Address:
4435 Concord Pike
Wilmington, DE
The Meal:
Steamed Dumplings
General Tso’s Tofu
Hot Tea
Total: about $22 (without gratuity)
The Review:
A new place in town, Yi Palace is off to a good start. Don’t let the name fool you into thinking this is ‘just another Chinese restaurant’ though — they bill themselves as a Eurasian Bar and Grille.
Service
After a long day of traveling, I decided to stop in here and try out the new place in town. I was seated in a truly comfortable booth (you can imagine my surprise). The service was friendly, up-front, and prompt.
Food
The steamed pork dumplings were great. I could easily see them as being a great main course item, but they made a wonderful appetizer too. For the main course, I chose General Tso’s Tofu because A) I like tofu, B) I like the General Tso sauce, and C) I’d never seen the two done together as a standard menu item. It was a great combination, though a little spicier than I’m used to, and the portion was enormous. If you’ve been keeping track, this is one of the more expensive meals I’ve eaten, but the entree price was well justified in both size and quality. The hot tea was nice too, plentiful, and apparently a wise choice: there are no free refills on fountain drinks. And though I didn’t imbibe this time, their specialty drink menu has some delicious-sounding concoctions I’d love to go back and try — things like “Blushing Geisha” and “Asian Persuasion” come to mind.
Atmosphere
The interior of Yi Palace is elegant — I almost felt under dressed. Some tables have personal rheostats for the overhead lighting, others have delicately beautiful white diffusers with lavender trim. Browns, a deep red carpet, and excellent mood lighting make this a good choice for a romantic dinner. That said, there is a genuine bar with big screen TV for sports as well.
Overall Rating: A
Elegant surroundings, good service, and good price-to-portion ratios make this a good choice for a special evening out, but perhaps not your every-day Asian choice for the cash-conscious.
I will have to check this place out. Also have you tried the Crownery over in Hockessin? It’s not cheap, but the portions are large and quality is top-notch. I lived in San Francsico for 10+ years and consider it the best Chinese in DE. But Yi Palace is a bit closer so I will have to try it….
By: wm72 on November 3, 2008
at 8:04 pm
I have been here a few times with a few friends who are Chinese and with a few co-workers who are not, the first time I went with just my wife (based on reviews from our Chinese friends), they ran out of potatoes and could not make what I ordered which meant I had a long wait after I re-ordered – we paid our bill in cash.
The second time I went, with about 6 co-workers for lunch, there were three tables of about 8 Chinese each from Chase bank who were served several rounds of food before we were even brought our drinks, one hour later half of us received our food – we all paid in cash.
The third, and last time I went, with Chinese friends, we had about a 10 or 15 minute wait for our hot delicious food, and the staff was friendly and attentive – we received a 10% discount for paying cash, which I was surprised about an made further inquiries to my friends. (and interesting aside here was the waitress indicated to one of my friends while speaking Chinese we should leave the tip on our table instead of up front at the cash register, otherwise, she would not receive it – I found would be an odd statement for wait staff to make unless the owners were collecting this money for themselves).
As it turns out, Yi Palace gives only Chinese people a 10% discount when pay in cash – not only is this racist, I can imagine that they are not reporting all of this discounted revenue on their taxes. Based on my previous experiences, I don’t think I will be going back to Yi Palace for a fourth time.
By: againstracism on May 27, 2009
at 2:27 am
Not Allergy Friendly. Absolutely the worst experience at any restaurant ever. Specifically asked for the contents of a dish for someone with food allergies. Input was given based on the information provided specific items were excluded. Food contained many vegetables that were never mentioned in the description and of course were on the list of allergic items. If you have allergies this is a good restaurant to eat at if you want to go to the hospital.
By: moduz on January 25, 2011
at 12:21 am