China Pearl Restaurant

2.5 stars, amateur hour. Have had better dimsum in Phoenix — yikes. Listed in order of disappointment:
— Siu mai (pork/​shrimp dumpling): tasteless, bland. You just can’t mess up siumai as a dimsum spot.
— Luo buo gao (turnip cake): zero turnip, bland, grease-​covered and swimming in hoisin sauce
— Gai lan (Chinese spinach): so oily that our chopsticks kept slipping
— Chang fen (steamed rice cake): sauce was off-​tasting
Taro toast and ha gao (shrimp dumplings) were tasty, sole redeeming dishes of our meal. BBQ pork buns and luo mi ji (lotus leaf-​wrapped sticky rice) were decent.
Service/​logistics was another issue — despite being seated in the central dining room, carts were scant/​sporadic — we would easily go 15 minutes without a cart, highly unusual for a dimsum venue.
Look forward to visiting Hei La Moon and Winsor on future dimsum cravings.

No wait on a beautiful Sunday! A very nice place for dim sum in Boston! The serving staff are polite and helpful. The food is good and typical dim sum fare which is what we enjoy. Try to get seated by noon because there was a line when we left. Don’t let a line discourage you though, it moves quick. I like Winsor also, across the street, but if you want the whole experience with the carts and large family tables, China Pearl is it.

First of all, the front façade of the restaurant looks shabby enough to ruin anyone’s appetite. The carpeting of the stairs that lead up to the dining room is so oily and soiled that I was afraid I was getting the soles of my shoes dirty.
The food is nothing special and sort of tasteless. And the service is lousy either because these are demoralized low paid wait staff or their command of English is sub par. Last summer during a banquet in the restaurant, my 20 year old son went up to the buffet to get food and the server rudely shouted at him, «No, go back to your seat!». Another instance of ruining one’s appetite. NEVER WILL EAT AT CHINA PEARL!

Went for a late lunch yesterday. The place has declined. Water not offered. Mai Tai were good tasting but very weak. The scallion pancake was a limp oil soaked mess. Egg rolls greasy and predominantly cabbage filled. So disappointing. There are no condiments on the table and when we asked for chili oil and vinegar for dumplings the language barrier resulted in a tiny, and I mean tiny, dish of chili sauce and no vinegar. I think over priced. Lunch for two came to $ 87 before tip. I got the feeling they were either financially struggling with all the omissions and small portions or just trying to increase profits by minimizing what is offered Nd increasing prices. I do not know if we would go back.

Always great comfort food. Dim sum even starting at 12:30 on a Sunday was busy and we got a good variety of dishes. Great seafood choices as well. Good service!
Takes credit card

Let me preface this with I’m a San Fransisco native, so All East Coast Dim Sum is going to be a little Disappointing.
I have been craving good quality Dim Sum for years, but have not had the time to travel out of CT where the selection is sad at best. So when I went today for a short christmas day trip to Boston, I had to try and get some Dim Sum. Over all this was a fantastic place, and honestly if I wasn’t spoiled I may have rating it Higher, I am going to start with the Positives and then head on over to the negatives. We chose to come here over the other Dim Sum restaurants on this street because of the people we saw eating here, Mostly asian people, and the smells coming out of the door, Follow your nose people, it usually never leads you astray!
On the Positive side,
All the food I had was warm/​hot and fresh. I was impressed with the food quality, The building was nice on the inside, it looks like they took the time to make the place look amazing. getting a table was a little hectic, but it was just two of us, and they are more set up for large groups, and we did come a little later than typical Dim Sum start time, so I didn’t mind the wait. The Hostess was amazing, she made sure we knew how Dim Sum worked, and even went as far as to break the pricing down on our tally sheet for us so we could keep track of our spending. The Carts were stocked with various delights, although we did see some carts that didn’t seem to come to our area, then again we didn’t sit and wait for too long, we could have just been too impatient, and missed their rotation through. For the two of us we spent about 30 bucks before tips, which is a good price for decent Dim Sum.
On the negative,
The only dish we tried, that I wasn’t particularly impressed with was the Pork buns, They had almost a sugar glaze on them, instead of just the bun being sweet, so the sugar almost overwhelmed the savory of the pork. The ladies who were pushing the carts did not speak english very well, and what little they did speak was quiet and difficult to understand, but they were more than happy to open up a dish so you could see what they were trying to ask you about, which also meant you got a good sniff of the food, so even if you didn’t know what it was, you could make a good guess as to if you wanted it. The wait between some of the carts was longer, which was kind of annoying, but it gave you time to sit and chat, and make sure you really needed that extra plate of goodies! It is very easy with the carts, to take everything! Don’t they will circle back, and if you get a plate of everything in the first shot, you will have to much food!!!
Over all this was a great experience, and I would come back, I might even bring people to try Dim Sum here, there is no comparison to out west, although Im sure even that is nothing in comparison to what Dim Sum in China would actually be. I haven’t tried many other places here in Boston, but this is the one to beat!

