| Large dim sum restaurant located in Valco mall. |
Reviewer: Jason
Total Reviews: 1040
Reviewed: 2/17/2006
Rating: 7.5
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Dynasty Chinese Seafood reminds me of the large chinese restaurants in downtown LA back in the 80s. This is one of the nicer chinese restaurants that I have been to and even waiters are well groomed with their black and white uniforms. There were a number of carts roaming the floor with your typical american friendly dim sum items and chinese favorites. Service started off extrememly strong and almost on the level of Alexanders Steakhouse.
The waiters at Dynasty are some of the best we've seen! Im not kidding, waters were always refilling our glasses, Eddie even lifted the tea lid and within 5 seconds a waiter removed the teapot and brought a fresh pot 1 minute later. Im not exaggerating, these guys are FAST! They were circling our table just waiting to remove our empty dim sum plates. I dont know who trained these waiters but I wished they would train all waiters like this. These waiters are some of the best.
The dim sum carts also started off strong with a visit to our table every 2-3 minutes. We quickly filled out table with 12 or more plates of small goodies. I wont describe each and every plate but overall, the portion sizes were large and quite satisfying. Har gow (shrimp dumpling)is a very common dim sum item and Dynasty nearly perfects them. The green tea sesame balls were memorable as well as the spinach shrimp dumplings and chinese broccoli. I think the prices were somewhat reasonable? I wouldnt know, Eddie paid for the meal and I dont recall what the end bill was. Id rate their selection as slightly above average but if you want the insane selection, check out Mings and Koi Palace.
So if the service and dim sum were reviewed as very positive, how could Dynasty end up with an average 7.5? Well, we polished off all the other dishes and once we decided that we were going to order more items, it seemed the dim sum carts would avoid us? We either had to flag them down or just pray for a decent selection to arrive. Waiters seemed to avoid eye contact and we just sat there waiting to order more food. We eventually gave up and left somewhat hungry. I dont know what happened with the service. Dynasty could not close out this potentially wonderful lunch. Im a loss for words but given the taste of what kind of service you can get and dim sum items, I would give Dynasty another chance. Ive heard many positive things about the San Jose location so maybe you'll have better luck over there.
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RETURN VISIT for Jason! 11/2/2006 - 8 Rating: We had an blowout today with dim sum. Here's the cliff notes version.
- ordered almost $70 worth of food between 3 people.
- 2 rounds of being full, 1st one at $40 mark and 2nd one ended at $70.
- ate a lot of good fresh food
- exploded after the meal
- service was awesome, teas and water refilled
We spent a ton of money and we were laughing our asses off on the way back to the car. We obviously ordered waaaaay too much food and even more ridulous we ate all of it. Good times at Dynasty. |
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Reviewer: ne00
Total Reviews: 187
Reviewed: 2/18/2006
Rating: 6.5
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Dynasty Seafood Restaurant has two locations. I recommended the San Jose location and noted to avoid the Cupertino location. This review is based strictly on the Cupertino location. Sorry you had to experience the shite service at the Cupertino location Terry!
San Jose Dynasty Seafood Restaurant: 8/10
Cupertino Dynasty Seafood Restaurant: 6.5/10
Why the difference in scores? Service! San Jose location has service. Cupertino location is like a Lexus dealership! If you cannot afford the car, do not waste our time, there are others who are willing to buy. This location is so full of themselves. The food is OK but if they were not as grand as they were, this place would be out of business.
Now on with the review…
If the service is good and food is only average people will come back. If the food is super good yet the service sucks, people will only remember the service and not the food. Service is key in the restaurant business!
Dynasty has two locations, one located in San Jose on Story Rd. and a newer location in Cupertino underneath Macys. Dynasty always seems to get good reviews from sites and newspapers such as City Search or Metro or Mercury News. I cannot honest give praises to the Dynasty in Cupertino as service is either a hit or miss and so far it has all been misses with me.
This review is strictly based on Dynasty Seafood Restaurant in Cupertino as I feel the San Jose one has all been hits so far. The one in Cupertino seems to cater to Asians; the more Asian you are the better. If you can speak Mandarin its almost not good enough, you would need to speak Cantonese as well to be respected here. Eating at Dynasty in Cupertino feels like walking into the Lexus dealership on Stevens Creek. The sales people dont care about you if youre just browsing, they will only deal with you if you buy, and if you ask for a bargain they will most likely respect you less, even as a paid customer.
The concept of Dynasty is to cater to the affluent. People like to come here because it makes them feel rich. People love to hold wedding banquets and parties here to show off. Its the same concept of people buying a Lexus or Infinity when they could just buy a Toyota or Honda. Its to show off.
Ive eaten at the Cupertino Dynasty on several occasions in the past. A few times for dim sum with my family, once for dinner with my family when they first opened, Ive been to a wedding banquet once, and today I decided to eat dim sum with my friend here. So far my experience here has all been misses.
