Royal Elite Palace

Sometimes I feel awful writing reviews for catering halls because it is NOT a reflection of the host, but just my experience and opinion of the place itself.
Overall theme of the night was a severe lack in organization of the staff.
Food was really terrible. I truly cannot think of another catering hall where we’ve had worst food. Cocktail hour was a disappointment but at least it was edible. Dinner was much much worse. It was served buffet style but it was not your standard buffet set up. It was very disorganized. The dinner food seemed like it should’ve been cocktail hour food. But overly salted, probably frozen or leftovers that were reheated, and difficult to stomach.
The staff was as bad as the food. Unpolished and unprofessional. They were annoyed and gave us an attitude when we asked what type of meat they were serving. That is not an unusual question. Especially coming from brown folks… Bar was also a mess. They were constantly running out of glasses, ice, etc. At least have SOMETHING organized and together. Smh.
They were also severely understaffed. Our poor server looked miserable. I felt bad because she really was trying her hardest, she just had too many tables and things to do. ALSO, I witnessed the maitre d call her over and then literally GRAB her by the arm to hurry her up. WHAT?! Half of the people at my table saw this and we were shocked. Unprofessional and a disgraceful way to treat your servers. Shame on you. If that’s the way employees are treated in front of guests, I can’t imagine what goes on behind the scenes…
Ultimately, they were ill equipped to handle a wedding of this size (~400 guests). The two stars are for the nice set up of the room and the fact that the bride and groom had a great time (obviously, it is their wedding after all). But I definitely would not recommend this place. If I ever have to come back for another event I will make sure to eat a full meal beforehand.

This place looks pretty yes but the owner has the most nastiest attitude ever !! He is so unwelcoming and he’s getting paid. It’s not like he is giving his restaurant for free ! Don’t waste your money. The service is very bad too !!! This place doesn’t even deserve one star !!!

This is special to me because it’s where my husband and I got married. This review is long overdue. Havent been back since recently for a cousin’s wedding. I have to say this place is really something. The hall is gorgeous it’s self. Beautiful chandeliers, and marble floors etc. During planning, which any married couple will agree is pain in the ass. This place really helps you out. They gave great recommendations to us for help with flowers, bands etc. They have a incredible selection of invitations to choose from. I remember the wedding day. As soon as we can came from our shoot, we had a huge table of food waiting for us, and bridal party. They even put a huge sheet around me so my dress won’t get dirty (awesome touch). The manager, I cant remember his name was amazing. He made sure we were taken care of, and that everything ran on time and smoothly. He even helped us make our entrance. One of the coolest things this place has to offer is that they stage slides out toward the dance floor and then raises up! Very classy touch and helped us have a memorable entrance. I even remember asking the manager to save a floral arrangement from my chuppah ceremony. Which he more than happily did. Was waiting in our suite at the end of the night.
If remember correctly this placed has new management now. Doesn’t matter because now that, I got experience this place as a guest, I still give it 5 stars! Usually people complain about food, all I can do is rave about it. We had a wonderful waitress that took care of us all night. I mean she offered us everything and always made sure our glasses were full. That’s what I call 5 star service. Even gave us takeout boxes, so much of that food is left behind so why not. Overall, they made our wedding special. Service is top notch what more could you want?!

Honestly think I’m being generous by even giving this rip off place a 1 star! So here goes why I feel so much hate for this POS place. My best friend decided to host her reception party at one of their halls! Being her maid of honor, I was very involved and saw how bad IGOR their manager treated us. I felt we had to be nice to him and kiss he’s ass so that he would get things done! He was arrogant and not friendly at all. This is someone big day we are planning! He should be more understanding. And on top of it the amount of money we paid for the hall!
At the reception I had to look for their wait staff to have them come out with drinks and keep it coming so that my guest weren’t thirsty! And when the soda was served it was flat! How embarrassing!
During the reception some broad was going around taking pictures so obviously the guest thought it was part of the hired photographer crew! At the end of the evening she took it upon herself to make it a personal business– printed the pictures, framed them, and sell it for $ 20 to the guest! They never asked permission to do this! We were all kinda too busy trying to enjoy a reception party to realize this women was conducting her illegal business! But who would expect such shit!
I was so appalled with this place. People out their trying to plan the happiest day of your life don’t do it here! You’ll be stressed, ripped off, and treating like crap by MISTER fucking IGOR and he’s staff.

