East Ocean Palace

They have good authentic Chinese food here. But the male managers are grumpy Ahole, one is so nasty and don’t know how to smile. I feel like i want to run away by just looking at his stone face. The waitresses are very nice.

I used to come here quite often (6 – 8 times a month=VIP) when it was called Golden Pond Seafood Restaurant. Then the dim sum and other dishes were very good. That was many many years ago. Came in a few times for dim sum after it changed to current name. Felt it wasn’t the same quality of food so stopped dining here. That was also many years ago.
Well this evening was my mom in law’s birthday and our party of 5 wanted good Chinese food and didn’t feel like going to Flushing or Main Street. I suggested we revisit this restaurant and it was a delicious choice! Made reservations for 6:30 but was not necessary being midweek and pre-​dinner. There was only one other table dining. Hostess was friendly and sat us at a table for 6. Waiter was attentive. We ordered 5 dishes, salt&pepper pork chops, ½ crispy skin chicken, shrimp&tofu casserole, sautéed fish filets with sour cabbage and tofu stuffed w/​shrimp. Even though the portions were not large, the dishes were very good, fresh and tasty. The bill was around $ 80 before tax&tip and we all felt it was a good value.
We live in Forest Hills and will definitely consider this place again when in the mood for authentic delicious Chinese food!

I’m in this place twice a month for dim sum and I recently started going for dinner too, and I love it! I know all the employees and the maître d’ refers to me as VIP which I just love. I have nary a complaint about East Ocean Palace. You’re the best!

It was OK but the price is high. The server is really nice and there is no parking. Overall pretty good food in flushing

Being the only dim sum restaurant in Forest Hills, I can’t complain. The food was very fresh; the shumai was the freshest in my opinion. It tasted much better than any dim sum restaurant I’ve tried in my entire life. Being in a not so Asian neighborhood, I was a bit skeptical whether the quality of food would meet my expectations. But East Ocean Palace surpassed all if not most of my expectations. I was really surprised that this restaurant’s food quality is way better than half the dim sum restaurants in Chinatown.
Everything about this restaurant is exactly the same as the ones in Chinatown: a long wait to get seats (3 people or less share tables with strangers), loud noises (especially when children are around, it gets even louder), the never ending wait for food carts to circulate, the red velvet wall with the phoenix design on one side and the dragon on the other, cash only (unless you spend at least $ 30), and the small amount of space for you to squeeze past tables.
The differences were: all the staff speak or understand English, the population of customers are more diverse, the portions of food are extremely small, and the prices are more expensive.
I originally rated this restaurant 3 stars but added another star just because of the hilarious staff working here. One of the female staff with a cart was attending to a customer and a worker with another cart was waiting behind her. There was absolutely no way to maneuver the cart around the other due to the restriction of space, so the worker just stood there and waited. Then came along a male waiter. With a loud voice he exclaimed to the female staff, «To the personnel in the front, please remove yourself immediately from this vicinity.» I laughed out loud because never before have I ever heard someone say something so professional in a Chinese restaurant. He deserves an applause.
Overall, I enjoyed coming here and I would definitely come here again when I feel lazy to take public transportation.

I have mixed feeling on East Ocean Palace. I’ve dined here on many occasions for dim sum, East Ocean as the only dim sum restaurant in the area. The lunch wait on the weekends are similar to Chinatown unless you have a party of 2 or less, then the wait time is less if you are willing to sit next to strangers. The prices are higher on average, $ 15 — 20 to be moderately full. The quality of the dim sum is mediocre.
The only reason why I would come here again is for the convenience of the location. Most times I’ll travel to Chinatown for dim sum.
Note there is a $ 30 minimum credit card charge.

It is a decent Cantonese dimsum option if you dont want to make the trek to Flushing. Prices are understandably higher than Flushing.
Pretty good dim sum options during lunch. Try the pineapple buns. We have tried their dinner options as well and they are on the money. The salted fish fried rice and the Alaskan crabs are as good as any other place.
One word of caution: It gets very crowded during weekends– both lunch and dinner. Be prepared for the wait time!

