Welcome to Emperor's Court (The)

My favourite place for dim sum in Northbridge. The coconut rice balls are my FAVOURITE dessert ever. I often ring them to reserve some before. The chubby guy who is there on Saturdays is so delightful; he's really nice and helpful. They have great staff. Other dim sum restaurants I find sometimes pushy, and basically just put stuff on your table without you saying yes. They ask you before even touching the plate if you want it.

The food here I find at a higher standard than most dim sum places in NB, I have never been to Welcome Inn and have heard great things. Every time I go there the line is massive and I'm too impatient to wait, especially when I have dumpling cravings.

If you can, I would go early-ish on a weekend, I've often got there and they have run out of a few things. Weekdays are best I think.

Oh also, they play really nice music, very relaxing, and the chrysanthemum tea is delicious here.

I have been dim-sum ing at Emperor's Court for the past 12 years and it has always been my favourite Dim Sum Restaurant on Sundays. There's always a long queue, however I find that they are always very efficient and professional in seating up their customers.

The spareribs are my favourite and not forgetting the mango pudding and Shanghai dumplings.

I will recommend Emperor's Court for the ambience, food quality and services. Well done, Emperor's Court!!

well done joseph, against all odds and in spite of some dreadful teething troubles, we do believe that you have ' got it right!!......persistence in doing it well is the key. Your new kitchen crew are obviously good at what they do. That doesn’t mean you can relax, perth is small and hard to please.

My wife and I have been many times to this restaurant.

It’s not only the fantastic food which makes us visiting this place so often, it is also the warm and lovely service provided by the staff. It almost has become a second living room for us.

In short, once you’ve checked it out, you will become addicted.

Manuel & Manuela

In brief, Emperor’s Court offers a wonderful selection of dim sum with authentic and delightful flavours.

Gone are the days of the conservative prawn dumplings and BBQ pork buns. For those keen to try the more authentic (exotic) approach to dim sum, give the beef tripe and beef tendon a go.

The tendon is by far the best in town and it literally melts in your mouth; it is a truly fantastic texture.

The tripe, omasum (the leaf tripe), is wonderfully steamed with a touch of ginger, chili and everything that simply explodes with subtle savoury flavours. Slight hint of the delicacy of northern Chinese cooking.

Emperor’s Court is quite the gem in Northbridge and I encourage all diners to try and go as early as you can to avoid the mid Sunday rush.

Absolutely enjoyable.

After reading about Emperor's Court and its mixed reviews, I decided to give it a shot. I went with a group of 7 friends, arrived at 10.30am last Sunday without a booking- not a problem at all. I have to say that its one of the nicer looking yum cha or even Chinese restaurants in Northbridge. I also noticed that there was already chilli oil on the table which is a good sign.

We ordered a variety of food- which the trolley came very quickly after we sat down. All were good, except for the deep fried squid which was cold and there were too much dough. Everything else was pretty good. I am not a big fan of fried dim sum but we did order a few and I find them a little too oily. There seems to be more variety and more creative dim sums than other restaurants.

Service - being a busy time in a yum cha restaurant, I really couldn’t fault them. Waiters/waitress all were serving with a smile :)

They also serve 4 type of drinks- Lychee, coconut, Mango, Soya Bean milk.

The price came up to be $20/pax and we ate a lot. It surprised me that there were many 'small' priced dishes. My experience in other yum cha places, there are always hardly any 'small' priced dishes. I think the pricing is really fair!

I will go back again and put Emperor's Court in the league of Joys, Northbridge Seafood, and Golden Century.

Thursday lunch time Dim Sum. Sat down with my wife, had our table filled with goodies, every one of them excellent. Especially liked the Shanghai dumplings, mussels and pork ribs. Friendly waitress, perfect English and very attentive, so that if there was something that wasn't there immediately she'd go and get the chef to make it for us, e.g. squid-legs. I personally like my squid-legs without batter, but they were nice anyway. High quality jasmine tea. For 2 it cost $40, so that's good value for high level of service and food.

I have been fortunate enough to experience Yum Cha all around Australia and i have to say The Emperor's Court is one of my favourites. There is a good variety of well prepared dishes. The steamed dumplings are always tasty and the pork buns are plump and easily the best in WA.

It does suffer from a lack of windows, but the decor is lavish and it seems better kept than a lot of other local Yum Cha establishments (where you have to navigate an array of bones and discarded dumplings dropped by previous diners). In truth, I find the recent addition of the projector screen distracting, even though i like the movies they show.

The service is good and the matre d' is friendly and helpful. Occassionally, a dish will be more luke than warm (motivation to be there early and get the dumplings fresh from the steamer), which is unfortunate. As a rule, the staff are efficient and fast moving.

I have been to this restaurant so frequently that they know me by sight. Every few weeks, I try somewhere else, but i always come back to The Emperor's Court. It is the benchmark against which i measure all other Yum Cha. Delicious!

On the weekend I went with my family to eat dim sum at The Emperor's Court. "Gasp!" you might say, "The Emperor's Court? You do not want to be going there for dim sum!" But the recent closure of one dim sum establishment and the unfortunate downturn in another (I shall name no names), do I dare say harks the return of the golden age of The Emperor Court? Previous recollections of dim sum at Emperor's court conjures up images of empty tables, a dark and dank atmosphere, sullen wait-people going round and round in circles with their full trays of food slowly going cold.

