Dim Sum From Koi Palace Coming to Ghirardelli Square

The team behind Daly City’s dim sum powerhouse Koi Palace plans to open a new restaurant in Ghirardelli Square called Palette. That project is in its early stages and will eventually arrive in the former Waxman’s space at 900 North Point Street.

Waxman’s, a big-name restaurant from James Beard Award-winning chef Jonathan Waxman, couldn’t fill its massive 6,500 square-foot, 200-seat restaurant space, closing last year. One obvious obstacle to its success: San Francisco residents typically shun Fisherman’s Wharf as a tourist trap.

But the team behind Koi Palace, who earned a James Beard Award nomination of their own this year, aren’t scared of big spaces and large tourist crowds. And if they can lure SF locals down to Daly City, as they do, perhaps a Koi Palace offshoot in Ghirardelli Square can make them swallow their pride and eat in Fisherman’s Wharf (as, honestly, they occasionally will for SF’s only In-N-Out).

Koi Palace already operates one San Francisco restaurant: Dragon Beaux, which opened in the Richmond in 2015 and is also owned by the Ng family, who opened Koi Palace in Daly City in 1996. The Ngs also run Koi Palace locations in Dublin and Milpitas.

But it’s the palate-pleasing dumplings at Dragon Beaux, served in a painterly palette of unusual colors, that provides the inspiration for the new restaurant’s name and also for its menu. Palette will serve more Instagram-ready dim sum by day, and by night will offer seafood and barbecue prepared and served at various stations. Palette also plans to display large fish tanks, in keeping with Koi Palace custom and Fisherman’s Wharf tourist restaurant protocol.

• Koi Palace team to bring dim sum to Ghirardelli Square [SF Chronicle]