Elite Palace is conveniently located within Queens Boulevard and the BQE. Once you get there it feels as if it doesn’t belong there, down the block there a many factories and warehouses.
Once you go inside you forget that it’s located within an ugly area and you enter a royal palace. They have car valet where they park your car in the local street but if you want to pay the VIP $ 20 they will park your car across the street from the hall, we decided that we were ok with the local parking.
We got there 10 minutes before cocktail hour and we were greeted with a choice of either red or white wine, this was unexpected. I’ve been to halls where even if I arrived early I had to wait for the room to open, a big plus.
The cocktail hour was great we had different meats, cheeses and Asian Cuisine, for entrée we had the choice of salmon, chicken or skirt steak. First hall I’ve ever seen skirt steak in the menu, another big plus. Loved the dessert area, ice scream, chocolate fondue with your choice of strawberry or pineapple.
I never knew of this hidden gem in Queens, I am surprised that this was my first time here since I’ve been to many halls all over NYC. If you’re looking for something royal in Queens come here, it was a great time by all.

The space is quite luxurious and beautiful. The staff, as other reviewers have mentioned, are fairly curt and disinterested in what they are doing there sadly.
I was part of a bridal party and they had promised the bride & groom to have food ready for us once we’ve arrived from a day of photoshoots. Something got lost in translation and we were served a big platter of hodge podge unrecognizable salty meats.
Thankfully the food at the cocktail reception was sooo much better. The spread was insane from a caviar station, a cold salad and cold fish buffet station, and an entire hot food area complete with chicken fingers and beer battered french fries to stewed oxtails and braised beef cows feet!
The chuppah area they have is not that big and quite plain in comparison to the rest of the hall.
The food presentation during the dinner reception again was impressive but they had poor timing between courses. As we were just sitting down to the first course, they started clearing for the next course. With some protest, they brought back the sushi and salads on smaller platters. The cooked fish course was cooked nicely and delicious, the multiple courses were insane and again delicious. To top it all off the Viennese dessert hour was beautifully showcased and I’m usually not a kosher dessert fan, however, these were scrumptious.

I was in awe of the place’s elegant «oh my goodness!» chandeliers hanging in the ceilings (+ walls) all in the rooms we stayed in for last night’s event. I have never seen so much chandeliers in a catering hall in my life.. special mentioned to its ballroom which these eye catching decors amazingly sent me to Chillax mode the entire party.
The drooping holiday lights outside and the red carpet entry treatment going to my husband’s company holiday party was such a special welcome to all guests. The downside was a doubt feeling with their valet service as not sure where the hell they’d parked all the guests cars. As I heard, 600 guests were expected, even people did car pooling, still we were talking hundreds in numbers of cars. The restaurant location is in corner Queens streets, traffic gets easily congested by the dropping area.
Lobby area was welcoming. Piano, chandelier, concierge, waiting oval section seats, projection screen, check room… few on what’s there waiting for you .
On the right hand side upon entry is the cocktail room. Hors-​devours, light as I tasted, were served. The bar is on its top premium service. I have never tried cocktail drinks in my first glass that strong. Either you ’ ll pick to get drunk early or control yourself to stay longer for the night.
On the left hand side is the main ballroom. They did a wonderful job for fitting 600 – 650 people in the room. Each table could sit about 12 – 14 people. Cramped seating but the dinner was Buffet style so it worked out well to all I guess. It has a big dance floor, a stage, at least 4 projectors around the room and two bars on the back end. Have I mentioned this room has multiples and gorgeous chandeliers I have seen in my life ?
The food was all delicious. There were so many food choices that I can’t even remember what I have tried that evening. Thumbs up to their carving station. I did not like though how they set up the Buffett serving stations. A little confusing for people who lined up separately at the start but had no idea exactly how each line should end. Wondering why they used aluminum serving trays for some stations? Was it part of package pricing? Oh well, I was just a guest, not in the position to give any comments about the pricing.
The dessert table/​chocolate fountain were a nice way to end the night. I was too full to try everything but can’t resist their fondue.
Overall experience was pleasant. The place is Highly recommended (review did not include the pricing).

