Empress Restaurant - Adelaide

The Empress is a good place for yum cha lunch or a la carte dining. It has a nice ambience with lots of oriental lanterns, lovely food with plenty of choices and good wine selection. The staff are very efficient and helpful and deliver good service. Also it has plenty of parking behind the restaurant.

Our 'new ' yum cha venue! Been here a couple of times now and the food had been consistently good for yum cha. Both Saturday lunch times we were here they had been busy. Best to book if you do not want to miss out. The restaurant had changed hands again recently and name change of course. Well located on Greenhill Road not far from the Trak cinema and Burnside Village. It has a little garden in the front and a spacious area on the side for outdoor dinning in warmer weather. There 's a reasonable sized car park area at the back. Huge entrance door which opens to a foyer and a big dinning room across the width of the restaurant. Tables are well spaced and there 's no moving trolleys bringing plates of yum cha dishes. Waiting staff walks trays of goodies around and you could order also by filling out the order sheet of your favourite yum cha dishes. Standard yum cha dishes are all on offer as well as choices of noodles dishes. I just love their sweet sesame balls filled with sesame paste. Their cute little tea pots add 'class ' to the table. Waiting staff are friendly and seems to cater and look after the packed restaurant well. Water was frequently topped up into those tea pots which 'pour ' very well. To conclude, the price is very reasonable. Best to go in a group and share your experience with your friends. Just a note, yum cha means you drink Chinese tea with those little morsels and not soft drinks.

The recent trip to Empress was for dinner. We had 2 large tables to celebrate a birthday dinner. Michele, the owner has helped me to ensure that the menu I had ordered was sufficient for each table. We ordered the Peking Duck, Crispy Beef, Peking Pork, BBC, Chinese Broccoli, Long Beans with XO sauce, Sticky Pork Cubes and the Empress Steamed Chicken and the Singapore Chilli Prawns as well as the second dish for the Peking Duck where I opted for noodles. Firstly, the service was excellent. The restaurant was extremely crowded on top of our guests but they managed very well. We did not have to wait very long and they checked with me, as the host of the dinner frequently. All of my guests enjoyed the dinner tremendously. It was the first time for all of them except me. Many of them left with Takeaway menus. The Sticky Pork Cubes was a hit with everyone. In fact all the dishes were finished except for the steamed chicken. For me, the steamed chicken was my favourite because of how tender it was. It may have not been a favourite for my guests because it was served at room temperature and therefore cold. Whilst you can order the traditional Aussie-Chinese dishes like sweet and sour pork or honey chicken, Eric the chef (who is the brother of Michele) has a good and light hand when he cooks his food. It 's always on the lighter side and not overly salty. I certainly didn 't have the usual signs of 'bloating ' the next day as I do when I encounter food with MSG. A great experience all round.

This yum cha is probably one of my favourite. The prawn dumplings are delicious and their rice rolls are to die for! Would highly recommend the golden lava buns for any one with a sweet tooth. Service was okay, could be improved. Other than that it was a very pleasant experience and I will surely be back!

The imperial is a good place for delicious lunch or a la carte. it has a beautiful ambiente with many oriental laternen, nice eating with a lot.