Harmony Palace Restaurant

Harmony Palace is one of the few bigger Chinese restaurants that is popular for serving dim sum during the day and hosting wedding banquets at night. My last meals at Harmony Palace were wedding banquets (including my own) during the late 1990’s. Given that most traditional Chinese wedding banquets serve the usual eight course dinner, the taste of the food (IMO) depends on the dinner package.
Chinese banquet food can either be good or bad depending on which dinner package the wedding party selects. Without making any judgements, the more pricier the menu package, the better the food may be. Suffice to say that most of the wedding banquets we’ve attended (including my own), the food served was very good.
I know the restaurant ownership/​management has probably changed during the past 15+ years.
But for giving my wife and family a memorable wedding banquet on the night of November 28, 1998, I’d give Harmony Palace five Unilocal stars for the food and service.
As of 11÷23÷15, the restaurant is going thru renovations. If the name of restaurant remains Harmony Palace, I hope to one day have a family dinner there for old time sake.

Went on Saturday morning for yum cha/​dim sum. All the familiar traditional options were available and were tasty. Price was amazing too.

Sadly the service and quality is not quite what it used to be. We had dim sum here yest and saw the waiters clustered and had to scream to get the cart ladies to pay us any attention. I remember when this was one of the gems in the area but cannot recommend any longer.

Have been coming to this restaurant ever since i was a kid. Used to come here almost every weekend to dim sum but haven’t been here for awhile.
Came here on a friday night for a vegetarian banquet. Upon entering the place I kind of didn’t really have a good feeling about this. The décor looked a bit old and as other Unilocalers mentioned, there are stains on the yellow covering over chairs. The tables are really small and tight compared to other medium/​large sized restaurants in the area.
Majority of the vegetarian dishes that came out that night was below average and wasn’t too memorable. Only their version of a vegetarian cold platter tasted good. They used wheat bread and some taro on the bottom of the bread to imitate the roast pork, some yellow noodle to imitate the jellyfish, and some unknown items for the rest of the platter.
Service was fast and efficient. Your typical chinese restaurant type service.
Overall, was highly disappointed in this place. The quality has dropped so much compared to what I can remember.

There was a Chinese dinner get together here for Chinese New Year celebration and they reserved the whole resturant. This place probably fits at least 200plus people. This restaurant is huge! I come here sometimes on the weekend for dim sum and it’s always crowded. But let’s get back on the food here.
Dim sum food is pretty good here. I would definitely come back. As for dinner, it was soso. Food wasn’t cooked at its best. Some food appeared not even fully cooked, whereas other food was like threw into a plate. So definitely if it gets too busy here, it’s not the best idea to stop by. Staffs are ok here as well. You just have to keep bugging them for what you need or else they forget sometimes dealing with more than 30 tables here.

We ended up oversleeping and tried to go to our staple Jing Fong at 12:30 on a Sunday for our usual dim sum fix but the massive mob of people on the sidewalk waiting for a table inspired us to try another dim sum place. We had always walked by Harmony Palace and it always seemed relatively popular.
When we walked over there was also a more manageable group of people waiting which was encouraging so we took a number and had a 15 minute wait. By the looks of the patronage, entering and exiting we were quite hopeful that this might be our new authentic dim sum spot. Sadly, the excitement of finding a new good dim sum alternative ended at the door.
As far as the dim sum everything was sub average or average at best. The best of the dishes and by best I mean closest to average were the shrimp dumplings, but they were luke warm and the dumpling skin was very sticky and firm at that point. The worst dish was the fried tofu.
Not a ton of carts which I thought would be a good thing since there would be more food turnover on the carts and things would be hot, but somehow everything was luke warm/​room temp. The servers for the most part drove their carts like new york taxi cab drivers through the narrow spaces between the tables cutting off patrons trying to make it to their table or exit the restaurant. Sometimes the servers just flat out whizzed by and skipped our table.
Very little English could be spoken which is usually fine since we just point to what we want, but its kind of hard to point at a specific dish when it’s whizzing by the table.
As for the restaurant its just felt kind of cramped and filthy. The tables are all really close together. There are yellow chair covers which I’m sure looked nice when they were new but are now dingy and stained looking. There were bins of dirty dishes stacked beyond maximum capacity. It kind of reminded me of an overflowing NYC trash can. My husbands chopsticks had dried gunk on them and we had to request a new set for him which took much longer than expected. By the time he got them the little warmth within the luke warm dumplings had completely dissipated. Table sharing is expected, but either their tables are too small or they cram too many chairs around the table so that table top space and elbow space are limited.
The prices were slightly less than Jing Fong. I’m really perplexed why this place was busy. Perhaps, everyone eating there just didn’t want to deal with the massive mob of people outside Jing Fong or perhaps because its slightly cheaper. Never coming back and not recommended.
Summary: Below average in terms of taste and selection. Cramped and dirty. Not recommended, don’t be fooled by the crowds.