Some years ago, East Ocean Palace started as a true contender in the NYC dim sum battle. I was ready to splurge on 4 stars after a few trips here. Two weekends ago, however, it took a turn for the worse.
My favorite items to order here: the pineapple buns (with actual pineapple bits) still came out piping hot, but the custard filling was overly sweet. The mango egg tarts are also no longer made here. That’s right, collective sighs heard across Queens. Though not classic in their execution, these were the items that made East Ocean stand apart from the rest.
The rest of the dim sum was even less impressive. The skins on the shrimp dumplings were super sticky, and clung to my chopsticks & to each other like a ‘millenial’ to his mom’s ‘teet.’ In fact, almost all the skins on every order broke. No one wants their fillings to pour out of their buns; that’s what Spanx are for.
A few members of the staff can be overly rude. I once inquired about their famous pineapple buns. This particular waiter said ‘if it comes around, you’ll see it.’ He didn’t even bother checking for me. After 10 – 15 minutes, I gave him a questioning look, and he screamed from across the restaurant in Cantonese, «if they don’t have it, they don’t have it!»
Oh, genius.

Excellent dim sum and dinner entrees. My go to place for HK style Cantonese cookings. Better than anything I found in Flushing. prices can be higher than some places in Flushing but better quality. Excellent services as well. Alaskan king crabs and abalone are excellent sea food dishes. One of the partners have a seafood business so their quality is fresh here.

Great decent dim sum. Doesn’t taste like its overdose with MSG. Had a decent selection.
Service was great (waitress and cart ladies) other than this one young man. His face seemed a little unwillingly when we ordered take out chicken chow fun from the kitchen.
When the lady brought us the chow fun I heard her say beef chow fun so I opened it to check and it was indeed beef chow fun. We ordered chicken and they gave us beef and i don’t eat beef, so we told the waitress and she asked if it was okay for her to open the box to check and she opened and saw it was beef and apologized right away and said she will go change it for us.
I would recommend this place if you are in Queens.
I would go back again.

Cuisine: 7
Service: 5
Décor: 6
Value: 7
Overall: 7
First of all, let me clarify that this is a Chinese (Cantonese to be exact) restaurant in the middle of a high earning neighborhood. Hence, you may feel ripped off if you compare it to other similar restaurants in the many «Chinatowns» of New York. However, if you live nearby and like the convenience, the food here is pretty darn good.
Now, let me try to explain the uniqueness of different cuisine types in China. There are many types and they differ greatly from region to region. For example, I grew up in Shanghai, where we stew or braise a lot of dishes using soy and vinegar. While in Szechuan province, they spice things up a lot with dry chilies and pink peppercorns. In this case, Cantonese cuisine revolves heavily upon dim sum during the mornings (especially weekends) and seafood (live if possible) at night.
I believe they serve dim sum on the weekdays up till about 2pm and later on weekends. The major difference will be more choices of unique dishes on a weekend, but you will absolutely be fighting a crowd if you come past 11am. As for the food itself, pretty good with most items on point, and a few misses. Here are some suggestions for first time goers.
— Baked Egg Tarts
— Roast Pork Buns (baked version)
— Shrimp Dumplings
— Watercress & Shrimp Siu Mai
— Pork Spare Ribs
— Bacon Wrapped Shrimp Balls
— Mango Tapioca Tarts
— Black Pepper Beef Short Ribs
— Fried Pork Stuffed Taro
— Rice Paper Wrapped Cullers
— Pork Siu Mai
— Shrimp Stuffed Peppers
— Fried Stuffed Chicken Wings
— Baked Pineapple Buns
— Shrimp Spring Rolls
— Chicken Feet (for the daring)
On the other hand, if you come here for dinner, they make a few dishes that are as good as any place in nearby Flushing. If you stick with those items, you’ll have a great meal. Oh yeah, you will also have to forget that it’s probably costing you 20% more for no traffic, parking up front, and no wait.
— Jumbo Shrimp w/​Walnuts & Broccoli
— Peking Style Pork Chop (sweet & sour)
— Stir Fried Lobster in Ginger & Scallions
— Dungeoness Crab (bei fong tong style)
— Sauté Snow Pea Leaves w/​Garlic
— Steamed Oysters in Black Bean Sauce
— Peking Duck (two ways)
— House Special Chicken (half)
— Fried Whole Flounder
— Steamed Fresh Scallops in XO Sauce
— Beef Chow Mein (fried thin noodles)
— Fried Tofu w/​Sauté Conch
— Salt & Pepper Pork Chops
— Alaskan King Crab (three ways)
Warning: Dungeoness Crab dishes will require some work dealing with shells.
Note #1: Peking Duck — First dish is large pieces of duck meat w/​crispy skin is served w/​steam lotus buns, plum sauce & scallion that you make into your own sandwich. The second dish they make is a minced duck meat & vegetable lettuce wrap.
Note #2: Alaskan King Crab — one of the best deals in NYC. They had the price as low as $ 30 per pound, which is $ 5 cheaper than most Chinese supermarkets. Crazy! First, they will steam the crab legs with garlic. Second dish is to cook the body pieces in a casserole with a ginger, scallion & soy sauce. They can also do this dish stir fried with ginger & scallion if requested. Third dish is a lobster sauce like contraption using the crab head tamale, served with fried rice or noodles. I recommend the noodles and ask them to put extra salt in the sauce (otherwise bland).
Okay, that about sums up what to order here. As a local Cantonese seafood restaurant, I am pretty happy with their food and turn a blind eye to the bad service days. I shouldn’t complain since many Chinese people living outside of «Chinatowns» will not have nearly this quality in their neighborhood.