he Elite Palace is rated as one of the best catering halls in the New York City area. Great building, great lights, great food, but management is bullies. I know about this because I’m a former employee of the Elite Palace. Honestly one of the worst experiences in my life. From 2pm to 1am working for them was like being a part of a concentration camp. No breaks, no lunch breaks, rude management, rude co workers, horrible pay and horrible hours. Working during the hours of 2pm to 1am, the management only paid me $ 100 dollars cash. The Elite Palace management pays their employees in straight up cash. No checks. Very surprised a good business like that paying their employees straight up cash doesn’t make any sense at all.
My manager was a complete jerk. The manager was Rude, bossy and extremely violent. The manager put me and the other caterers on guard duty, to make sure no one besides family could enter the ballroom because there was a family photo shoot was going on in there. I allowed access to an individual that claimed he was paying for the event. When my manager witnessed that I allowed this man in the ballroom, the manager pushed me, and grabbed my arm with force, screaming at me and cursing me out. Then he said, «hey tougher the f#ck up! You’re black! Muscle the fu*k up!» I was very extremely shocked at his behavior. I couldn’t do anything to defend myself because I was afraid if I had said something and push him back than I would have lost my pay and my job. I was in a difficult position.
The co workers were extremely rude. No smoking breaks. No lunch breaks. Most of the employees was eating the food in the kitchen, (I didn’t blame them because we was so hungry). When the employees got caught, the managers cursed them out and ordered them out of the kitchen. Even the bathroom breaks were horrible. When I used the bathroom, the management comes into the bathrooms, banging on the stalls doors, yelling at me to get out the bathroom.
After my shift was over, the same manager that pushed me and grabbed me, pulled me to the side, opened up his wallet, grabbed a $ 100 dollar bill and handed it to me. He said here’s your pay and I don’t want you back here. Like wow. I did a 2pm to 1am shift for you. Stood on my feet all of those hours. No breaks. No lunch, taking all your crap. He didn’t say Thank You.
The dirty truth about the Elite Palace isn’t the food. The Elite Palace is a concentration camp. The management doesn’t have any concerns about their employees. Ripping their employees off with long hours, no cash pay. No food breaks. No smoking breaks. Cheap bathroom breaks.
I’m glad that the manager told me he didn’t want me back. He did me a favor because I refuse to work in those conditions.

I had my wedding here and it was smooth from start to finish. I found them to be very organized and professional from the initial phone call and emails. Igor was very pleasant, informative, and understanding of our needs. I found the pricing to be highly competitive. The food was outstanding! We received so many compliments on all the food. We did a buffet and tray service combination for the cocktail hour. There was so much food and such great variety. We had a three course sit down dinner, again, everything was great. The bar was top shelf premium as promised. We got the cake from their suggested bakery and it was phenomenal! We splurged for the chocolate fountain and dessert table and it was worth it. We also used the florist they recommended, Rich from Stefan’s. He was amazing, and they were also priced very competitively for a wedding florist. I am so happy we went along with Elite Palace after checking out literally 15 venues.

I’m convinced any good reviews on here are from the owners/​staff themselves. I have been to many weddings and I must say this place ranked really low on my list. I went as a guest to a family members wedding and as a GUEST was 3 times bombarded by staff selling or asking for money. Never in my life have I experienced such poor wait and managerial service at a venue. I saw multiple manager/​security looking people standing around and watching guests yet no one instructing the staff to attend to guests. There was a girl that was going around taking pictures of the tables. Thinking it was a hired photographer we all posed for the picture. The girl then came back around to hand us the printout which we thought was a nice touch and she turned out to be someone from the venue and asked us for $ 20 for the picture. Seriously?! The food was very bland and most of it was luke warm. I could go on about this place but really the only pro I found was that if you want a catering hall look this place will give you decent pictures. Please note if you are not Jewish/​Russian be prepared for dirty looks and poor treatment. This place is just looking to take your money and treat you like crap

