Sea Palace

Go for the kitschy decor and great view, but don't expect a great meal.

I've been to The Sea Palace twice on this trip to Amsterdam and both times the meal has been a disappointment. First, the service: during the first dinner, I was served the wrong entree three times. During the second dinner, they brought the entree to our table before we got our soup or appetizers. The hot and sour soup was tomato-based, which I have never seen before, and more sweet and sour than hot and sour. The pork with spicy sauce was a plate of gristly pork strips drenched with a gelatinous sweet/hot sauce. They brought rice, took it away, brought it back again. On both occasions, I had to make multiple requests to the staff for things, asking several times before an item was brought (soy sauce, a fork, more rice, our bill). The view is beautiful and the inside of restaurant is charming in a seriously over-decorated way, but I can get better Chinese food at a dozen grungy streetcorner dives.
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Lisa
Monday, July 07, 2008

The sea palace is a fantasyic sight when first walking up to this resteraunt.When you enter the place the statue's and chinese decor is unbelieveable you a welcomed in by a very nice chinese lady and you are brought to your table.After reading the menu and makeing our order we sat back and looked out on the river and looked at the boats float by.I was almost sure i felt the palace moving it is quiet fantastic to think we are floating on the water.Finally our food arrived and i was not disappointed the serving's were very genrious and the food was just delicious .There were four of us there and we all ordered something different and all dishes were fab.I would really recommend this place to anyone who is thinking of visiting amsterdam one place not to be missed great place great people great food 10/10 just a great place
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John Moran
Saturday, March 08, 2008

I always think that when I am outside of the UK, I should partake in the local cuisine, on the grounds that where better, for example, to experience Italian cuisine than in Tuscany, Rome or Venice? Not sure that I have the logic right, but as good as some of the Italian restaurants in the UK have become, you don't get to walk off your meal by wandering across a buzzing Rialto Bridge or crossing the Piazza Navona.

I broke my own rules in Amsterdam, which seems to have made all international cuisine its own (possibly to make up for the fact that Dutch cuisine has not exactly taken the world by storm!)

I would not normally go to either Indian, Thai or Chinese whilst out of the UK, but the floating Chinese Restaurant in Amsterdam caused me to deviate from my rule.

I had also heard so much about the Sea Palace that I just had to go there regardless of the food being any good. Whether or not the stories about the boat originally starting to sink because the designers hadn't realised how much bigger Dutch people are than Chinese people, and that it was floating on fresh water rather than salt water are true, they are now pretty academic because the Sea Palace is technically not floating - it is fixed to the jetty in the same way as the "floating" hotel next door. (Or should that be next moor?)

The initial impression is like walking into the foyer of a theatre. Plush carpeting and wide flights of stairs to the upper decks. The welcome is friendly and efficient. We were ushered upstairs to the upper deck and given a table with a view over the water back towards the city, and it immediately became clear that the place was not that busy, as there were Chinese people everywhere, folding napkins and polishing crockery.

That of course made the service and attention to detail exemplary. Whether it would be the same at a busy time, (whenever that may be) is difficult to judge.

I have to admit to the restaurant having a "touristy" feel to it, due to the menu being designed in "choose and point" format, but we decided to throw caution to the wind and ask for a selection of dim sum.

The food was both good and imaginative. Beautifully presented from an extensive range of both savoury and sweet options were served until we were satisfied. I would really like to be able to do what they do with carrots and tomatoes to decorate the plates, but that's another story.

The wine list was fairly ordinary, but another of my silly rules is always to drink Chinese beer with Chinese food. It's nice to be given a choice of beer, and nicer still to find out later that it was actually brewed and bottled in China!

Overall, worth the visit, but as there are supposedly over 1000 restaurants in Amsterdam, it may be some time before we get round to going again.
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Tuesday, November 08, 2005