ALBANY — Ocean Palace, a Chinese restaurant with a 30-year history in three locations in the city, will close at the end of the month. The announcement was made online Sunday afternoon.
The name originated in 1996 at 855 Central Ave., a banquet hall-sized space that could seat 150. Today, the location is a Department of Motor Vehicles office. It’s been run since the beginning by Gene Chan, of Guangdong in southern China, and her chef-partner, Peter Chan, who’s from Hong Kong. (The matching surnames are a coincidence.)
After taking over CCK at 299 Central Ave. in 2008, an existing pan-Asian restaurant that would later become Fairy Sichuan and is now a quick-serve spot called America’s Best Wings, Chan and Chan later revived Ocean Palace in the current, diminutive space at 68 Central, a block up from Henry Johnson Boulevard.
It closed in 2024 after the partners decided to retire — Gene Chan is now 66, Peter a decade older — and found a buyer for the building and business. When the sale fell through, they closed for two months until Gene’s daughter, a pharmacist, bought the building and business from them, enabling them to keep working, at a reduced schedule of five days a week.
The return of the dim-sum destination with a vivid green exterior, only four tables and a menu of about 250 items was greeted with joy among Ocean Palace’s devotees, who had eagerly sought and exchanged what scant information was available during the closure.
During a revisit early last year, then-Times Union dining critic Susie Davidson Powell wrote, “Those mourning the closure of another long-term dim-sum fixture, the Hong Kong Bakery & Bistro on Wolf Road, should head down Central Avenue. Ocean Palace may not be big, but it’s packed with flavor and is arguably the Chans’ swan song.”
Through May 31, Ocean Palace will be open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday to Sunday, closed Monday and Tuesday. Call 518-434-2888 to order takeout. The restaurant does not offer delivery and is not on third-party apps.