Pearl castle is a drinks establishment, the food is there only if you are really starving and need nourishment badly. Maybe it would taste good if you haven't eaten in three days, doubtful.

Out of a party of 6, we ordered 4 entrees and a couple drinks. Do not order entrees, go after you have had a proper meal elsewhere. The Taiwanese meat sauce and noodles I ordered were incredibly bland and lacking in any flavour; it tasted like leftover shredded pork microwaved with some instant noodles. Two of our party ordered hot pot sets, one seafood miso and one lamb I believe. Both lacked the variety of meat that you would expect from a rather expensive set meal; the seafood hot pot seemed to be half made up of fish cake, while the lamb hot pot was mostly soggy vegetables. The worst was the breaded chicken on fried rice entree my friend ordered. The fried rice was dry and the breaded chicken was more "bread" than chicken, and overall it was also very dry and salty. The kicker is my friend went home to a night of stomach issues.

The two people who only ordered drinks were the lucky ones. Pearl castle has decent pearl tea and smoothie drinks, although slightly more expensive than elsewhere. The service was the usual curt and impersonal but efficient service you'd expect from such places, and the ambiance is similar to a White Spot full of Chinese people. Again, if you stick to the drinks menu you should be fine.

I used to be a regular patron of this place meaning that I'd go there at least once a month. Now I just can't stand it anymore

Service: Is that even service??
Got sworn at by the waitress for waiting for a seat.... Can you believe it???

Food: Dirty, what else?
Ordered a curry but had stickers in it (FRUIT stickers)!!!! Told them about it, but they did NOTHING about it!!!

Ambiance: Dirty to the regular folk!
If you consider sticky n' stained seats clean, then it's clean!!!

The food and ambiance of this place is not the best, but acceptable to the regular student and it's a nice place to chill and talk. Not really expecting much from their service, but just had it when the waitress swore at me!!! Was waiting for a seat for 45 minutes and the waitresses kept on giving seats away to her 'friends'. It's normal when it's just one or two tables (I'm reasonable), but FIVE tables???? Then asked her when I will be able to be seated in a nice manner "excuse me, I waited for 45 minutes already! When will I be able to get a seat?". The response was some mandarin swear words and I was shocked!!!! Got mad and went out with friends and slammed their door!!! Never got as angry as this at a public place! BOYCOTTING IT!!!!

This taiwanese girl was serving our table and she was one of those high school 'barbies'. Most of the time she would just socialize with her friends. My sister ordered a drink with grass jelly and they gave her grape jelly. my pearls were a little soggy and the drink was a little watered down. my friend on the other hand had the 'best drink', and it was nothing compared to the bbt at bbworld. my sisters bf had to wait 30 mins for his fried rice to come. 30 mins for fried rice and there were several egg shells in it when it arrived. overall, i would eat there again, maybe once every 2 months.

I've been to Pearl Castle a few times but always during the day, or at most, for early dinner. My friends and I came in this time around 11pm and boy, was it a different experience.

I tried ordering 2 drinks of which the server said they were out of. I chose a 3rd drink but the server came back and told me there were no more pearls. How can a bubble tea place run out of pearls? Shouldn't they keep stock of these essentials? Or perhaps they were too lazy to make more seeing how they were closing soon?

Speculation aside, my friend's drink arrived but they had given him coconut jelly instead of grass jelly. The server then came to confirm that he wanted his Ginger Tea hot instead of cold. When he said yes, she said "are you sure?" several times, which is strange because the menu lists both hot and cold for this drink.

Quality of the drinks were pretty good but not the best. I want to come back but the lack of customer care is kind of a turn off. The kicker was that my drink was still at regular price even without the pearls when I got the bill. I know it's only 75 cents, but why am I paying for something that I didn't get (and it was the restaurant's fault)? That just shows they don't care =(

I went here today for lunch.
I ordered the Botany Chicken Hot Pot and my friend the Ginseng Chicken Hot Pot. (both $8.95)
I ordered udon noodles for extra $2 to come with my hot pot not knowing that they already included rice in the price.
Note: don't order the udon or the vermicilli as the big bowl of rice is plenty. I just thought I was adding to the hot pot. Plus $2 extra for a very small amount of udon is a crime.
The food was very tasty but there was not that much chicken. The meat was all the drumstick part of the chicken but it was all cut up so I ended up with tons of the end of the drumstick with just the cartilage, no meat.

