For over 20 years, Grand Palace has held its place as one of the most famed Chinese restaurants in town. Over this time, it has spread to the big malls like Central Rama IX and Siam Paragon, but its original venue remains the main draw.
The place itself, tucked away at the bottom of the Warner Building on Mahesak Road, takes some finding, while traffic in the area can be pretty testing at dinner time. Inside, it’s just what you’d expect from an old Chinese establishment: round tables with white tablecloths and a predominance of dark-hued wood.
The place was quite sparsely patronized on our last evening visit, but come at lunchtime on the weekend and on holidays, and you’ll see customers queuing patiently for the famous dim sum. Their har gau (shrimp dumplings, B95) are some of the biggest we’ve ever sunk our teeth into, containing big chunks of delicious shrimp meat inside equally-delicious dough. The fried tofu skin with shrimp (B95) is similarly superb, with a super-crispy skin ensuring it goes great with the buay jia (apricot dipping sauce). However, not everything on their dim sum menu is so impressive; the crab dumpling (B90) lacks delicacy and flavor. The steamed noodles with scallop in soy sauce (B95) comes with satisfyingly fresh scallops but these are overpowered by an overly-sweet soy sauce.
This is a problem that extends to the mains, with a dish like the fried prawns with sichuan sauce (B500) simply too sugary and too greasy to continue after a couple of bites. Such mishaps can be overlooked on the strength of the Peking roast duck (B1,200), though. The crispy skin goes so well with the dark sauce, you’ll want to ask for more thin pancakes and vegetables (it’s free). When it comes to cooking the duck meat, there are only two options, though: deep fried duck with garlic or fried with black pepper sauce (B100 extra).
We can understand why people prefer to visit Grand Palace by day, as when night falls it’s a little eerie walking past the closed jewelry shops to the only place open in the building. Stick to their premium dim sum or Peking duck and you won’t be left wondering why you made such an effort to get there.