$ 35 for two for dim sum is outrageous. I recently moved from BK to FH and the prices are about 20% higher and the taste is not as good. A similar meal would have cost $ 25 with tip at east harbor near 8^th ave in bk.
Staff was friendly, very attentive, but for the love of god please stop brining me a fork because I’m white. My chopstick skills are on par if not better then most Asian folks.
How would you feel if I brought you chopsticks when you sit down at a steakhouse?

When you think of dim sum Forest Hills definitely does not come to mind. If you don’t want to head all the way out to Flushing then East Ocean Palace is great alternative. The restaurant is a bit smaller then other spots, but the crowds are also smaller as well. It can still get a bit busy during peak dim sum hours, but if you are willing to share a table you will get one pretty quickly.
The service is pretty quick and the carts are frequent. They have all the dim sum staples and everything always comes out hot. I always enjoy the char siu bao and the haw gau. I like finish off my dim sum with some dan tat, but you may have to wait for that. I never really see many of these circulating. Overall a pretty decent dim sum spot.

Went for Sunday lunch and had some good dim sum. If you are driving, be prepared to drive around the block several times. Parking is quite limited but if you look carefully enough, you will find it. When we arrived, wait was about 10 minutes for 2 people. There were quite a bit of people waiting, holding a piece of paper with number on it. Since we were only 2 ppl, they asked if we were willing to share a table. If you share a table, you’ll get seated quicker than if you wait for a table for your party only. Once we sat down, everything came out fairly quickly. They rotate different foods via different carts so if u dont see what you are looking for, either ask or be patient and wait.
They also have gigantic crabs in the tank & live lobsters to be cooked upon order.
We shall return here again.

