Ocean Palace is a bustling, cavernous haunt in Chinatown, renowned for its lavish dim sum offerings, family-style sharing, and a lively atmosphere perfect for large gatherings.
"For traditional push cart service and delicate dumplings, head to this dim sum haven known for its truffle shu mai, tofu pork rolls with oyster sauce, and toothsome steamed mushroom and chicken bao. Be warned: This place — marked by a 1980s-style banquet room and pristine white tablecloths — gets packed with lines winding outside of the building, though service is usually swift." - Minh Truong, Mai Pham, Eater Staff
"The Chinatown institution serves up some of Houston’s best dim sum from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, with a sprawling, family-style menu, and dishes like har goa and pork shu mai served in lazy susans that make sharing plates all the more efficient and fun. Be sure to try the truffle xiao long bao, delicate dumplings filled with warm soup and topped with black truffle, and the roast duck rice noodle roll, a steamed sheet of rice wrappers filled with luscious roasted duck. Though weekends are prime time for dim sum, large groups shouldn’t expect to wait more than an hour." - Marcy de Luna, Brittany Britto Garley
"Ocean Palace is quite literally a palace. The Chinatown institution is the largest dim sum restaurant in Houston, and it runs at full tilt, especially during weekend brunch. Expect all the delicious dim sum regulars: pork shu mai, turnip cake, har gow shrimp dumplings, those fun crispy crab croquettes with the little claw sticking out, and a seemingly infinite amount more. Pluck what you want from the carts whipping around the enormous dining room, or mark down what you want from the menu on the table. Go with a group of five or 50–Ocean Palace can handle it. " - gianni greene, chelsea thomas
"Appropriately named, Ocean Palace is a massive fortress at the edge of Chinatown. Surrounded by an actual, questionably blue fountain-moat, the largest dim sum spot in Houston often gets so busy the hosts announce when your table’s ready via microphone. On the weekends, giant groups converge to grab crispy crab croquettes, shrimp har gow, and plates of sauced-up up chicken feet from dim sum carts that may or may not be participating in some version of the Indy 500. Here you have to grab what you can, when you can. Got a group of thirty that need weekend brunch? That’s nothing for Ocean Palace. " - chelsea thomas, gianni greene
"The Chinatown institution Ocean Palace will be open in all of its dim sum glory on Christmas Day. Come from 10am-5pm for boatloads of har gow shrimp, pork shu mai, ma po tofu, and more. Price: Varies" - Gianni Greene