The service is slow but at least the wait staff are very pleasant and smile a lot - more so than most Chinese restaurants in Richmond.

The place is very clean, furniture is modern and the restaurant has lots of good lighting and looks very spacious and airy.

All in all, I would go back but I just wouldn't order the same dish again b/c of the lack of chicken. There were other dishes I saw them bring out that looked tasty and more value for the money, especially the fried rice dishes.
For $8.95

...but the food is pretty solid. That is if you order the hotpot meals that comes on a tray with a smokin' hot pot/dish of whatever meat/sauce selection. It comes with rice/noodle and some kind of asiany yummy tasting jello. Can't go wrong for less than $10. Of course with ANY chinese place in Richmond, always remember to bring cash and anticipate a wait - to get in and for your food. The ambiance was nice and well lit. The seating is tight and it reminded me of being in most restaurants in New York, where I'd be literally shoulder to shoulder with my neighbor and pretty much hear their entire conversation. =) Overall, not a bad place to go to in the middle of the week. I'd most likely stay away on the weekends though. We did end up trying some drinks - a red bean slush and the blue baby, which was a green colour, not blue. The drinks are not bad, but I have yet to try some more cuz I'm not really a huge BBT fan. Oh well - I do like their hotpot dishes!

I used to be a regular, but suddenly, the staff turned sour, and the food bland. And did the prices go up too or is it just me?

I was appauled by the service I recieved last time I went. It was fairly empty when I arrived (3 other small tables were filled). The waitresses took FOREVER to take our orders, some where chatting in the hallways, others seemed to just ignore us. After about 10 minutes of trying to waive someone over, we just walked up and gave our orders. It was very frustrating, especially for a hungry person!

The drinks I find now are a bit overpriced, and water comes in tiny cups that after asking to have refilled when food is served, is completed after a meal is finished. I think the food also used to taste better. Something is definitely wrong with their sweet and sour sauce, it was sweet and incredibly salty. Other food was normal, but smaller portioned? Atleast the side dishes were a little skimpy that day.

I'm not sure if I'll try going again, perhaps only because its open very open for a non-take out meal and theres nothing else available. I hope they step up their act!

There's always a long line up at this place. I ordered the pork chop rice and a lemon red tea with coconut jelly. The pork chop was sliced too thin, I felt like I was eating a piece of deep fried dough. I have also tried the beef hot pot, the soup base is quite good, a little on the sweet side, but again, the pieces of beef are so small, I hardly noticed them at all.

The drinks are good, but i think they are overpriced; around 4.75-5.50 for a drink without tips.

The service is fast and efficient, and the waitresses have a great memory.

I will go back to this place for the drinks.

Probably has the best bubble tea in richmond. Mango slush is soo good. My girlfriend and I always order it when we go.

The food is decent though, and it never really fills me up.
But overall, very good.
The snacks are awesome, but I will have to say that their noodle soups, the soup tastes like msg mixed in water. No real flavour to it.
However, its always packed, so if you dont like waiting half an hour for a table, this place is not for you.

Mrs. C and I were starving in Richmond, and decided to give PC a try. The place is nice inside, and the menu had lots of choices, mostly Taiwanese dishes. The server seemed harried but efficient, and we soon had our orders placed. I ordered a strawberry milk tea which was fabulous. Then on to the mains: I had satay pork and fried noodles, and my lunch companion had deep fried pork chop with noodles in soup. Both came with a dessert.

The satay pork was tasty and a huge potion. One downside was that it had something gritty in the sauce. Not sure what it was, but I am guessing cheap satay sauce was the culprit. It came with a side of kimchi, and a tarry bean pudding dessert. The pork chop was a little dry and bony, but the noodles in soup were reported to be great, and the pudding was also tasty if weird-looking, so Mrs. C said she had a mixed reaction to her meal. Lots of the other diners were eating little hotpots, and we might try that next time.

Definitely a good place to get a milk tea or a bubble tea, with a huge selection to choose from. The food could be much better though.