Royal Seafood
Chinese restaurant · Little Italy
103 Mott St, New York, NY 10013
Highlights
Bustling Chinese restaurant serving classic & modern dishes
Bustling Chinese restaurant serving classic & modern dishes
"Royal Seafood may only be a decade or so old, but there have been a succession of Cantonese banquet halls at this location, and the glitzy gold and red decor persists. Seating is at big communal tables as the dim sum carts roll by until early afternoon. Evening lists a menu of Cantonese and Hong Kong standards, many featuring seafood, chicken, or pork. Few places give such a good picture of Chinatown’s historic vibrancy." - Eater Staff
"Royal Seafood is just one big carpeted room on Mott Street full of huge round tables, and though it can get busy on the weekends, it's our go-to spot for a weekday dim sum brunch when we remember work doesn’t matter, but egg tarts do. Make sure to snag plenty of pork buns, rice rolls, and chicken feet off the carts because it sometimes takes a while for them to recirculate. Even on a Tuesday morning, you'll see someone pairing their chicken feet with a bottle of Hennessy, so come here when you'd like to briefly forget about all of your responsibilities, and just focus on eating a lot of shrimp." - bryan kim, molly fitzpatrick, willa moore, neha talreja, will hartman
"Royal Seafood makes some of the freshest dim sum in Chinatown, constantly arriving in batches from a dumbwaiter near the entrance. We especially like the silky har gow and well-seasoned chicken feet, and we appreciate that it’s never too hard to get a table here. That said, the tables are pretty close together, and you sometimes have to walk over to a cart and tell a server what you want. That might sound annoying, but it’s actually kind of charming. Expect a short wait on weekends." - neha talreja, bryan kim, molly fitzpatrick, will hartman, willa moore
"Few of the behemoth banquet halls that once dominated Chinatown remain, with dim sum services in the morning and Cantonese seafood menus in the afternoons and evenings. Royal Seafood (the “royal” part attests to its Hong Kong influences) is a spectacular example of this historic type of restaurants. Attendants still roll carts full of dim sum around the dining room. The dumplings are delicate and well-formed, while the classic Cantonese American dishes still abound, including pan-fried flounder, clams with black-bean sauce, and lobster e-fu noodles." - Eater Staff
"Royal Seafood gets crowded on weekends—but it doesn't draw huge lines like Jing Fong or House of Joy. So if you don't want to wait an hour for your har gow and rice rolls, come here. The dim sum is fantastic, and there are always fresh batches arriving from the kitchen (via a dumbwaiter). This place is a bit smaller than other dim sum parlors in the neighborhood, but there's still plenty of room, and if you arrive before 11am, you'll probably get seated right away. Be sure get the shu mai and chicken feet." - bryan kim