I find that this place have more options than other dim sum restaurants in the area. The restaurant looks somewhat small, and it is very busy. The staffs are very nice and quick with assisting you with what you need. I think I have found my go to Dim Sum for Boston. Next time, I will come back with my whole family to have breakfast together here. Each plate/​item is about $ 5 each.

Quality dimsum, with fast service, a gorgeous setting, and generous portions. Best of all, the price was reasonable — I was with a party of five, and we ended up ordering 10 – 12 platters of food. It came down to a pretty cheap $ 12 per person. Highly recommended for big group get togethers!
(I also had quality company, though, so perhaps this review is somewhat biased ;D)

Food: 3
Service: 4
Value: 3
Overall:
I come here when I don’t feel like waiting at Winsor across the street. The wait here is almost always negligible. They also have carts here. However, the selections, especially the turnip cake, are of lower quality.
Food:
Most of the food items here are so-​so. I was particularly disappointed with the turnip cake, which was mostly bland and even a little bit burnt, and very greasy.
Service:
Service is good. Carts come around often (unless you’re seated in a far off corner), and you rarely have to wait long to be seated. The space is also very large, and there is ample seating.
Value:
Prices are reasonable. Nothing to write home about.

First time back to China Pearl since it was one of my first dim sum haunts back in the 80s.
We went unusually early (9 am) so that’s not a good test of how hot the food was, how many carts were rolling, etc. But the dim sum was solid, if unexceptional, and everything was hot and fresh. The pineapple buns (my kid’s favorite) were a standout. Really, really good.
Would have liked to see more unusual dishes — didn’t see anything we don’t get down here in VA.
Verdict: Won’t knock the socks off dim sum aficionados, but a good safe choice.

Dim sum brunch is always a treat, but this place was a bit disappointment for a few reasons:
The dim sum norms I’m used to were lacking here: shrimp toast, peking duck, soup dumplings, chili oil, shrimp balls.
There was an attendant in the poorly maintained bathrooms blocking access to the paper towel dispenser. I wasn’t sure what to do with her, and was vaguely uncomfortable with the situation.
There’s a liquor bar at the front of the restaurant, but no easy way to actually cut through the queue of folks waiting to pay their bills… and when I asked our server for a drink menu, I was brought two identical take out menus. Finally, there was no follow up on whether I wanted to order anything off a menu either way until we were 2/​3rds into our meal. Seeing the option of the bar but being unable to actually access it was a frustration I could have done without.
Add these annoyances to the difficult parking, language barrier (about half of our servers didn’t understand our questions), and $ 60 price tag for four people, and I’m glad to be able to access dim sum in the Great State of Texas.*
*Austin and Houston dim sum experiences only.

If you want to be that guy who knows what’s up:
Char siu bao from China Pearl. $ 1.25 a pop. Walk in, order them to go. Ho Yuen? lol no yuen.

My friends brought me to this old-​school dim sum restaurant in the heart of Chinatown last weekend, and we pigged out to our hearts’ content. I’ve had a lot of dim sum in my lifetime, and I’d say this was pretty average. They had most of the classic dishes, and they were no better nor worse than your standard dim sum restaurant. The main issue was that nothing really stood out, and I don’t think I’d go back for any particular dish.
The best dish was the black bean spareribs, which were meatier than the ones I’ve had elsewhere. The best dessert was the pumpkin glutinous rice with bean paste. Everything else was relatively unmemorable. The char siu bao were disappointing in the amount of roast pork filling, and I thought the rice rolls with shrimp needed more shrimp. Each roll only had about one medium-​sized shrimp each, which meant it was particularly hard to split them. I waited and waited for the har gow (my favorite), but they never came around.
Speaking of waiting, I would have given this place four stars if not for the long wait times between carts. When we first sat down at 11am, we were bombarded by carts. But halfway through our meal, around 11:30, there were no carts at all on our side of the room. We looked around and everyone was just sitting there waiting. This continued for half an hour. I finally got tired of waiting and went to the steam table in the front that I didn’t notice before, and just picked the items that I really wanted. Unfortunately, some of these items were cold, particularly the egg tarts, which weren’t warm or flaky enough. Sad.
In the end, our bill came out to be $ 17/​person, which I thought was fair, given how much we ate. I don’t think I’ll be in a hurry to come back though, as the places I’m used to in Flushing Chinatown are better.

