Gourmet Palace China Bistro is a seemingly innocent Chinese restaurant, with operating hours ranging from 11 AM to 10 PM. Additionally, the establishment is located in Woodland Hills, on Ventura Boulevard. This is a fairly new and family-operated business with a diverse choice of Chinese cuisine.

The establishment has a relaxing modern theme, with a slick white and green aesthetic. Additionally, the restaurant is well-maintained, adding to the modern look. As you walk in, you are greeted by one of the restaurant’s staff members. When you are seated at a table, you are served a crunchy chip to snack on while you choose something from their menu. They offer a variety of food ranging from salad, soup, noodles, beef, seafood, appetizers, desserts, and chicken. Most dishes are served on square-shaped plates, with decent portions.

At Gourmet Palace China Bistro, I loved the hospitality they initially showed us. Alongside being greeted when we came in, our waiter had a warm personality and was very welcoming. I enjoyed the modern and stylish theme of the restaurant and the unique green colors around the restaurant. Everything up until waiting for our order was perfect, both the ambiance and the customer service. There were only a few groups of people at the restaurant, so we only experienced a short wait.

We ordered three dishes: Mongolian beef, Sesame Chicken, and House Special Pan Fried Noodles. For the first twenty minutes of waiting, we had suspected nothing. At the thirty-minute mark, everyone was getting pretty annoyed. Finally, after about an hour of waiting, our waitress came up to our table and told us she would start working on our food. This was shocking to all of us and further ruined our experience. The only explanation I could think of was that they had taken too many online orders, but I had no sympathy to give to the restaurant. We then received our food five minutes later. The restaurant had fooled my family and me. We had a generally negative experience at the restaurant, such as having to wait an absurd amount of time just to receive our food, the warm and positive atmosphere had tricked us.

When we eventually got to eat, I thoroughly tried all three dishes we ordered. The sesame chicken was delicious and sweet, though both the beef and noodles were mediocre at best, as the food was somewhat bland. What I can say for all three dishes is they included a lot of protein and they were large enough to feed a family of three while still having leftovers. The protein from the variety of sources of meat and the steaming hot vegetables made for a nutritional meal.

Overall, Gourmet Palace China Bistro has good potential but desperately needs to work on its time management for food. The atmosphere and attitude toward customers at the place are perfect, but everything goes downhill when you get to waiting for your food.