I’ve been to East Ocean Palace several times for dim sum and once for dinner. I’ve always come here out of convenience because I live a few short blocks over. It is usually packed during the weekends for dim sum to a point where you sometimes have to wait to be seated, but it is always quiet during the weekdays. The dim sum options is actually fairly vast and the food itself is rather respectable and quite tasty.
I came here this past weekend for dinner and I probably would not come here for that anymore, only dim sum… if I am not too lazy to make my way to Elmhurst or Flushing for dim sum that is! It was surprisingly very empty for prime dinner time on a weekend. In terms of the food, everything was just average at best — nothing particularly memorable. The sirloin steak was overdone, the fried chicken was dry, the fried squid was over battered, the beef stew with bean curd was meh, even the rice taste of bad quality. At least the Peking style pork chops were okay, and the snow pea tips and mayonnaise shrimp with walnuts were delicious. The crab meat with fish maw soup was pretty good as well. We did get complimentary oranges and sweet red bean soup at the end of dinner which was nice.
East Ocean Palace is the only restaurant of its kind in all of Forest Hills. It is the only one that serves dim sum and Cantonese cuisine. Unfortunately that also means higher prices because there is no competition. If you live in the neighborhood and really craving dim sum, I think it’s worth a go. However, I wouldn’t go out of my way to come to this restaurant and especially not for dinner here.

I get most of my dim sum from the main Chinatown areas (Flushing, 8^th Ave or Chinatown in Manhattan).
I went to East Ocean Palace when I lived in Forest Hills for a short time. It’s convenient for residents around the area who don’t want to go all the way to the crowded Chinatowns. Despite it not being in the heart of the Chinese community, it still gets crowded during the weekends for dim sum.
I’ve have dim sum and dinner here. Dim sum was pretty good and they have some different dishes like egg tarts with tapioca inside. I ordered the beef chow fun which was kinda bland even though it looks very dark and flavorful. The dinner entrees are big and tasty. The fish with tofu casserole is served on a metal dish over a small flame to keep it warm.
Overall, a decent place for dim sum if you’re around the area.

I feel like all yum cha places are kind of the same give or take a little. Ive been going to this place in particular for at least 10 years and although the restaurant have had some change in management thought the years the food is still pretty good.
The location is prime if you’re in the elmhurst and forest hill area. You can often find parking around the restaurant and if not there’s a parking garage on the same street. The restaurant can get busy but I’ve never had a problem getting seated at around 11am and with a large group of people.
My all time favorite dim sum dish here is the curry squid which is only available during the weekends. The curry flavor is strong but not at all spicy. The squid is chewy and the perfect texture. All the other stuff meet the standard of a dim sum restaurant.

In my years of hitting up various Dim Sum spots throughout NYC, I somehow missed East Ocean Palace (东海渔港) as a part of the yum cha itinerary. Chinatowns are the usual destination for Dim Sum encounters, but not Forest Hills. After years of procrastinating, I finally made it here and I wasn’t disappointed.
As far as neighborhood establishments go, I would make this a go-​to if I lived in the hood. The restaurant is big enough to host small banquet shindigs, such as group dinners and the like, all while maintaining the weekend bustling atmosphere that Dim Sum lovers in the US have grown to love. The wait during peak times (10:30AM-1PM) can get lengthy, but it beats the parking nightmare and crazier wait times out at most Flushing spots.
Service is as chaotic as expected. Sometimes the cart ladies will zoom by a table without stopping, waiters will sloppily hand off cash bills /​credit cards to managers and quickly (attempt to) clean tables. There are few greeters beyond the cashier and manager, but these are not reasons people come here. As always, it’s all about the food.
From a food standpoint, the quality is somewhat hit or miss. Most enthusiasts have their favorites, though it might be harder to find them executed well here. I am pleased to report solid ha gao shrimp dumplings (蝦餃) and pineapple buns (菠蘿包), though the siu mai (燒賣), zha leung (炸兩), and spare ribs (排骨) are a bit on the mediocre side. Beef rice noodle crepes (牛腸) are decent, but not as tasty as their shrimp cousin (蝦腸). Glutinous fried dumpling ham sui gok (鹹水角) was the biggest surprise, as was the egg tarts (蛋撻) which contain mango and a clear tapioca. Next level indeed.
Where there is Dim Sum, there is Cantonese fare. East Ocean Palace does well with their dinner service in throwing up humungo platters of family style Canto goodness. While I wouldn’t advocate this aspect over anything in Flushing, it still serves the neighborhood well in knowing there are options outside of official and satellite Chinatowns.

