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Closed due to fire.
The Pink Pearl is a Cantonese and Szechwan restaurant with a west coast flair.
When dim sum at 1130. Not overly crowded and people were still waiting at the door to be shown to their tables. Felt as if the restaurant was short staff. My family was situated near the washroom so it was away from the main dining area.
Pluses
- Food was awesome. Fresh and very tasty.
- Dining area and washrooms were updated but men's washroom had no change table
- Waiters (whenever we can flag one down) were friendly
Minuses
- Slow service (including dim sum food carts) due to location of table and we were not the only patrons hunting for food since most carts went to the main dining area
- Not enough high chairs available (just imagine holding a 1 year for over an hour while trying to feed yourself and the child). Thank goodness for family.
- Shortage of staff in every department (kitchen, servers, front greeting staff, waiters, etc...). Took 15 minutes to get the bill. Could have easily walked out without paying and no one would have noticed. A lot of customers were waiting for a table but a lot of tables were cleaned and ready to go but emptied.
Since Pink Pearls recently opened after a long hiatus, wait awhile before trying it out. I'm going to let them work out their problems before I will try again. And hopefully the restaurant will have more high chairs.
We just happened to be in the area and felt like dimsum. We ordered honey spare ribs, stuffed eggplant, steamed tofu, steamed rice rolls, and some kind of dumplings. Nothing was impressive; the rice rolls, in particularly, were dry and rough. I have had much better for much less. This, plus the fact that we had to watch the waitresses arguing with the manager right in front of the customers. Not professional. We are definitely not impressed.
... why on earth Vancouverites still go there is beyond me. This is no place for even average-taste Chinese customers.
Interior is your average greasy Chinese restaurant, nothing to write home about. The location is just crap, it's hard to get much worse.
There's nothing innovative about the food, the quality is just passable. The few times I actually got sucked in, I've regretted it. It hasn't been good for _years_. The people who regularly patronize this place under the auspices of good dim sum should really get out more! It's a waste of stomach space. You won't die, but there's too little time in this life to not eat well.
Oh wait ... maybe if you can't be bothered to expand your horizons and try a different place in search of excellence, maybe you should just stay at Pink Pearl and lessen the lineup at the other places for the rest of us...
This used to be our dim sum restaurant for many years. The last two times we've been very disappointed. The first time we sent our favorite dish back (the peanut dumpling because it had no peanuts and was covered with a gummy slimy wrapper). The manager came to the table and said sorry but they have a new cook in the kitchen. We expressed our concerns as the decline in the quality was so pronounced. They used to roll around a cart that contained one item, spring rolls, calamari or whatever so you knew that it was fresh. On this occasion most carts held up to 9 different items.
We went for dim sum again this weekend and because we've gone to Pink Pearl for so many years we decided to give them another try. If anything it was even worst than the last time. Not only does each cart hold many different dishes but everything that we had was cold like it had been sitting on the counter all morning. Even the rice roll was cold. The gai lan that used to be cooked on the cart tableside is now one of the dishes on the cart that is wheeled around and it looked truly disgusting. I don't think anything was very fresh. It was not a good experience.
We will not go back. Be warned it's not what it used to be.
I've been going to this restaurant for years. Went today for dim sum and was surprised how mediocre the dim sum was. There was no creative or different, innovative food as what I've experienced in the past. This restaurant used to cater to a more prominent Chinese community but the demographic has definitely changed. Mind you I would still come here but was expecting a little bit more.
Came here for a fundraiser banquet. Tickets were only $30 and after we ate, I understood why. The food quality is below par with a tasteless cold appetizer platter, oily shrimp balls, over cooked fish, and bitter / burnt dessert. Dishes were "old school" as the previous post mentioned (which unfortunately in my mind says "no presentation" however, they were a fairly good size.)
Service was great from one server, but not so great from another. Wait staff weren't rude, and they get you what you need but you can tell they weren't specifically trained.
Not much ambiance here so those thinking of coming here to impress guests, don't. Dirty and chipped plates are common here. The room looks ok but is dated. The bathroom was nice and clean though.
Not going to be back unless I have to for another event.
Got there early. The vast restaurant was almost empty, but we were given full and friendly service right from the git go. I noted the service because, quite frankly, many Chinese restaurants seem to bend over backwards to be unwelcoming. No problems here, at least in that regard. The food featured dim sum standards, but also a number of items that were new to me. Shrimp stuffed egg plant for instance. By the time we left an hour later the place was packed an there was a line up for parking, so get there early... say 10 a.m.ish. My only complaint is that they don't have a dim sum menu, which might allow you to be a bit more strategic in your selections. Good solid dim sum standby.
Chose this place because it wasn't too far (ie not in Richmond) and they had the traditional carts. There was a big group of us, so we tried a number of different dim sum, all up to standards. We ate a lot and ended up paying about 10 bucks a head, which was fine by me. Would come here again.
I would save up to go here for dim sum. I love the traditional style of the carts, the ladies that don't speak much English (you end up trying some things you otherwise might not) and the general high quality, tasty treats. Yes, it's a little pricey, but if I want to impress guests, I take them here. I have never been disappointed.
