Bay Area · Chinese
Koi Palace
Daly City Cantonese dim sum and seafood banquet house opened in 1996; a Peninsula weekend benchmark.
- Price
- $$
- Opened
- 1996
- Neighborhood
- Daly City365 Gellert Blvd, Daly City, CA 94015
About
Brothers Ronny and Willy Ng opened Koi Palace in Daly City in 1996 as a Hong Kong-style Cantonese seafood and dim sum house aimed at Chinese American suburban diners. The large dining room (historically around 400 seats) is known for cart and menu dim sum, live seafood, roast meats, and banquet service; the group later expanded to Milpitas, Dublin, Cupertino, and related concepts such as Dragon Beaux and Palette Tea House. Eater SF and the Chronicle have long treated the Daly City flagship as a regional dim sum reference, and the restaurant has received multiple James Beard Outstanding Restaurant nominations. As of this research pass the official site still lists 365 Gellert Boulevard; press in 2025 reported a planned move into Serramonte Center.
Menu highlights
- Weekend dim sum (har gow, siu mai, baked pork buns, xiao long bao)
- Live seafood and steamed whole fish
- Roast duck and suckling pig for groups
- Cantonese banquet and family-style dinner plates
Diners say
Reviewers on Yelp and Google Maps consistently call out strong dim sum quality and the busy, noisy banquet-hall energy. The same threads return to long weekend waits, uneven service when the room is slammed, and prices that run higher than neighborhood dim sum shops. Locals advise arriving at open or later in the lunch service to shorten the line.
Review synthesis as of 2026-07-28. Synthesis of recurring themes in public Yelp and Google Maps reviews sampled July 2026; not a rating or ranking.