Live lobster at a Kentucky buffet? That was not on my bingo card.
This Louisville restaurant has been serving Hong Kong-style Chinese food for decades, but the buffet is only part of what makes it interesting.
The real surprise sits on the larger menu. Alongside familiar favorites, diners can order a live lobster dish prepared with ginger and scallion.
You can still build a quick buffet plate, but there is plenty here that pushes the meal beyond the usual buffet routine.
I’d probably come for the buffet and end up staring at the lobster menu instead.
Would you order it?
Jade Palace Has Served St. Matthews For Decades
Jade Palace has been part of the St. Matthews dining scene for decades, serving Hong Kong-style Chinese food from its Louisville location.
The current ownership family took over in 2016, continuing the restaurant while keeping its Hong Kong and Cantonese menu focus in place.
The restaurant is open seven days a week, which gives you flexibility when you want to stop for lunch, dinner, buffet service, or an order from the regular menu.
Its address at 1109 Herr Ln puts it in a busy commercial part of St. Matthews, making it easy to work into errands or a longer day around Louisville.
You do not have to approach the meal one particular way. The restaurant offers a buffet, a full menu, dim sum, and Chinese brunch, so the experience can change depending on what you want that day.
That range also makes it useful for groups. One person can stay close to familiar buffet favorites while someone else explores seafood, noodles, dumplings, or Cantonese specialties.
If you are visiting for the first time, take a moment to look beyond the buffet before deciding what to order. A quick look at the larger menu can completely change the direction of the meal.
The Buffet Is Only One Part Of The Menu
The buffet gives Jade Palace its casual, easygoing side, but the restaurant’s larger menu goes much further.
You can choose the buffet when you want variety without ordering several separate dishes, then return another time for a meal built around one or two specific specialties.
The regular menu covers appetizers, soups, lunch combinations, vegetables, chicken, beef, pork, lo mein, seafood, fried rice, chow mein, egg foo young, ho fun, mei fun, hot pots, noodles, and larger family-style dishes.
There is also a dedicated Hong Kong-style dim sum section and a separate group of authentic Chinese dishes.
That means the buffet does not define the entire restaurant. It works more like one option inside a much broader menu.
If you are eating with people who order differently, that can make the meal easier. Some diners may want the flexibility of a buffet plate, while others may prefer to order seafood or dim sum for the table.
You can also mix the two approaches. One person can choose the buffet while the table adds a few menu items to share.
The biggest surprise comes when you reach the seafood section, where Jade Palace moves far beyond the usual buffet format.
That is where the live lobster appears.
Live Lobster With Ginger And Scallion Leads The Seafood Menu
One of the most distinctive items on the menu is stir-fried live lobster with ginger and scallion.
The lobster is prepared Cantonese-style in the shell with ginger, scallions, and a lightly seasoned sauce. The listed size generally runs around one and a half to two pounds, making it a substantial dish for the table.
This is not an unlimited buffet item. You order it separately from the regular menu, just as you would any other seafood specialty.
That distinction is useful if the lobster is the reason you are making the trip. Start with the regular menu rather than assuming it will be waiting on the buffet line.
Ginger-and-scallion lobster is a classic Cantonese preparation. The aromatics are cooked with the lobster while the shell remains part of the presentation, giving you a dish designed for sharing and eating piece by piece.
If you have only experienced Jade Palace through the buffet, this dish shows how much more the kitchen offers.
You can keep the rest of the meal simple with rice and vegetables or add dim sum and other seafood dishes if you are sharing with a group.
Because it is a large, shell-on seafood dish, it also works naturally as the centerpiece of a shared meal rather than a quick individual plate.
Hong Kong-Style Dim Sum Gives You Plenty To Share
Dim sum is another major part of Jade Palace’s menu.
The restaurant offers Hong Kong-style dim sum with items such as pork-and-shrimp dumplings, shrimp dumplings, pot stickers, barbecue pork buns, spare ribs with black bean sauce, and sesame-based sweets.
