Seafood Palace Is a Fantasyland of Chinese Banquet Food

There are Chinese banquet halls scattered all throughout the San Gabriel Valley and everyone has their favorite — but none of them are doing it quite like Seafood Palace. This Monterey Park institution, fitted with saltwater fish tanks teeming with live crab and lobsters, remains the ideal place to round up a crew of people looking to share a feast of seafood. You can’t go wrong with specialties such as house crab and ginger scallion seafood, honey walnut shrimp, and salt-and-pepper squid. Although seafood is the star here, the supporting players — like sweet and sour pork, yang chow fried rice, and classic garlic green beans — merit a place on the lazy Susan, too.  The menu feels vast enough to be accessible to large groups of family and friends with myriad tastes — part of the fun is sampling everyone else’s favorites.

What to order

• If it’s a special occasion (or if you’re just ready to drop some serious cash) get the live ginger scallion lobster. The lobster — alive just minutes before being cooked and served — has delicately sweet meat kissed with smoky wok hei ginger and green onion. On my visit, our lobster was 3.3 pounds and clocked in at $108.
• Honey walnut shrimp is a crowd-pleaser with lightly fried, satisfyingly plump shrimps tossed in a sweet and creamy mayonnaise sauce. Some places overload the mayo; at Seafood Palace, there is a balance between the crunch of the fried shrimp with sauce’s silky texture. Crunchy sugared walnuts get plentifully scattered on top.
• The house special crab arrives stacked Jenga-style with a shower of fried garlic on top. Each crab segment gets coated in a light batter that shatters upon first bite, revealing sweet and thick segments of Dungeness crab beneath each shell.
• Crispy chow mein topped with a waterfall of seafood gravy belongs on every table. The noodles slowly absorb the cornstarch-slurry of shrimp, squid, and fish, softening as the dish sits. A generous portion of gai lan surrounds the plate and freshens the experience.

What to drink

Hot jasmine tea is mandatory for a banquet feast like this, washing away the heaviness of the many fried dishes. Be sure to get a pot; simply remove the teapot cap for refills on hot water.

The vibe

Like all good Chinese banquet hall restaurants, tables are lined with white tablecloths here and servers zip around the dining room in button-down shirts. That doesn’t necessarily mean you yourself have to dress fancy, but these small touches do make the space feel more glamorous.

Insider tip

If ordering a crab or lobster, feel free to take a field trip to the tanks to make a selection. These dishes are priced by weight, so it’s important to order the crustacean that’s a suitable size for your party.