Someone I love was married here on a Friday night. My 1^st impression was wow they didn’t clean the cigarette buds from out in front of main entrance from the last event they had. Then walking into the hall there were dead leaves that must have been blown in on a prior occasion because that day wasn’t windy. I proceeded to ask the manager if he could have it vacuumed before guests arrived he said sure but never did. I noticed during the cocktail hour they were still there all over the oval rug. There was NO bridal attendant and no one offered food for the bridal party while they were dressing. I had to go to front desk receptionist and ask her to send food then go back again & ask her to have someone remove the plates. The bride & grooms bridal party rooms were boiling which isn’t conducive to makeup and special occasion hairstyles. The maitre ‘d was quite rude rushing guests into ceremony room then upstairs for cocktail hour. During cocktail hour waiters didn’t enter the room they stayed by the doors and in the lobby area waiting for guests to find them. Lots of guests were missed and stayed hungry. In the main ballroom the temperature was very hot, their solution was to turn off the chandeliers which by the way make the room look more special. They had 2 males just standing guard not dressed in affair attire as if they expected a riot to happen. Dinner was varied as the wedding couple ordered but there was barely any attn paid to the tables by the waiters. Empty plates sat way too long, there was 1 pitcher of water for a table of 10. I had to specifically ask for a pitcher of soda more than one time for my table and some tables never received. The wine sat in a bucket with no ice. There was a lady taking pictures of guests then charging $ 20 per frame. The coat check person was very rude demanding $ 2 per coat. which came as a surprise for most guests. The groom was asked to leave his credit card incase there were more guests than accounted for & they had someone count the seating place cards. Overall I felt like the employees that were of the same region in Eastern Europe were all united in treating people of other nationalities (like this specific event) very rudely. Details are hugely important and customer service is key when these types of events are so costly all people want is to be treated kindly and with respect. I don’t believe this was acheived at this event and that is very sad. Please address every detail when considering this venue!!!

I think over the years this place has gotten worse.
I came here with a few friends for a party. The cocktail hour was meh! Once we got to the main hall. The table was filled with tons of salads that I couldn’t even eat.
The mash potatoes with fish was saltier than the Dead Sea. (Probably was old so they used salt to mask the taste) Most of the food was warm not hot. The meat they were serving had looked like crap. Overall. I think the reason why this place is still in business because it’s convenient for those who live in Forest hills and rego park. (Which I think is elites primary customers).
All the people that were on our table got sick from their food. I had a stomach ache for a week.
The music here was horrible. It was way too loud. Almost had no base. And the crappy djs and musicians that rock this place, probably went deaf over the years.
Over the years I have went to a bunch of clubs and parties. But this was down the hill right from the start.
If you’re in a mood to pay 200 bucks a plate and feel sick this place is right down your alley.
The server at our table was great. Can’t complain.
Anyone who would invite me to elite palace for their venue in the future, I’d have to turn them down.

Attended a function here last night.
Meh. The food was edible, not exquisite.
The bartender was overwhelmed.
The servers appeared disinterested.
On a positive note, the Men’s room was clean.

This Palace is a dream
Excellent service they have one of the best executive chef in New York area. good food beautiful atmosphere.

Just like any other glamorous hall, Elite palace has their good days and bad days. I gave it a 5 star rating because I had my wedding here and it went by great. I was grateful for the owner’s input in making sure our special day went by like we wanted.
We had the second menu, the more expensive one which is 145 $ per chair and it was an extra 2000 for the dessert table. We had about 250 people, a perfect amount, I think. We originally ordered Chivas 18 yr old, but the owner said he couldn’t get it so he substituted for a more expensive liquor, Johnnie Walker Green to be exact, which was very gracious on his part. Most importantly the tables were full, and thankfully we didn’t hear any complaints from the guests.
All in all the owner (Yanik) was pretty cool and easily reachable. We got our invitations from the hall (ordered an extra 100 and paid out of pocket for that) and they also paid for our yarmulkas. To get the date we wanted we had to pay a $ 2000 deposit and it was great that he allowed us to pay the rest off the amount the day after the wedding. This was especially nice because we were all really tired and all we wanted to do was crash.
Had a great time on my wedding day, as I always say, I was just a guest. Have been married for a total of six months now, check out my Unilocal review for Pounds and Ounces to read about my six month celebration with the wife.
For all the five stars, and the fun times, I’d say take your girl, hop on a plane, get married in Vegas and go straight for the honey moon. These big weddings are just people pleasers (unavoidable to me because of our traditions) and a big waste of money.

