Review of 'Maxime's Palace'

cimg9390.jpg We had a bit of difficulty finding Maxime's Palace but it was worth it. From the main city hall entrance we went through the courtyard to the “Low Block” part of city hall that has various restaurants, shops and theatres. You would never guess all of this was back there but many people seem to know it.

We visited on a Saturday, which, admittedly, not a great day to visit a local popular Dim Sum restaurant so we were not surprised to see the queue stretched down the stairs. Presenting ourselves to the lady at the door as soon as we arrived we were given a ticket with ticket numbers displayed on an electronic board outside the restaurant (one set of numbers for tables for two and another set for larger groups). 30 minutes later we were shown to our table.

Maxime's has a large elegant, spacious interior overlooking the harbour if you are lucky to have a table near the windows. It was obviously part of a former theatre with half of the proscenium arch visible at the one end of the room. The tables are all covered with white linen, metal chopsticks and tea is served in silver pots with proper china cups and saucers. The staff are all dressed nicely and gives a serious sense of occasion to the visit.

Fine Dining

The food is served by ladies wheeling carts throughout the restaurant with labels provided in both English and Cantonese. Obviously you can also order side dishes as you wish. We ordered some gai lan vegetables which were quite bland even with the garlic they were served with. The pork buns were baked and very tasty. The char sui bau (steamed pork dumplings) were excellent, as was the deep fried pork dumplings and egg tarts. The satay squid, deep fried wonton with honey/sesame seeds and chueng fun (wide noodles) with prawns were all, unfortunately, a bit tasteless.

Carts

Unfortunately, as is normal for such a place, we filled up very quickly grabbing everything for a few minutes that came by our table so we missed some of the more interesting dishes that came by later. So, we will have to come back to try them out.

The whole experience was wonderful - Good food and an amazing atmosphere. Worth the almost $500 we paid.

If you are looking for a Dim Sum restaurant in the Central area and you don't mind queuing, Maxime's Palace is a good choice. They do also take bookings for dinner but I can't imagine it is as much fun or, perhaps, as “cheap”.

Rating: “It is OK but I have some issues”

Review Date: 2013-10-19


Cuisine: Chinese

Address: Second Floor, Low Block, City Hall, Central, Hong Kong

Public Transport: MTRLOGO Central or Hong Kong or Admiralty

Location: Hong Kong (China) - Central

Map:

 

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Telephone: +852 2521 1303

URL: https://www.maximschinese.com.hk/brand/1