Food is okay. Certainly not as popular as it was 15 yrs ago. Get the dimsum when its fresh. They have most of the staple dimsums. But Sometimes the dimsum. carts may come your way which be annoying.

So me and a friend were wandering around chinatown with all the hustle and bustle of the tourists and massive chinese population and decided to get a bite to eat. We wanted dim sum and saw this place and decided to walk in. Of course all the smaller tables were taken so we were sat at a large round table I think that is used as a community table. So the first round of food came and we got the short ribs and beef balls. The ribs were horrible! There was more fat and cartilage than meat and for some reason breaded as well as if that was going to cover up the fat. The beef balls were ok but im not really sure it was meat as the consistency was weird. At this point my friend needed some soy sauce and chili sauce and we asked a waitress politely for some. She said ok and never came back. We asked her again and she made this ugly face and went off on a chinese rant to a coworker. In the end she never brought the sauces and some other lady we asked did. We noticed later on that the americans sitting the the front of the restaurant were getting excellent service while we were getting shit on in the back. They mustve thought we were chinese lol. The one good thing… super cheap but than what isnt in chinatown.

Went on a Sunday morning at 8AM when they just opened. Dimsum taste like overnight but still eatable.
Service: Good.
Food: OK.

For tasty authentic dim sum, this place is the real deal. Had lunch here with two clients a few weeks ago, we were the only people in the place that weren’t Chinese… loved it! The bill was $ 23! Noisey, cheap, crowded, not much english spoken and great food… now to me that’s what Chinatown is all about. If your looking for anything more this place is not for you. If you want to take a trip to China w/​o the jet lag give it a try.

When you want go to Dim Sum from a larger Chinese establishment in Manhattan’s Chinatown, there aren’t too many choices. So here’s a quick summary of Harmony. You can dress casually and fit right in.
Décor: Typical Chinese wedding banquet décor
Service: Acceptable; the dim sum is served with push carts. You get to see before you pick. The ladies don’t really speak English, but you can figure it out if you look.
Food: Average to Acceptable. You will find a large assortment from the dumplings, congee, rice bundles, veggies, desserts, rice crepes, etc. You can also order lunch and dinner entrees from the kitchen.
This place will get crowded on the weekends for brunch 11am-​2pm so, I suggest you go early, i.e. 11am. They don’t accept reservations for brunch so be cognizant that it’s first come, first serve.

You run some and then you dim sum. Somehow this always end up to be my default place for a post-​race lunch spot even though their food and service are mediocre. This time, I encountered an angry lady pushing the dessert cart. My friends and I waved and called her down but it appears she intentionally scurried passed us with her cart, ignoring our request. When she finally noticed us, she gave us the look of death. Not sure what crime we committed against her but all we wanted was the coconut pudding. She then had the nerve to splatter the plastic spoons onto our empty plate of churn fun which just had soy sauce left on the plate. Seriously? What on earth did we do to her?
So here’s my take on the dim sum:
–Shrimp Churn Fun: the «fun» was too sticky, which made it a bit messy to eat. The shrimps were kind of small too which made the entire plate look pretty weak.
— Har (Shrimp) Gow: you can never go wrong with this and I would say it’s probably the best dim sum they have at this restaurant. The shrimps were decent size and they’re not tiny compare to other places I’ve been to.
— Fong Chow (Chicken Feet): the dish was lukewarm and didn’t have much flavor to it.
— Steamed and Fried Turnip: As far as I know, don’t get the steamed turnip. It looked bland and doesn’t have any sauce. On the other hand, the fried turnip wasn’t so bad. Having the oyster sauce with the fried turnip makes a difference.
— Fried Anchovies: I guess this one of their special plates. not a typical dim sum. Personally, it wasn’t crispy for me. It kind of felt like eating mushy and soggy fries.
Probably one good thing about this restaurant is that they have small tables for smaller groups. I didn’t think it would be possible to find a table for a party of five on Mother’s Day but luckily, they had one just for us.

