Palette Tea House, Ghirardelli Square, SF
New dim sum place from the Koi Palace/Dragon Beaux folks right in the thick of it. Dodge the tourists shivering in shorts lined up for hot fudge sundaes and continue to the center of the square then make a left. Large modern space with exposed brick walls, stylized red Chinese lanterns on the ceiling. Oyster shucker and tanks holding live lobsters at the entrance. Greeted by seemingly every member of the staff before we even sit down - definitely more service oriented than any dim sum place I’ve been to. Instagram friendly style of Dragon Beaux’s offerings times 2. They first bring out 5 different sauces - Chinese mustard, 2 hot sauces, cilantro and soy, and tell you to spoon them into the the spots in your plate/palette. But the palette is designed to hold just 4 sauces, so choose wisely because they whisk them away after you have spooned them on. There is a picture menu that has no prices, and a paper menu with prices, that does not have all of the offering in the picture book but also had some offering that were not in the picture book. They also gave us a happy hour food menu but it wasn’t happy hour, so maybe that was just for the drink menu on the other side. We marked what we wanted on the paper menu but I’m not sure if this was the correct procedure since the server didn’t give us any pen [when I asked if was had breached a protocol her answer was not really responsive, so I’m still unclear]. The lobster ha gow came with an injector filled with lobster essence that you squirted into each one. Squid ink fried rice with dried shrimp was good. Mapo tofu was super silky but mild spice. Prawns in the rainbow prawn crepe tasted super fresh but otherwise unexciting. Everything was solid, but nothing really stood out or made me want to rush/come back. The flavors were mostly pretty muted. Sterno under the tea pot was a nice touch. 18% included in bill to cover service charge and healthy SF mandate. About half full at Friday peak lunchtime.
3 Likes
