I wouldn’t come back even if you paid me to.

Over priced over rated food. Tourist trap. Read this place was really good and was referred by a friend. Unfortunately it couldn’t be further from the truth. Wasted money and time on this place.

a legendary restaurant in HK. must try at least once. it floats on the water. Some pretty good chinese food too.

Excellent experience going there by boat, even just finding that place. The restaurant is a huge, boat, looks to me very overdone authentic — love it -. The staff was nice, spoke well English, was helpful and very quick.
The portions of the food were bigger than it looked on the pictures, the quality was good. For the price however I would expect much more, actually much more.
Still, a nice experience.

Giving 1 star for just the complimentary boat ride from the pier to the boat. The food was terrible and overly salty. This is a total tourist trap!
I went with a tour group and that should’ve been the first sign because the tour was awful too. Not sure if the food was bad in general, or if they just gave us bad food because they didn’t want to bother wasting time on a group of foreigners, but why would anyone want to provide customers with terrible food under their own branding?
We had «eight courses» — corn and crab soup, boiled shrimp, mussel (no s because we legit only had one mussel each), spicy chicken (looked like a white blob of a mess and tasted that way too), fried crab and shrimp balls (more filler than meat), fried rice, chow mein, and seasonal steamed veggies (which was legit steamed lettuce. The same lettuce that was used to decorate the dish of an earlier dish…).
Dessert was one tiny square of coconut jello.
All in all this was a terrible meal.

If you’re a tourist, this is a must see for the photo opportunity. From the golden dragons guarding the front door to the sampan ride to the floating restaurant, it is a sight not to be missed because it is unique. I don’t know of anywhere else in the world where you can dine on a floating Chinese imperial palace. Plus, depending on what table you’re seated at, you may also get a cool harbor view while you dine.
On with the food. The food is good, but nothing special. It is comparable to any Chinese restaurant that has been in business for many years. It is better than Maxim’s and certainly better than anything you’d find in the states outside of San Fran, NY, and LA. Now, I haven’t been there for dinner, but just afternoon dim sum between 2PM and 5PM. I chose this time because their prices are discounted during this time slot, so the food is normally priced. If you are on a budget and just want to get some cool pics, then I suggest you go during afternoon dim sum. They do have some special dishes that not all dim sum places sell, for example, the shark fin steamed rice dumpling, which I did not try because I don’t agree with eating shark fins. Their regular shrimp dumplings have a medium thin but not super thin outer covering with some chopped shrimp inside. It is good but nothing special. They have a shrimp dumpling special set meal for dim sum that is 50 HKD per person +16 HKD cover charge +10% service charge +25 HKD charge for a tray of 3 kinds of sauce (skip this sauce tray, you don’t need it).
They also have a free ferry that takes you there from the pier. The décor is astounding, the service is average, and the food is slightly above average. I recommend that you go out of your way to try this restaurant. I, personally, will return because my cell phone’s battery died that day and I didn’t get any pretty pictures. I’ll have to return with camera in hand to take some pics! My suggestion to you is to take a cell phone AND a dedicated camera in your purse (or man bag), just in case some friend of yours calls you with a long conversation which drains your batteries.
P. S. No need to take an expensive taxi to get there. From the bus terminus behind the Hong Kong central library at Tai Hang at intersection of Tung Lo Wan Dr and Tung Lo Wan Rd near to the Tin Hau MTR station, take bus 72 or 76 to Aberdeen Promenade. From Aberdeen Promenade there are free shuttle boats to Jumbo. Bön apetite!

I watched Jumbo on TV or movie before, so I was interested for a long time. It seemed a symbol of Hong Kong’s prosperity.
Then I had chance to visit Hong Kong and went to see it once in the daytime. Jumbo was so gorgeous that I felt enough. But I thought It would be more showy and attractive in the night time. Next time I’d like to see it in the night time and enjoy illuminating Jumbo and the back of skyscrapers.

So after reading all these reviews, I think this place is under rated. You get what you pay for. The majority of reviews complained of the high cost and it being a tourist trap — not true. I’ve been coming here since I was a kid on a regular basis and that was 20yrs+ ago, and now I still see this place as more for locals than it is for foreigners (tourists). I see 85%+ locals and elderly people here.
Note to tourists: you do not have to go on the tours boats to get here, they have a complimentary ferry that takes you directly there. Just look for the big sign (see my attached photo) — you might need to walk 5 mins down the pier. Hope this helps! =)
Being from the SF Bay Area, which sets a decent benchmark, we were impressed with the overall food quality and service.
I grew up from Hong Kong and used to come here on a regular basis with my family. After 20yrs+ and a lot still stayed the same. The little ferry boat, everything still stayed in top notch state. Not a lot of restaurants can have such history and still invest in up keeping their facilities.
Service: 5
Very attentive servers
Food: 4
–Roasted pork: crispy with the right amount of fat
–BBQ pork: juicy (be sure to ask for them to pair it as a combo with the roasted pork for $ 190hk)
–beef chow mien was really good
–shrimp dumpling came with a giant shrimp, delicious.
Atmosphere: 5
Definitely worth spending some time here taking a lot of photos.

Ok, so it is a tourist trap and it has seen much better days, but none-​the-​less it was fairly impressive that this thing even exists. It was a fun to do once.
I had a live shrimp dish for dinner that was delicious and quite memorable. I’ve never had an entrée that thrashed around at the table quite like this before. Not for vegetarians.

This was great tour, as you start off on a bay cruise around Victoria Harbor, then are taken via coach to the water taxi that then takes you to the Jumbo Kingdom Restaurant. The food was cold and not very appetizing. The best part was the harbor cruise, and our tour guide. If you decide to go, go with an expectation of a great view of the harbor, interesting boat ride to the venue, bad food, but overall a cool experience. Side note, be sure to eat before you go.

tour group only kind of place.

Floating restaurant is indeed quite fancy an innovation; you need a ferry to pick you up from the pier and ship you all the way to the middle of the sea to have you lunch or dinner, what could be fancier and more sophisticated?
Jumbo floating restaurant is truly one of a kind and has become a staple of Hong Kong; being a must go tourist attraction, there is a constant hustle bustle in the restaurant; and it is also true that quite a bit of effort is put in the décor. Based on the arrangement of ancient Chinese palace, the interior design does give a certain glamor to the ambiance, pretty photogenic as well. There is also a «throne» for people to dress like emperors and empresses to take pictures on.
Whereas for the food, just like ordinary cantonese tea houses, dim sum are served during lunch hours and dinner service is for people to order full blown dishes. No offense, but i honestly don’t see anything special in the food served, they are not bad strictly speaking, but also not out of the world good. After all its is more for tourists than for locals, so i guess the attraction lies in the elaborated décor but not the food.