My first experience at Dynasty in Cupertino was one that I would never forget yet I would forgive as it was during the first week of their grand opening in Cupertino. Grand opening jitters is expected for many new restaurants but not admitting to mistakes and then lying about it is not something that is expected. The dinner menu at the time was skimpy and most of the dishes ranged from $9.00 and up. This is somewhat expected for an extravagant restaurant. I remember my family ordering the Peking Spareribs, Seafood clay pot, and beef with Chinese broccoli.
The restaurant had different levels of servers and each wore different colored vests. Most of the Spanish people wore blue vests, the waiters wore golden vests, and the food servers wore black vests, and so on. So anyways the place was only semi packed for dinner but the place was filling up slowly. Our food was served warm, not hot but warm since the food servers couldnt seem to get the food out fast enough and just left it sitting on the counter. Then I began to realize how inefficient this place was set up. There were tons of people standing around doing nothing but they didnt help since it was not “part of their duty” to help. Check this out, when I asked one of the waiters for a water refill, he said “Ask one of the guys in the blue vest, thats their job.” Yet at the time there was no one in a blue vest around where we sat but the waiter refused to fill our waters.
They served us Sweet and Sour pork when we actually ordered Peking spareribs. When we pointed out this mistake, they glanced at the dish and just said “thats how it should be.” They were so backed up from their own inefficiency that they didnt want to take back the dish and actually give us the correct one. Pork does not have bones and spareribs do, yet the dish they served was pork, tasted like pork, and didnt have a single bone anywhere within the dish.
Our family vowed never to come back here for dinner and we havent since.
When we came here a few months later for dim sum, they wanted to seat us in the corner table. Basically the carts missed us several times, and when finally a cart rolled in our direction the food was barely warm. Service sucked once again as water was not refilled and tea took forever to fill.
The next time I came was for a wedding banquet. Im sure my friend paid fortunes yet the food was served warm. I was actually expecting it this time around. My friend wanted to splurge and who was I to stop him? In terms of looks and being extravagant, this is a great place for a wedding. The first few dishes, except the cold plate, were served hot, but as the dinner went on the food came out barely warm each time. To be fair, they had another wedding banquet party in the back room, but then again when youre getting paid hundreds or thousands of dollars you need to step it up and be ready.
This all leads to the final straw. Today I wanted to treat my friend to some dim sum since hes been helping out with several favors already. So we get there around 1:30pm and theres a number system and the place is packed. Were seated near the corner but not within a corner thankfully. So we asked for some tea and water and were served water in these tiny glass cups (8 ounce cups). I knew that was trouble as my friend prefers to drink water rather than tea.
Basically throughout the whole meal, our waiter was playing cat and mouse with us. My friend asked for water several times and was completely ignored. Even when our waiter came to take our empty dim sum dishes away he ignored the water request. My friend was being very polite with his requests, always saying “please” and finally when he did get his refill he said “thank you.” After the third water request the waiter filled our water and just plopped the pitcher of water on our table and said “here you go!” What an ass! OMG how rude is that? Its his job to serve his customers and he acted like he was too good to refill our water, like he had better things to attend to rather than refill our waters. Several times during our meal he blew us off, even when he was serving the table next to us he didnt even turn around and acknowledge us, just walked on by avoiding us completely, just showing us his back.
But in reality this is accepted at Dynasty in Cupertino because theyre just another high end dealership. They know people will come back and could care less if they lose one or two customers. The only good to come out of our experience today was the ladies who carted the food. They were very courteous and offered to get us hot items from the kitchen when they didnt need to. They could have just given us what was in their carts, items that were barely warm.
Around 2:30 when they are clearing up, we were asked what we wanted and they would make it and bring it direct from the kitchen. At the time we only ordered Siu Maai but later we wanted some more dishes such as the egg custard and taro balls but we couldnt find anyone to take our order. This was the first dim sum and first restaurant my guest and I left still feeling hungry. This is accredited to the service or no service from Dynasty in Cupertino!
Now for a rating of what we ordered:
Shrimp Dumplings (Ha Gao): Tasty but standard, a bit bigger than the usual places. Rather than individual shrimps it seems like it the shrimp meat has been mixed together into a ball or shrimp. This was a surprise when they stamped the “Large Size” box as most places consider this item as either a small or medium sized dish. (7/10)
Shanghai Steamed dumplings (Shŕnghǎi xiǎolóngbāo): This item was also stamped within the “Large Size” row. The dumplings had very little juice in the bottom pocket. It was good but below average when compared to the real thing. (7/10)
Rice noodle rolls (cheong fan): We went with the shrimp version and this item was charged as a “Special Item.” This should be at most a medium as it is very commonly served as a medium item in most places. There were two large shrimps per roll and tasted as how it should. (7/10)
Chicken feet: Charged as a medium item, which is standard. Had just the right amount of spices and was very good. (9/10)
Turnip Cake: Charged as a medium item. Very standard, but had a lot of turnip flavor with small slices of turnip, and the outside was lightly crisp. (8/10)
BBQ Pork bun: The non steamed version with the sweet golden brown top. This was offered to us hot by the carter. The item didnt come out steaming hot but the filling was warm and very tasty. The BBQ pork bun was charged as a medium item. (8/10)
Siu Maai: This was the final order and came to us direct from the kitchen. We received this item hot (temperature wise) and it was good finally eating something that was too hot to eat. Normally this would only be warm by the time the cart reached out table. This was just average but because it was served hot it tasted a lot better, as should all food thats served hot instead of warm. (8/10).
