Located in the Center of Amsterdam near the Central Station, the Sea Palace is Europe’s first floating restaurant. It was built in pagoda style with over 650 seats spread over its three floors – there’s always a space for every traveler looking to explore this beautiful restaurant. Despite the ever-changing environment, this restaurant has always remained an attractive spot. With the authentic local Chinese dishes made here, this is an imperial setting that every traveler must add to their bucket list. Looking for a perfect place to have a romantic dinner? Welcome To Sea Palace, Europe's first fully-floating restaurant.
About the Sea Palace
The Sea Palace was constructed in 1984 and became an important landmark in the center of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The restaurant was considered the largest Chinese restaurant in the world, having enough space to seat 900 visitors at once. A group of entrepreneurs from Amsterdam and Hong Kong financed its construction, and it took over 4.3 million Euros to complete the project. The Chinese design of this restaurant makes it so unique, giving an outstanding look over other restaurants around Amsterdam. The atmosphere around here is only found in China.
Visiting the Sea Palace
It is just a five-minute walk from Amsterdam's Central Station. The à la carte section and a bar serving cocktails are located on the restaurant' first floor. For some romantic private dining, visitors can head to the top floor and have an amazing experience in this stunning building. The restaurant's largest room can accommodate 80 guests and the smaller one 13 guests. Visitors looking to occupy the building's larger room get access to the roof terrace, which offers a beautiful view of the sea and the Amsterdam area. Visitors using the larger room also get access to the hotel's Karaoke system for entertainment.
Being owned by a family, this place will always feel like home, and the locals consider the restaurant a city institution. It is always flocked with tourists, given its incredible views and top-notch reservations. When visiting the Sea Palace, travelers can use their credit cards, and different currencies are accepted. The staff is super-friendly, fast, and efficient. The lunch and dinner experience at Sea Palace is second to none.
The restaurant gets quite busy, and it is advisable to book ahead (available online), especially if one is looking to sit by the window to enjoy the beautiful view of the surrounding.
- Opening Hours: The restaurant operates every day, including weekends from 12:00 pm to 10:00 pm. The Sea Palace’s kitchen is closed at 09:30 pm.
Experience Sea Place Delicacies
Sea Palace started running as a Chinese-Indonesian eatery. After some time, the restaurant changed its menu and started preparing authentic Chinese cuisine. Dim Sum and Cantonese are the most common dishes prepared here – prepared the traditional way, by a professional dim sum chef. Dim Sum translates to "touch your heart," and it's one kind of Chinese dish that gives the perfect Chinese culinary experience. At Sea Palace, one will taste this dish and feel like they are in China.
Sichuan Cuisine, Cantonese Cuisine, and Beijing duck are also on the menu and often attract many travelers. Sichuan Cuisine features lots of flavors prepared with Sichuan peppers, garlic, and chili peppers as the main ingredients. To prepare quality Cantonese Cuisine, professional chefs mainly use meat dishes – garlic, oil, herbs, put at minimum are its main ingredients. Mouth-watering delicacies are also available at the Sea Palace restaurant. Visitors can make their own selection from the menu or let the restaurant staff surprise them.
However, the menu here is not as extensive as in other Chinese restaurants and the prices are quite high, even for the drinks. Having Chinese dishes here will always flourish, regardless of the choices a traveler makes. Those with certain food allergies can contact the Sea Palace before they visit. The principle of shared dining applies when the waiters serve food. Whenever a visitor order food, it means they have to share it with all the people surrounding the dinner table. This allows travelers to enjoy the taste of several delicacies with Chinese flavors. This kind of environment is what every visitor needs after a long day of work or exploring Amsterdam.
The restaurant tends to be strict in the way they select suppliers and ingredients they use to prepare food because they value the quality of dishes, they serve their customers. The combination of delicacies served in this beautiful restaurant offers an amazing experience.
Other Facilities
The restaurant features two VIP rooms providing an exclusive dining experience to travelers visiting in groups (of 10 to 100), say, for business meetings. Visitors dreaming of a perfect Chinese wedding can travel to Sea Palace and use this beautiful restaurant as their venue!
Exploring Sea Palace, Europe's first fully floating restaurant is an experience to remember. The restaurant is just perfect, from its appearance, location, grandeur, and cuisine. Chinese food lovers have every reason to visit and pamper themselves at the Sea Palace.