This Saturday at 11.00am we step in and you could say that the atmosphere is positively buzzing; the tables are almost all full. The recently installed projector and big screen plays a popular Saturday music show with no sound, but strangely, this helps to alleviate the darkness of this small and windowless restaurant. Upon being seated we are besieged by plate after plate of offerings. This has always been the hallmark of The Emperor's Court dim sum experience. In the past when there had been a dismal two or three table worth of punters this was excruciating, conversation or room for eating rendered virtually impossible as you would be interrupted every minute by a bored waitperson wanting to know if you want to try a dish you rejected 3 times before. In a crowded room though, this works to best advantage as the wait-people have more ground to cover and thus the service becomes attentive, rather than obtrusive. The senior wait-staff are also in their element in this type of situation, bustling about importantly and speaking into their headsets.

The Starrsheep test: ask for chilli oil. Arrives in under a minute before the food does. "You're kidding!" you might be saying. "Strange but true!" I answer. It takes less than 10 minutes to find ourselves with at least 10 different types of dishes on our table. The dishes we had included har gow (prawn dumpling), siu mai (pork dumpling), prawn har cheung fun (prawns inside a rice skin), yam cake, crispy yam dumplings, spring rolls, satay squid, chilli mussel, pork and egg congee and egg tart. The food was all very good and as testament to the quality, even my hard-to-please mother offered praise, particularly pleased with the tasty fried yam cake, which she kept trying to convince everyone to eat. My dad who never offers comment (and thus would never make it as a Eating WA reviewer) for once did not utter a single complaint about slowness of service, bad quality of food or behaviour of staff and ate the entire dish of chilli mussel himself, so we take it that he enjoyed the experience.

The food was excellent and there is huge variety. You could say that is more Chinese orientated (thumbs up) dim sum place, while being polite to the Western palate. I encourage Westerners to try this place and that this is a place to be adventurous as you will not be stuck with anything too foreign (I did not see any giblet or pork stomach dishes offered specifically, even if they exist). The only complaint is that staff constantly try to keep offering food even after they can see we are sitting at an empty dirty table about to leave, but perhaps if they stop, we will complain they are presumptuous?

We left all with full stomachs and the price was reasonable for four people. Starrsheep says: "Welcome baaaaaa-ck The Emperor’s Court! You must be doing something right Joseph!"

Hmm.. I've just read the few reviews and have to disagree with the two negative comments of this FAB place.

Who doesn't love The Emperor's Court in Perth? It's an institution in itself.

I have traveled the world and must say that the this place is nothing less than incredible!!! I've just came back after nine months offshore and must say that the Food/Service/Varieties/Efficiency and Ambience of this place has improved greatly. It has changed hands and got heaps BETTER! Good on you Joseph.

I make it a habit to try other restaurants once every three months and I can say for certain that NO place offers the same bustling electric atmosphere of the Emperor's court on the weekend. (Not even Hong Kong or China)

Next time if any of you consider leaving a negative note about this institution, take a moment and consider the amount of people that this place caters for on the weekend. (especially on the Sunday where I was told they do up to 1000+ seatings) The pace and efficiency of the staff as they fly around is a joy to watch and unmatched anywhere!

As far as I'm concerned, Emperor's Court is the best Dim Sum place I've ever experienced.

By the way Joseph (The Boss there) is going to offer Dim Sum in the evening as well on the 18/8 this month. COOL!

Cheers

My husband and I decided to give Emperor's Court one last go for Dim Sum. We won't be back. After years of having it be our favourite dim sum place, the change of ownership (or so I've been informed) has unfortunately also meant a change in quality. The last two visits (we are persistent) weren't great, but we hoped that maybe it would take a little time to get their game up. Sorry to say the food just wasn't up to the quality of the old place. Nothing was terrible, but it was just not as good and with the number of establishments that serve dim sum in Northbridge we'll be working our way through the others till we find a new favourite. Too bad.

We had often considered going in but for one reason or another we never quite made it. That is, until last Friday night. We were very impressed. We ordered the Peking Duck (1-way). Three of us devoured it. Pancakes were fresh and homemade. Also, had XO Prawns and Beef with Garlic. Both were nicely prepared. XO Praws were good and spicey.

The service was friendly and helpful. They were very familiar with the menu and helped us with our decisions.

We had a few beers and wine and thought the prices were very reasonable for all that we had consumed.

I can't wait to go back and to also try their dim sum.

OK, I must stress that we have no knowledge of this place in the past so have taken it at face value. This review relates only to the traditional lunchtime dim sum/yum cha experience. I took my folks there last week and we attacked the many dishes with gusto. All the dumplings and dishes were very fresh, well-presented and very tasty. The service was OK for a bustling restaurant, with trolley loads of steamed, fried and baked delights being whizzed around the many tables of happy diners. The five of us left an hour and a half later, very full, very cheery and only $70 lighter in pocket (this included a $20 bottle of Chardonnay. Try the prawn or crab steamed dumplings or the pork in flat noodle rolls, light and tasty and leave you wanting another plateful.

It is with a heavy heart, that after over 20 years of consistent, gold plate winning performances and dare I say, THE BEST Dim Sum in Perth....I must report the demise....nay DEATH of the Emperors Court. Having attended this establishment regularly (and sometimes weekly over the last 10 years for the Dim Sum breakfast/lunch) We were surprised when the place recently changed hands......The new owners, to their credit did clean the place up a bit but the food is AWFUL. Whoever they have in the kitchen has little if any idea in relation to some of the signature Dim Sum dishes i.e. Pork & Chives Dumpling ( Gow Gee) pan fried then steamed was one of my favourites...This has now become a glorified Sui Mei with prawns and a different taste altogether. As for the service, I could only see one of the original waiters and the new staff have no idea about the food they are serving. The service is all over the place, disorganised and amateurish.They need to lft their game considerably to keep us as clients, we have decided to give the place one more try before we abandon it altogether.