Sort of comparable to Jing Fong (one of CTowns’ BIG dim sum institutions) without all the crazy space ship escalators to get you inside, and a little less chintzy ornate interior décor.
LadyC organized the mornings’ meal here (sort of as a last resort– we had waiting list tickets at 4 different places and a friend with us needing to jump on a FungWah bus back to Boston within the hour, so we took the first opening which was here)… and pretty much ordered all the food for our party of 4 to share (in Chinese), so I can’t really comment on what we had except that it was all ok, not amazing compared with other experiences but very cheap for how much we consumed– an enjoyable morning yum cha.
Yeh yeh yeh service is gruff and sometimes you really have to aggressively snatch things off the passing trolleys but that’s part of the fun right? Just pretend they’re like a conveyor belt in a sushi joint– got to be quick to get it before it disappears again…

Its heartbreaking to write this, but this place really blows. Don’t get me wrong, its halfway decent for dinner/​banquets, but for Dim Sum, don’t bother.
A lot of the dishes were cold by the time we got them (no excuse since it was around noontime). The variety is nothing out of the ordinary. Flavorwise, most dishes were somewhat bland. The waitstaff seems overworked. About the only nice thing I could say was the we got seated in a reasonable amount of time.

Our waiter was really nice so I feel a little hesitant to give it one star. Regardless, the dim sum was really bad. The shrimp were tiny, not fresh and sometimes even had the shell still on parts of them. The dishes were on the carts for too long and cold. There were only 3 carts roaming around and no variety at all.
So confused because I walked by here one Sunday and saw crowds of people waiting for their table. Waiting for crappy food? Maybe I came at a wrong time, but I won’t be coming back, still gotta find a dim sum place to rival home

This is where all the Old-​timey people want to go all the time! It went through three different names in my memory… but it has always been the way it has always been: Bustling with the old timey Chinese and carts of the old favourites roving around.
Be aggressive. Remember, those old ladies will beat you everytime for a dish of shui mai. Don’t gripe that you can’t take on old ladies. If you come by 1pm, you should know that all the old uncles have come to Harmony and have eaten their fill. Go someplace young and hip.

My friends and I were wandering around Chinatown to look for a good dim sum place eat on a Saturday morning and was having a hard time. So after a while we decided to ask a few strangers, and they directed us to Harmony Palace Restaurant. Geez. If this is the best dim sum Chinatown has… ugh! The place was nice and the service was actually good, but they had a VERY small selection of dim sum and the flavor was just blah. Wasn’t fresh either. I love dim sum. but I don’t need dim sum bad enough to eat at that place ever again…

When I first moved to NY all the old ladies were recommending this place to me.
I don’t understand why they would recommend such an awful place for Dim Sum.
Seriously, I felt like I was back in Houston… with so many drive by (just without the guns) — my friends and I couldn’t even get anyone to stop at our table.
There were three of us and our total bill was only 13 dollars, since nobody want to get rid of their cart full of food.
I don’t get it… everywhere else I go, people usually wants to get rid of their cart!

During one Sunday afternoon, the place was so busy that nearly each table had multiple parties in it. This situation is nothing new with most Chinese restaurants in Chinatown, but this type of popularity was unprecedented for what was supposed to be a lax holiday weekend. The Dim Sum wasn’t bad, however, there are a few other places that have it beat in terms of freshness, variety, and even availability. Many of the items were gone by 1PM and were not to be replaced according to the waitstaff. The prices are very inexpensive and the service can be nice as they are rushed. Décor-​wise, it is large and spacious. The place tends to host wedding receptions at night.

Dim Sum, Chinese Cuisine.
Harmony Palace, or whatever the many incarnations this place used to be or will be, is not worth the try. Sure many chinese people come in here and it is always packed during weekends, but you can only fit so many people into the better restaurants in the Chinatown area, so people have to go to alternatives.
Their food used to be great many years ago when it opened, but for most places in chinatown, after being open for so long, the food becomes increasingly worse and it’s not great. My last meal here was a wedding banquet, and the food was terrible. Not good.
Did i mention that this place was recently shut down and reconstructed and fixed up again for failing a health inspection?