diff --git a/packages/base-manager/src/utils.ts b/packages/base-manager/src/utils.ts
index 0e0c7f59ba1..b8a26bad008 100644
--- a/packages/base-manager/src/utils.ts
+++ b/packages/base-manager/src/utils.ts
@@ -298,3 +298,16 @@ export function bufferToBase64(buffer: ArrayBuffer): string {
 export function base64ToBuffer(base64: string): ArrayBuffer {
   return toByteArray(base64).buffer;
 }
+
+
+/**
+ * Map a function onto a list in batches, resolving each batch of returned
+ * promises before moving to the next batch.
+ */
+export async function mapBatch<T, U>(list: T[], step: number, fn: (value: T, index: number, array: T[]) => Promise<U> | U, thisArg?: any): Promise<U[]> {
+  const results = [];
+  for(let i = 0; i < list.length; i+=step) {
+    results.push(...await Promise.all(list.slice(i, i+step).map(fn, thisArg)))
+  }
+  return results;
+}
diff --git a/packages/jupyterlab-manager/src/manager.ts b/packages/jupyterlab-manager/src/manager.ts
index c1b306339a1..c7416b12702 100644
--- a/packages/jupyterlab-manager/src/manager.ts
+++ b/packages/jupyterlab-manager/src/manager.ts
@@ -19,7 +19,8 @@ import {
 import {
   ManagerBase,
   serialize_state,
-  IStateOptions
+  IStateOptions,
+  mapBatch
 } from '@jupyter-widgets/base-manager';
 
 import { IDisposable } from '@lumino/disposable';
@@ -144,9 +145,11 @@ export abstract class LabWidgetManager extends ManagerBase<Widget>
     }
     const comm_ids = await this._get_comm_info();
 
-    // For each comm id that we do not know about, create the comm, and request the state.
-    const widgets_info = await Promise.all(
-      Object.keys(comm_ids).map(async comm_id => {
+    // For each comm id that we do not know about, create the comm, and
+    // request the state. We must do this in batches to make sure we do not
+    // exceed the ZMQ high water mark limiting messages from the kernel. See
+    // https://github.com/voila-dashboards/voila/issues/534 for more details.
+    const widgets_info = await mapBatch(Object.keys(comm_ids), 100, async comm_id => {
         try {
           await this.get_model(comm_id);
           // If we successfully get the model, do no more.
@@ -192,8 +195,7 @@ export abstract class LabWidgetManager extends ManagerBase<Widget>
 
           return info.promise;
         }
-      })
-    );
+      });
 
     // We put in a synchronization barrier here so that we don't have to
     // topologically sort the restored widgets. `new_model` synchronously