Review: Rainbow Palace in Fort Lauderdale
By John Tanasychuk, Sun Sentinel
Important: This article was last updated on October 21, 2010. Please call ahead to confirm hours, prices, dates and other information.
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 2787 E. Oakland Park Blvd., Fort Lauderdale 954-565-5652 rainbowpalace.com Cost: expensive Credit cards: all major Hours: lunch Thursday, Friday; dinner nightly Reservations: advised Bar: full service Sound level: quiet Outside smoking: no For kids: boosters Wheelchair accessible: yes  |
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First impression: Get beyond the fact that dinner at Rainbow Palace is going to be expensive. Then sit back and enjoy what may be the only Chinese restaurant in South Florida that offers French table service along with very good food. Think of it as "Date Night" Chinese. Or a fine dining destination where Asian food is on the menu, but there's also an exceptional wine list and service. Open since 1991, the staff never misses a beat.Ambience: Nearly opulent when you think about most Chinese dining halls. Is every surface here made of marble? The main entrance takes you into a sizeable reception room. There's an intimate bar to the right and a long thin elegantly appointed dining room to the left. Every table feels like a world on to its own.
Starters: While pork-filled Szechuan wontons ($12) were light on stuffing and heavy on wrapper, they came with a nice medium spiced soy-based sauce. Don't overlook Country Roast Duck ($21), a quarter bird, nicely seasoned and served again with soy. House wonton soup ($8) adds chicken and shrimp to the broth found in the regular wonton soup ($7).
Entree excellence: Stick with house specialties and you will never be disappointed. Crispy Steak ($41) is worth of every penny. The tender prime New York strip is lightly coated with water chestnut flour before being wok-fried and served with sauteed pepper and onions in a red wine sauce. Shrimp Gwin Jin ($34) will have you happily eating the crispy shells of the four over-sized crustaceans. They taste more Cantonese than anything, slightly sweet but with a nice foil of garlic and rice wine. Roast duck appears in a black bean sauce preparation ($32) as well as a nine-spice version ($32), with portabella mushrooms and asparagus. Vegetable Lo Mein ($19) combines soft noodles with every vegetable a Chinese-American kitchen has to offer.
Sweet!: Desserts, according to our waiter, come from By Word of Mouth, the restaurant/bakery and caterings spot down the street. A strawberry cake ($8.50) was superb, but a chocolate mousse cake ($8.50) was definitely not the freshest.
Service: Exceptional. Food is wheeled in on carts and portioned on plates by servers. They do a splendid job with all of this hands on service.
Contact dining correspondent John Tanasychuk at jtanasychuk@sunsentinel.com or write to him in care of Sun Sentinel, 200 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301.