Champagne Seafood Dinner Restaurant Review, San Mateo

Champagne Seafood Restaurant is a new Chinese Restaurant in downtown San Mateo that opened in Joy Luck Place’s old location. The Chinese name for the restaurant translates to First Class Kings Court. They redid the internals and create a large dining room along with several very classy private dining rooms. The chef is Kam Pui Lai. This restaurant serves higher end traditional Cantonese Chinese Dinners. A separate Champagne Seafood Dim Sum review was done previously. We remembered several waiters from the old Joy Luck Days. Our last visit was in October 2011.

We have eaten at Champagne Seafood several times and have updated this review and our ratings to reflect changes.

Be sure to read our article How to order in authentic Chinese dinner

Decor, Vibe – Champagne Seafood has fancy decor with lots of stylish wall accents, big murals, several Flat Panel TVs, new wide chairs, seafood tanks in the back, and a Hong Kong restaurant-feel. Mostly Asians were dining when we visited for dinner, place was quieter than lunch but still hectic, and crowded.

Champagne Seafood Menu (Click to zoom into any picture)

Full Champagne Seafood Restaurant Menu

Hard to hold stiffly bound Champagne Seafood menu! Extensive menu with a lot of more exotic items many places do not serve, like high end fresh seafood, foie gras, etc. Moderate to higher prices than most places.

Picks:

Peking Duck ($28) Crispy duck skin served with steamed bun and the house special sauce had a very good duck with a thin crispy skin and moist meat. The buns were a bit doughy and stuck together.

Dze Guo Steamed soup ($32.80) was a expensive soup that contained a special small bird, Virginia ham, and various herbs. It was steamed and not boiled. Clear broth with tons of chicken flavor with no medicinal herbiness.

Prime Mushroom Stew ($13.80) with soft tofu had three kinds of mushrooms and lots of snap peas. Pretty good sized dish that was cooked just right. Not overly soupy. Lightly salted.

Tofu with mushrooms was also a solid dish. Pretty skimpy on the mushrooms though.

Spareribs Wu Shi Style ($12.80) were braised inside a clay pot with a slightly sweet and tangy sauce. Soft succulent meat fell right off the bone. Reminds one of Santa Ramen’s stewed pork.

Fried Rice with Dried scallop and Egg Whites ($13.80) was very good. Lots of egg, scallions and a fair amount of scallops. Could have been a little hotter when served though.

Yan Chow fried rice ($11.80) was pretty good and came with several large shrimp. It was a nice blend of roast pork, eggs, and green onion.

Roasted Duck ($11 for half) was excellent. Lots of juicy and tender meat made for one of the better classic roast dishes.

Geo duck (market price) was served sashimi style with  slices vertically oriented. Very fresh, probably because it just came from the tank!

Deep fried fish (market price) was fried just right, but the soy based sauce was too salty. They also took a long time to deliver the dish.

Ginger scallion crab (market price) was cooked just right and highly recommended.

Sweet and sour pork in a pineapple ($15.80) came served in a fresh pineapple and had very tender meat with a nice tangy sauce, and some delectable Fresh pineapple.

Fresh Mango Pudding ($3.60) was an excellent fruity dessert with lots of mango chunks and solid pudding flavors.

Healthy Chinese Herbal Grass Jello ($3.60) is a candidate for weird eatz. Finish this without adding sugar and you get a prize. This jelly is heavily medicinal and bitter. The more bitter, the healthier this stuff is.
The owners are affiliate with the Lingzhi medicinal herb company, so this dish should come as no surprise.

OK:

Soup of the day ($9.80) – Lotus root soup had zero salt in it on purpose, otherwise the soup was decent with lots of ingredients including a fish. Came with a plate full of soup goodies.

Champagne Special Suckling pig ($16 for small) was a small quantity of very thin skinned pig. Flavor was especially good when eaten with the included sugar was good. Quantity and thickness pales in comparison with other places. On another occasion, this dish was a lot better.

Pans:
None

Champagne Seafood’s service was solid with plate changes, tea refills, water refills happening without asking. Food came out fast, almost too fast. Champagne Seafood Restaurant has a lot of guts opening an upscale Chinese restaurant in the middle of an economic downturn. Food was solid but dinner prices were on the high side.

Champagne Seafood was not very busy on a Friday night in October 2011, leaving us to wonder how long they will survive. The Chinese restaurant kiddie corner to them closed in October 2011. Local top spots Daly City Koi Palace and Millbrae’s Asian Pearl Peninsula still rank higher. Hopefully in time, this place will become even better.

$25 Dining Certificate for $5

Champagne Seafood Restaurant Overall Rating: (Very Good 2.5)

Come Back?

Food Rating:	(Very Good)
Service Rating:	(Good)
Atmosphere Rating:	(Very Good)
Value Rating:	(Average)

Guide: 0 = poor, 1 = Below/Average, 2 = Good, 2.5 = Very Good, 3 = Excellent , 4 = Extraordinary

Alcohol:	Beer, Wine
Attire:	Casual
Hours:	Mon - Th 11am - 2:30pm, 5-9:30pm, Fri 11am-2:30pm, 5-10pm, Sat 10am - 3pm, 5-10pm, Sun 9:30am - 3pm, 5-9:30pm
Parking:	Street
Reservations:	Yes
Prices:	$6.80 - $98 (Dinner)