The format works especially well when you want to share. Instead of choosing one large entrée for each person, you can order several small dishes and pass them around the table.
That gives you room to try different textures and fillings without committing the whole meal to one plate.
Chinese brunch is also part of the restaurant’s offerings, which gives the dim sum side another reason to stand apart from the buffet.
If dumplings are your priority, you can build most of the meal around dim sum and skip the buffet entirely. If you want a wider spread, combine a few small plates with a larger noodle, duck, or seafood dish.
The menu is broad enough that you can keep things familiar or move toward dishes you may not order as often.
That flexibility is especially useful when several people are sharing. Start with a few dim sum plates, see what disappears first, and add a larger entrée if the table still has room.
Seafood Goes Far Beyond The Lobster Dish
Live lobster gets the attention, but it is only one part of Jade Palace’s seafood selection.
The menu includes a seafood combination with lobster, shrimp, scallops, calamari, crab meat, vegetables, and white sauce.
You can also find whole-fish preparations and other seafood dishes built around flounder, bass, Chinese perch, pompano, shrimp, scallops, and calamari.
Steamed and fried preparations appear alongside stir-fried dishes, so you have several ways to approach the seafood section.
If you want something less elaborate than the live lobster, shrimp dishes give you plenty of alternatives. If you are sharing a larger meal, a whole fish or seafood combination can become the center of the table.
That variety reflects the restaurant’s Hong Kong-style identity more clearly than the buffet alone can.
You do not need to order the most unusual item to see that side of the menu. Even a simple meal of shrimp, vegetables, rice, and dim sum can take you well beyond the steam-table choices.
If seafood is your main reason for visiting, read the full menu before settling on an order. The range gives you several options for building a shared meal around shellfish or fish.
Cantonese Dishes Add Another Layer Beyond The Buffet
Jade Palace also keeps a substantial Cantonese and traditional Chinese menu alongside its buffet and dim sum.
Cantonese roast duck is available, along with noodle dishes, ho fun, chow mein, pork, beef, chicken, vegetables, hot pots, soups, and family-style combinations.
That gives you another route through the menu if seafood is not what you want.
Roast duck can anchor a shared meal, while Cantonese noodles or rice dishes make easy additions for the table. Vegetable dishes help round things out when you are ordering several larger plates.
The restaurant’s broader menu is especially useful if you want to eat family-style. Rather than everyone ordering separately, you can choose a few dishes with different proteins and textures and share them.
If you usually think of Jade Palace mainly as a buffet, this side of the menu changes the picture.
The restaurant has enough range for a quick buffet lunch, a dim sum-focused meal, or a longer dinner built around duck, seafood, noodles, and shared plates.
That makes the menu much more flexible than the buffet label suggests, and it gives you a reason to look through the full selection before settling into one style of meal.
This Louisville Buffet Restaurant Gives You Several Ways To Order
Jade Palace works best when you treat the buffet as one option rather than the whole experience.
You can walk in for a straightforward buffet meal, order Hong Kong-style dim sum, build a Chinese brunch, choose Cantonese roast duck, or make seafood the center of the table.
The live lobster with ginger and scallion is the clearest example of how far the menu reaches beyond the buffet. It is a separate regular-menu dish, prepared Cantonese-style and generally listed at around one and a half to two pounds.
The address is 1109 Herr Ln, Louisville, KY 40222, and the restaurant is open daily.
If you are visiting with a group, look over the menu before everyone heads toward the buffet. Sharing dim sum, noodles, duck, or seafood can give you a completely different meal from the steam-table route.
You can also keep the visit simple. Choose the buffet when that is what you want and save the larger menu for another day.
Either way, Jade Palace gives you more than one path through the meal, with Hong Kong-style dishes, seafood, dim sum, and Cantonese specialties all under the same roof.