The restaurant is truly beautiful but beware of the incompetent valet service they place the care were it suits them and the police come and ticket the cars, and a month later you get a summons in the mail but you never saw that ticket because they threw it out. And now your date cost you $ 125 more.

I hate the staff at Elite Palace — exceptionally rude managers and non chalant waiters. I came here for a wedding and the attitude was just a disaster. To top it off there are cords from equipment all over the floor and the dessert table is in the center of the hall with no tea and coffee at individual tables. You have to carry your super hot cup of coffee back to your table praying that you won’t trip over one of those cords. Plus, the wait for coffee is ridiculous — all 400 people (its a huge hall) have to line up for some tea. To top it off, my grandmother asked the waiter for a clean spoon only for the guy to rebuff her and bring her a spoon from another end of the table that was just laying around there unclear who has used it before.

I got married here in September of last year and the night was spectacular. I had my doubts prior to the wedding day but I am so glad that everything turned out great. When I first booked, Elite Palace was pretty new so I felt that they had alot more time and were more attentive. As the year went on, they got more and more busy and it was harder to get in touch with the banquet manager, Igor. I always felt that my meetings were rushed and when I asked questions about the big day, they were either dismissed or I was told that we would talk about it closer to my wedding day. Therefore, I was a bit apprehensive for a couple of months about how it would turn out and I questioned whether I had booked at the right place.
About a month from my wedding day, I finally got on their radar and they started taking my questions seriously since the day was getting nearer. From then on, it got much better. The tasting was great and Igor made sure that we were taken care of even though he had another event going on that night. We were able to have a rehearsal the day before the wedding with my officiant and entire bridal party, which helped alot for the big day. I have heard from my guests that the food was delicious and one of my favorite aspects was the cake. I showed a design of the cake I wanted to Igor and in the end, it came out better than I had even hoped for. My maitre de and bridal attendant were amazing. They told us what to do and where to go at the right times. My husband and I would have definitely not known what to do without them.
The only major hiccup I had was with liability insurance. Elite Palace requires all of your major vendors to have an ACCORD liability insurance and to place it on file with them. Two weeks before my wedding, Igor reminded me I had to get this and it sent me scrambling to all my vendors. Some of the vendors didn’t know what it was and that was a headache but in the end everything came through.
Overall, the people at Elite Palace are experts in holding weddings and I would definitely recommend having your wedding here.

Read the google reviews that’s the kind of experience I had here. Not the kind the other Unilocaler who wrote this place up had. Dead serious.

SO I went to my friend’s wedding here and it was FABULOSO!
OH MY GOSH! Lets start first with how striking the purple lit building is at night. The people that work there are mainly Russian speaking and that might explain why the Russian community have most of their weddings there. They are the nicest staff I’ve ever met.
Second, the food was non stop and amazing. They brought out Kani Salad. That’s my friend’s favourite and they had it and it was delicious. Third, the place was totally hooked up electronically to a closed circuit tv so that everything is viewed from the back of the room so we don’t miss a thing. Third, they had a BOOM so that the camera can video things from above and sweep the dance floor for better images for the videographer. Fourth, the stage mechanically pushes out and then LIFTS the couple up into the air, turns them around and then brings them back down. Finally, this is such a beautifully decorated palace for a wedding.
My friend seemed so happy not only because this was the wedding of his life and just as he had hoped everything would turn out (can we guess Groomzilla?) but also he was marrying the most beautiful and wonderful woman.
Shocking that this place was hidden in Forest Hills. What a gem!