Hong Kong Palace (formerly Saigon Palace), web site, 6387 Leesburg Pike, Seven Corners Center, Falls Church, VA, 703-532-0940, Sun – Thur: 11 am – 10 pm, Fri & Sat: 11 am – 11 pm (Metro Trip Planner – opens in new window) [Washingtonian | Yelp]
This is probably the best Chinese place around and it just keeps on getting better. Mostly it is Sichuan and yes do ask for the special Chinese menu if they don’t give it to you right away. Get the lamb with cumin, the beef with bamboo shoots, the flounder in pepper sauce in hot pot, the ma po tofu, the potatoes with green pepper, the tiger pepper, the Dan Dan noodles, the dried beef appetizer, and the chengdu dumplings appetizer, the spicy version in black vinegar. The menu has many other treasures as well. The specials are usually very good.
THANKS for steering us to Hong King Palace — it’s become a favorite. We just came from there. The combination of seasonings is remarkable and there is clearly a deft hand in charge of the stove — our orders were done perfectly. Order “cumin anything” — we’ve had the cumin lamb and tonight the cumin ribs — they get their cumin seed from china and grind it fresh. They’re very friendly and open to explaining things. Be sure to ask the server to translate the specials board for you. We would have overlooked this strip-mall gem a couple miles from our house if it weren’t for TC’s blog.
One negative note: our entrees came out one at a time with too much of a wait for the last one — the manager was apologetic – but we didn’t mind as we had gorged on appetizers and needed a breather as we attacked the entrees one at a time and were generally having a great time. If you’re the sort to get bent out of shape about that kind of thing be forewarned, but it might have been a fluke.
The place still has a mainly Chinese clientele in our experience. It hasn’t been ruined by people like us yet.
Dear Tyler and Yana:
This is Hong Kong Palace’s owner’s daughter, Kirk Liu. Thank you guys so much for what you have done! Recently,I’m working on a formal website for Hong Kong Palace. I used some of the information and pictures that you provided on this website, hopefully you don’t mind.
And I welcome you to visit the website I made for Hong Kong Palace: http://www.hkpalace.webs.com Thanks so much again!
I live near here and have become “hard core” about the place since reading the review. I was there last night to pick up some take-home and commented to the manager tht compared to weekends, the quiet must be pleasant. I asked how the place had got such a rep and she said Internet. She said they ahd had customers people drive from as far as Philadelphia nd Virginia Beach, based on reading about it on the web; And , Tyler, you will enjoy this. The young Chinese quartet at the only occupied table was from the U of Chicago (law and other grad schools, so I mentioned G Becker and Posner,) out here for spring break. It may not be a flat world but it’s definitley more connected!
As an asian, I can say this place is pretty authentic. Most of the dishes are called ‘ma-lai’ meaning tongue numbing. But its a small place so can be a wait for a table. Good stuff though.
Haha! Thank you, Tyler. I have now proved my foodie worth to my Chinese roommate and her foodie Indonesian friend. We went there for Chinese New Year 2009 and not a single dish disappointed or underwhelmed us. The jellyfish is more nuanced than that at Bob’s Noodle. The Fish and Tofu in Spicy sauce IS a knockout. And you really can’t go wrong … unless you order from the sissy folks menu. Steer clear of it!
This place has excellent authentic food! My favorite dish is their lao tze chi dinh (spicy cubed chicken) but watch out for the hot peppers–they flavor the chicken gloriously but are painful to ingest. Also order the dan chow-fen (fried white rice with egg) and ask them to throw in your favorite meats/veggies. It’s superior to the brown stuff you usually get at Chinese restaurants.
Pingback: Tyler Cowen's Ethnic Dining Guide » Blog Archive » Michael’s Noodle House - All food is ethnic food.
Pingback: Tyler Cowen's Ethnic Dining Guide » Blog Archive » Sichuan Pavilion - All food is ethnic food.
Pingback: Tyler Cowen's Ethnic Dining Guide » Blog Archive » Uncle Liu’s Hot Pot (Old Liu’s Hotpot City) - All food is ethnic food.
Pingback: Hong Kong Palace (Sichuan) « You, madam, are no Sei Shonagon
I would agree with most of the comments posted here. The food here is much better than any Chinese food I’ve had around here. I’ve only been here about 2-3 times though. A couple of mentions:
– a little heavy handed on the salt
– service is spotty: it’s a family run restaurant (by the looks of things). Once we were there for a late lunch, the restaurant was not packed like it usually is, but the servers did not bother to bring out the place settings (we were missing chopsticks, placemats, napkins etc.) forever …… nor the menu for that matter. I had to get up myself in the end to go get the menu from the counter at the back. They didn’t seem too bothered whether they were getting our business or not.
– the restaurant is pretty small and not ideal if you have small children with lots of baby gear (we were there with small babies)
But if you can put up with the not so great service and cramp conditions, then this place is definitely worth the visit. Maybe best to get a take out.
food looks good
Still excellent during evening shifts. But now they have a tendency to backslide during lunch and mid-afternoon with sloppy prep work and tepid amounts of chili. My husbands indicates the latter is a problem with Mala Tang’s lunch menu as well. They’ve copped to cooking for the Arlington crowd. Alas, the cycle continues.