I've obviously had dimsum and dinner at more pricier places. But somehow Pink Pearl always seems to end up seemingly more pricey for what you get than from the other places, say, the nicer newer restaurants in Richmond. Sure enough, this is located in a rather shady neighbourhood. But it's still good to visit on occassion when you want your dim sum carted around to you the good old fashioned way. The food is decent. Actually, it may be amongst the best in its class of tradition cart-arounds. But I'll keep to frequenting those order-off-the-menu-served fresh places myself.
I had their dim sum on a sunny day. It's not the best dim sum I've ever had. But it's not bad. Their dim sum tasted average. Some of them is quite boring. But the char siew bun is good. The mango pudding is worse than I expected, but I still enjoyed it since I love mango pudding. Service is jsut like the other chinese restaurants. The waitresses tend to be rushing, so I can't relax when choosing what I want.
We used to do dim sum at Pink Pearl all the time when I was a kid. I remember it being a lot better than it is now. The food was all right. My problem with them is that the same stuff came around the whole time we were there (1230). There were also crusties in my bowl and tea cup, yuck! I prefer that International Chinese place on Hastings. Lots of variety and cheaper too!
Went here Sunday morning. We were a bit on the early side but by the time we left around 10:15, it was still pretty much completely dead. The food is decidedly underwhelming. The scallop dumplings did not taste fresh and the spring rolls were very disappointing. While almost all other dim sum joints give you shrimp spring rolls, the ones at Pink Pearl are the old-fashioned egg roll kind which ground pork served with plum sauce. The prices were high in correlation to the flavour of the food. A plate of overcooked gai lan was $6.25. Don't mind paying higher prices if the food is tasty. Will definitely not come back and recommend others to stay away as well.
I first tried their dimsum about 10 years ago and deemed it one of my favourite dimsum places...I regrettably retract my decision, it is now one of the worst places you can go for dimsum.
The head staff have all changed heads, while some of the servers are the same, some super nice and friendly while others as rude as they can get.
The chopsticks were sticky and gross, so we asked them to be replaced. We were given new sticky and gross chopsticks. The dishes had crust stains on them, which was gross.
The food isn't good either. I find the dimsum at some of the other older/ugly looking restaurants on kingsway alot better tasting. I came here 2 weeks ago, there was a huge fly flying around the place on a busy Saturday afternoon. I went there yesterday for New Years (down the street from our hotel) and the same huge fly was flying around the place. Imagine how much food he's been sitting/snacking on during that 2 week period.
I am officially done with pink pearl. It's not as good as it was years ago.
We had Chinese New Year dinner and it was very disappointing. At fifty dollars a head we expected much better quality. The seafood was not fresh. The noodles were greasy, the veggies were bland. We waited a very long time for our food. We were in a group with a reservation and the menu was pre set so the was no excuse for the delay.
Used to be a great place for dim sum in the mid 1980's when I was a regular there. Lately, I have noticed that the food, although still good, has become very expensive. The crowds and noisy atmosphere and so- so service make it a whole lot less appealing. I can think of better places to go for dim sum.
To me, the dim-sum quality at Pink Pearl is equivalent to fast food burgers in western food. I believe this place was once new, popular, and probably one of the best dim-sum place in Vancouver area. Unfortunately, with all the new good dim-sum restaurants emerged in Richmond area, and without any improvement or innovation, Pink Pearl has probably been pushed out of the list for best dim-sum in the area. I took a friend from chicago to this place thought that I can show her a good place for dim-sum, but both of us came out stunned and disappointed with just overall experience. Feeling extremely unsatisfied, I took her to Shiang Garden for dim-sum the next day to make up for the unpleasant memory.
To sum it up, if you like the old fasion cart service, or the only thing you like in dim-sum is BBQ pork bun, or you haven't tried dim-sum in your lifetime before, Pink Pearl will do just fine for you.
But if you are from Hong Kong or from Asia, and you expect not just good, but a true dining experience equivalent to one in asia, then I suggest you head west to Richmond.
Food and service in the restaurant is decent.
Restaurant locates in seperate neighbourhood with frequent occurance of car break in and crack dealing.
We have always been happy with Pink Pearl, but not anymore.
After waiting for 20-some minutes for a table for their famous dim-sums, we were seated near the kitchen (which I thought was a good thing).
After sitting there for a some time we started to notice that the wait staff had the propensity to give the bigger tables much faster service than the smaller ones. When we tried to order items directly, the waiter would told us they were not available that day. Then in a minute, the same item(s) that we were told unavailable showed up in quantity at the bigger tables. The dim sum carts also tend to gravitate toward them and, by the time we got a chance to order, everything was already sold out. As for the dim-sums, they were much too expensive for their quality. They were in such a big rush, that some of the food wasn't even fully cooked, or "thinned out". We were totally unsatisfied.
Good food, service and the loud and busy atmosphere that makes a fun dim-sum experience.
The food is tasty and filling with a great selection of the tradition dim-sum dishes. The carts come really fast, no waiting, just eating.
I have been to Hong Kong and this was pretty close to what you get there in terms of atmoshere and menu.
Please Note - The review below this is total garbage because Richmond is in fact South of Vancouver and not West of Vancouver. Did you even eat at the Pink Pearl? Get your directions straight pal.
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