I dont think Dynasty in Cupertino serves any dim sum that is considered small sizes. I was so eager to get the bill and leave this place to go grab some fast food that I didnt even bother looking at the final tally. I didnt want to have to wait for someone to take my Credit Card. Meal ended up costing us $27 after tip and we werent even full. This feels like the last wedding I went to. The couple held the wedding at Villa Montalvo, but the food was average, some of the guests ate under cooked chicken, the wedding was dry, and most of my friends left hungry and we ended up eating a late night snack at Jakes. Fancy location but crappy food! The guests will only remember the food!
Parking: Since Vallco is under construction park in the back, behind TGIF or the lot before it. Walk through Macys on the lower level and enter Dynasty through the back.
Tip: Avoid Dynasty in Cupertino and try the one in San Jose. If you must go to the one in Cupertino, double check everything, the order, the bill. Be prepared to wait for service. The more you spend probably the better the service gets. Go with someone that speaks Cantonese and let them order everything. Expect to spend a lot of money. Arrive early for dim sum when they are carting around all the popular items as if you arrive late they only cart around the standard items.
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Reviewer: pyunnyhana
Total Reviews: 47
Reviewed: 2/20/2006
Rating: 8
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This is for the SAN JOSE location
My family and I often go here when we're feeling extravagant or when out-of-town relatives come over. If you a have a big party, then there shouldn't be a problem. I went with a friend one time after school during a weekday and on our receipt, they gave us 10% off O_o It was really really strange. I went again with another friend on a weekday, and they still gave 10% off.
Dynasty has a nasty long wait during weekends, especially around 10:30am or noon. If you go before or after those times, then it shouldn't be too long. However, 10:30-12pm are the times when the BEST dishes come out.
Compared to about 3 other dim sum places I've been to, Dynasty is the cheapest (from the last time I was there) although looking from the decor, I wouldn't have thought so. For two people (and the 10% off) we spent 16 dollars altogether (not including tip)
Of all the visits to Dynasty, I've only had ONE bad experience where the carts would just constantly miss my table. I was just appalled at how hard it was to flag them down. When my aunt got frustrated, she ordered rice rolls to one of the waiters in the black suits, and the waiter just said, 'Oh they'll come around in the carts.' We sat there hungry and left hungry.
Overall, the dim sum is good and service is USUALLY good. That day was just a miss, I guess. |
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Reviewer: takeru
Total Reviews: 31
Reviewed: 3/1/2009
Rating: 8.5
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Been to dynasty many times, for a bunch of us it has become our de facto dim sum destination and it seems like we're here at least once a month. On weekends they use the traditional carts system, whereas on weekdays you have to submit your order on paper, which to me isn't the true dim sum experience. Because it's huge, even at the height of the weekend lunch rush you usually won't have to wait longer than 15 minutes, which gives it an advantage over local competitors pan tau, joy luck, and HK saigon seafood.
It was sunday around 11:45 and the carts were rolling by fast and furious. We grabbed about 12 dishes, here's what stood out:
cold plate - excellent combination of colors and textures but can be an acquired taste.
stuffed eggplant - smaller, tastier slices than other places, w/ an excellent pork filling.
shrimp/scallop dumplings - usually we get the 'regular' shrimp dumplings (har gow), but these were surprisingly tasty, the two seafoods complemented each other well.
fried sweet potato triangles - have only seen these here, fried mashed sweet potatoes w/ a sweet bean filling.
gelatinous rice dumplings - deep fried balls w/ bits of pork in center. Great texture and flavor.
coconut/mango gelatin squares - great way to finish off meal, nice change from the usual mango pudding.
Overall quality was good, dishes were fresh out of kitchen and not on the carts very long.
Dynasty is not the cheapest of dim sum choices in the Cupertino area, but (at least on weekends) it has the best combination of quality, variety, and wait time, and that's worth paying more for. In words of our beloved governator.... 'Ah'll be bahhhk'.... ;-) |
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Reviewer: wchane
Total Reviews: 148
Reviewed: 8/12/2006
Rating: 6.5
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I will give this place the benefit of a doubt, my rating is based on a very large company party. We fed over 300 guests and rented out their largest private room. Quality control for such a large party is definitely not easy, therefore I am going to give it a higher rating then what I believe it currently deserves.
The only dish that did stand out was the broiled sea bass, it was a very large cut broiled until tender. it's texture buttery and succulent. perfectly cooked in my opinion.
Other then that not much stood out, I was almost shocked as the last dish arrived. I remember thinking to myself 'that's it?'
I will have to go back with a smaller group some time, just not anytime soon. |
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