The hottest dim sum place in the Bay Area right now is Koi Palace in Daly City, with reports of people waiting up to two hours for a table, Sunday-morning crowds spilling out into the parking lot, and a menu of legendary length exceeding such SF favorites as Yank Sing and Ton Kiang.
Needless to say, I was thrilled to learn that Koi Palace was opening a branch in the new Ulferts Center in Dublin, just across I-580 from Pleasanton, but like many such enterprises, it seems to be taking an exceptionally long time to prepare for opening. The new branch will be called Koi Garden, and appears to be similar but slightly smaller than the Daly City mothership. No firm estimate of opening date.
But Koi Garden has sort of its own satellite at Ulferts, the diminutive Just Koi, which is already open on the lower level of the center. It’s an odd little place. First of all, the tables and chairs — all the tables seem to be 4-tops or 2-tops — are unusually-designed modular units with wedge-shaped chairs that slide underneath the tables. Sitting on them is a very strange experience (as well as being very hard on the posterior), and I’ve never seen anything like them, even in China.
The food is said to be a subset of Koi Palace/Garden’s extensive menu, but it’s pretty extensive itself, and leans in the direction of BBQ-style roast meats (duck, pork, chicken), won ton and noodle soup, jook, and small snack-like plates. It’s been packing them in for weeks, long waits for weekend tables, but I went on a Tuesday and was one of only 3 parties in the place. I ordered plain won ton soup (I think I was supposed to specify a meat ingredient and a type of noodle, and didn’t, so none was included), and three small plates — fried squid, dumplings, and (their specialty) crispy suckling pig. These latter items were pretty much dim-sum sized. The squid was pretty good, but nothing special; any random place on Clement St. in SF could equal it for much cheaper, I’d wager. The dumplings, which had a cute name like “dumpling duet”, were basically pot stickers with a more delicate skin and a tasty filling. The suckling pig was, oddly, served at room temperature, and was just a few tiny rectangular-cut pieces of crispy skin served over sweet beans and pickled cabbage, and at $10 was seriously overpriced (it would be a $5 dim sum item at most places).
My first impression was underwhelming, but there are lots of things on the menu, and like a lot of places, they might be better when they’re busier. It was clearly not the kind of food that has people lining up at Koi Palace, so maybe they were just having an off night, or the real talent has been reserved for the big room upstairs. (And perhaps I might have had unreasonably high expectations based on the Koi name. ) I’ll be back, but maybe Koi Garden will open in the meantime.
Eating in Pleasanton 
6 comments
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January 11, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Ali
We just went to Koi Garden in Dublin this evening. We ordered the dishes the waiter recommended – Fu Tiao Qian (Budda jump over wall), Bao Yu (Abanone fish) and fried noodle. According to the waiter, the 2 dishes are their best and people always ordering in far advance to avoid shortage. We followed what the waiter recommended.
However, the dishes tasted terribly bad and it tastes like eating some rubber eraser. We just ate a little and could not finish it. Then the waiter came and said that he don’t like it before but like it very much now after eating it lots of times. The dishes are extremely expensive. It costs us almost $100 for 2 adults and 1 kid. And even for this price, the waiter said we should order more since it is just the beginning dishes.
It is our first time to go to this restaurant and it definitly the last time we go there. The food taste terrible and the people working there are greedy. We are still hungry after spent around $100 at this restaurant after got home. I just regret I still gave the waiter $10 tips.
We are not picking people and we went to the Singapore Cafe and other restaurants many times in the same Orfert center building and we were never feel such disappointed. Koi Garden restaurant is the worst restaurant we ever went.
January 11, 2008 at 11:28 pm
mcb
Wow! That’s a lot of money for dinner at a place like that – the waiter must have steered you to the most expensive dishes. (I do know that baoyu – abalone – is very expensive everywhere). My dinners were a lot less, but Just Koi is still overpriced compared with similar places in SF or Oakland.
January 22, 2008 at 11:20 am
e1im
I like Just Koi 🙂
The waiters are cool too. Lango (mgr), Sam (spikey red hair), and Leo.
Those are the ones I know.
I don’t eat a lot. So the the food portions are enough for me. Just the drinks are good (esp. Hong Kong milk tea) but too little. So I always want two.
February 11, 2008 at 11:04 pm
grace
actually my parents have eaten at just koi many times in the past few months..even though its supposed to be a HK style deli place actually some of the most tasty thing on the menu is actually
the singapore style chicken rice
and the
hk style seafood/or house crispy noodle..
and not the deli stuff..
some might find their way of cooking crispy hk style house noodle a bit light (b/c it doesn’t have the brown sauce, thank god) but in asia this is really a more superior way of cooking this type of stuff. light/or none on the soy sauce but letting the fresh ingredient and fresh seafood stock come thru..
so i like it alot. i’m really glad to be able to have a hk style crispy done w/o the brown sauce and it’s quite authentic..
April 5, 2008 at 11:56 pm
ming
Unethical Activity!!!
I went to Koi Garden Restaurant nearly once a week since it was opened on Dec 2007. I paid by my Chase Master Card every time without problem. Today (April 05, 2008), the manager of Koi Garden Restaurant rejected my Chase Master Card and stated that they would accept my Chase Master Card if my bill is over US$30.00. I checked everywhere and there was NO notice for this policy at all. I did have an argument with them today since they added an unreasonable charge on my bill. By pointing out their unethical activity and my Chase Master Card was rejected. Unbelievable! BTW, they were violating the Master Card Merchant Rule by doing it.
April 25, 2009 at 5:43 pm
MNG
I have been in this restaurant pretty often from its open, for dinners and dim sum, with my wife, friend and business associates just because my house and company are close-by. Our first time there, the waiter made a mistake over charging 20% on a $150 dinner for two. It was a sign that the service is not very professional.
The food is fair but not for the price and surely not any better than other Chinese restaurants in Bay Area. The service is definitely lousy. Just today, we spent $54 for dim sum but it was hardly enjoyable, The tea was cold and the waiter was insuting and hateful for no reason at all, not mentioning a long wait after 2pm. We will not in Koi for a long time.