They didn’t have a lot of selection for dim sum. You have to look for waitress and waiters, and to tell them what you are looking for, or order from their menu.
The only pro is, it’s easy to find a parking spot and less crowd comparing in Flushing.

Another invitation for 100 day old baby celebration, dang I must be getting old or maybe it’s raining babies outside hah but either way it’s all good because once again I get to experience another Chinese banquet.
The idea of a Chinese banquet is quite simple– they stuff you with food until you can’t handle no more. It’s usually a 10 – 12 course meal starting with a cold appetizer and ending with fruit platter and sweet soup.
Tonight’s dinner is at East Ocean Palace in the Forest Hill area. The restaurant is located right in Queens Blvd, right next to Sam Ash and it is not hard to find at all.
Parking: Not very difficult, there are plenty of spots on the local street of Queens Blvd and if you want to save yourself a couple of quarters, go toward the back to the residential area. Just make sure not to get lost cause there are a lot of one way streets there.
I’ve been to lots of Chinese restaurants before but this is my time at East Ocean Palace so I’m quite excited!
Décor and Ambiance: First impression– this place is a lot smaller compare to other Chinese banquet style restaurants. There’s about 30 tables in the restaurant– some larger some smaller, probably fits around 150ish people. It’s not extremely tight but it is cozy. Décor is pretty standard– in the back you have a full glass cabinet with vintage Chinese wine and expensive bottles of course. On the left, a giant red wall with gold letterings but the dragon and the phoenix always fascinates me. And how can I miss the giant fish tank with live fish! They are not swimming upside down! That means something!
We started the meal at around 7pm sharp, too many dishes to talk about individually but for the most part, it was very positive, with a few hits and misses.
Here are my hits for the night:
— Deep Fried Crab (Bay Fong Tong style) — it’s straight up salty spicy deep fried crabs, of course by now we know when you deep fried something, it’s always nice, tender and juicy on the inside and same with this dish, WowoWOW the crab is gigantic and meaty, it is fresh because the meat inside doesn’t taste like slimy rubber, it’s flavored perfectly with just enough salt and pepper to bring the flavor out. But the first bite is hard to beat, the crunchy light batter on the outside and hot tender juicy crab meat on the inside is a deadly combo! It’s going to cost you a pretty penny but YOLO it, it’s worth it! MUST GET!!!
— Cold appetizer plate– It’s the first dish to get the party started so you know it have to be decent! You get 5 mystery food and you have to figure out what they are! The fried squid and suckling pig is a given but included are also Sliced BBQ Squid, Marinated duck tongue, and Deep fried frog legs. Before you say EW, give it a try, it’s actually not as bad as you think and plus if no one tells you about it, you probably won’t even know cause it’s so delicious. I love the deep fried frog legs, they do taste like chicken except more tender and smooth. It’s not gamey in way and it’s juicy! The batter was well seasoned and the legs are fried to golden brown! Suckling pig was delicious, crunchy crispy skin with a little bit of Hoisin sauce= MONEY! MUST TRY!
Miss:
The only major miss for me that night was the Fried whole Crispy Chicken, the skin was not crispy at all but soggy. There was no flavor in the chicken and the meat was tough instead of tender. But hey at least the shrimp chips that came with it tasted good!
Service: Good– people are pretty nice or nicer compare to other Chinese restaurants. One of the servers knows I need to take a picture so he even helped me angle the dish for a good shot!
Price: Average– Dishes ranged from $ 10– $ 30 (excluding the MP seafood) which is reasonable when you are sharing food with friends or family.
Overall: I enjoyed my meal at East Ocean Palace, not only do I not need to head to the super crowded Flushing for a good Chinese meal, the ease of parking was also a plus! Cost was comparable to Flushing and food quality was great! I will definitely come back and try their Dimsum and see how they fare in that department!