Golden Palace Seafood Restaurant, Cabramatta

Mud crab for $10.80 per half kilo? We couldn't get to Golden Palace fast enough. The market price for seafood changes regularly here, but as we parked in the sprawling council carpark in the middle of Cabramatta, the scrolling LED sign outside the restaurant confirmed tonight's price. We would be in for a bountiful night of seafood.


Golden Palace dining room

Golden Palace sits above an arcade of shops - all closed by dinner time on a Friday - but take the escalator up one floor and you'll be spat out the front of sprawling restaurant that looks blinged up for a wedding. Glittering disco balls, a draped chiffon ceiling and gold fabric chair coverings with giant bows make for strong wedding reception vibes. They host a lot of wedding receptions here, but tonight it's just a motley crowd of families, friends and one guy tucking into a whole crab on his own.


Seafood specials

Mud crab for one doesn't sound too ludicrous when you check out the prices. On weekends, the current price for mud crab is $29.60 per kilo but during the week that drops to $21.60.


Live mud crabs

After ordering, the live mud crabs are brought out for you to inspect before they're sent to the kitchen.


Live coral trout

The live coral trout gets a cursory inspection too.


Complimentary soup

An urn of house soup sets the scene for Speedy's celebratory birthday dinner. It's a sweet pork and vegetable broth, jam packed with pork bones, carrots and greens.


Pipis with XO sauce $29.80

Pipis arrive with speed, the glistening bivalves cooked in a thick - if a touch too sweet - sauce made with XO. The sauce is worth relishing over a pile of fluffy white rice.


Steamed scallops $5 for three

Steamed scallops are on the modest size, but at $5 for three we're not complaining. The puddle of soy and ginger in the shell is always the best part.


Mud crab with ginger and shallots $55 (crab $21.60/kg plus $10 for cooking sauce)

We splash out on two kilos of mud crab cooked with a classic combo of ginger and shallots. There's plenty of meat inside the shell. Usually we'd get this with e-fu noodles, but tonight we're all about the crab.


Mud crab with garlic and butter sauce $32 (crab $21.60/kg plus $10 for cooking sauce)

We order a kilo of mud crab swathed in garlic and butter sauce. It's our first time trying this version. The sauce has been thickened with corn starch but garlic butter and seafood? You can't go wrong. The garlic chips on top add an extra hit of garlicky goodness.


Mud crab with vermicelli $37 (crab $21.60/kg plus $15 for cooking with vermicelli)

Mud crab with vermicelli is a neat way of soaking up all the crab juices. The nest of fragrant vermicelli noodles hides of tangle of crab pieces. The going is slow when extracting crab from the shell, but the reward is worth it.


Eye fillet steak cubes in wasabi sauce $25.80 

Beef with wasabi sauce causes a few sinus-clearing moments. The cubes of eye fillet are soft and tender, pan-fried with squeaky green beans and served with an pot of wasabi sauce on the side.


Shandong chicken $18.80

The shandong chicken is a little on the dry side, with only a hint of vinegar in the dressing, but the crispy skin makes some amends.


Spicy eggplants with minced pork in clay pot $19.80

Spicy eggplant with minced pork is a clear winner. Those soft sticky pillows of eggplant melt in the mouth, peeled so there's not even the annoying distraction of eggplant skin. They soak up all the garlic, chilli and soy bean sauce so each bite explodes into a hot tasty mess. A scattering of pork mince adds an occasional protein hit.


Steamed live coral trout $78

The steamed live coral trout arrives beneath a blanket of finely shopped shallots and a scattering of coriander. The flesh is plump and flakes easily off the bone. The sauce - sweet and salty with a hint of the sea - is magical.


Fried rice noodle with beef fillet $16.80

There's some wok hei finesse with the fried rice noodles too, cooked with plenty of oil at high heat without feeling overly greasy in the mouth. The flat fresh rice noodles are slippery, coated with a good dose of oyster sauce and tumbled through with slices of seared beef fillet. Garlic chives, bean sprouts and sesame seeds add freshness and crunch.


Mud crab with salted egg yolk $33 (crab $21.60/kg plus $10 for cooking sauce)

And to finish... more crab! An order mix-up meant the kitchen sent this one out late but it proved a fitting end to our feast - mud crab coated in a layer of salted egg yolk.


Salted egg yolk 

The egg yolks of salted duck eggs are used to create a buttery, salty and eggy finish to the crustacean. We lick and scrape it off with our teeth, relishing its richness.






Golden Palace Seafood Restaurant
Level 1, 24-32 Hughes Street, Cabramatta, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9723 7668

Opening hours:
Daily 9.30am-3pm and 5.30pm-10pm


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