Came to Boston’s Chinatown for the first time and was really hungry for some good ol’ Dim Sum! Came here on a few website suggestions and left satisfied but not WOW-​ed by any means.
Overall the place is pricier than I had anticipated. For the two of us we ordered probably 6 dishes including: Steamy Pork Bun, Shumai, Shrimp Noodle rolls, Fried Shrimp Balls, Custard Buns, and Fried Minced Meat Turnovers overall the total was $ 28. The actual food was pretty ok– I’m from Colorado and while I’m American born I was raised with many Traditional Chinese Food Recipes and found the Boston Dim Sum lacking in some flavors– The Steamy Pork Buns were almost bland in comparison to others I’ve tried.
The service… Was sub par. It took forever for the actual cart we wanted to get to us. Multiple times we made it a note to tell the servers we’d been waiting on a specific dish to get to our table and still we waited. The push cart ladies didn’t seem too happy to be there in the first place let alone appease the customers cravings.
I think next time I’m craving Dim Sum I’ll try another place in Chinatown before resorting to coming back to China Pearl.

The cart system seemed a little unorganized because the same 2 cart ladies kept returning to our table and when they realized we weren’t interested in the items on their cart for the 3^rd time, they completely ignored us altogether! Because of this we were only able to get 4 items off the cart. They have a buffet looking area where you bring up your sheet and can select from the items that they have out and a person will serve you and mark off on your sheet what you got. Overall, their dim sum (what we were able to get) was decent but not enough so to warrant a wait so definitely go early (we got their a little before 11 on a Saturday and didn’t have to wait).
Food: 3
Value: 3
Service: 1

3.1 Stars
Oh how the mighty have fallen. CP is is a shadow of it’s former self of the late nineties and early oughts. The aggregate of the Tea House/​Dim Sum scene in Boston’s Chinatown has experienced a severe decline. While venues outside of Chinatown have surged; like Ten-​Ichi Dynamic Kitchen and Bar in Framingham (weekends only).
That being said it’s still worth going here if you have the dim sum jones. Look at the bright side; no taking numbers no lines, at least on weekdays.
* best turnip cake (Lo Bak Go) in Chinatown
* Ha Goa (Har Gow) & Siu Mai (Shumai) are solid as are the other dumplings.
* Cha siu bao! (steamed buns)
* Lo mai gai !! (lotus leaf rice)
* Cheong Fun (rolled noodles, I prefer shrimp)
* Don’t tell anyone but I prefer CP over HLM (service and food)
* parking 3 lots, including one next store, but it’s tough.

Not bad… I’ve been spoiled by San Francisco dim sum my whole life so this is just okay to me. I was surprised to see how PACKED the place was at noon on a Sunday. Luckily, our friends came here early enough to snag a big table while I came late, whoops! Anyway, be prepared to eat a lot of carbs and fried deliciousness…
Side note: don’t park at the lot across the street. $ 25 for 2 hour parking… hmph.

Came here yesterday for some dim sum in Boston’s Chinatown. The place is huge and was fairly crowded by 11am so be sure to get there early or you are going to wait. We arrived about 1030am and were immediately seated.
The place is your typical dim sum place where they push around carts filled with brunch type Chinese food and you order different dishes until you are full. The food was very good but I would have to say a slight notch below that of New York or LA. There is also a buffet line of food you can get towards the door to the kitchen that you can also get if you walk up there. Just be sure to bring your ticket with you so that they can mark it.
The place is very affordable and for a group of 5, we stuffed ourselves for about 65 bucks. Be aware that the more people you bring, the greater variety of food you can get so call up your friends for a nice Chinese feast.

China Pearl is still in my book A okay for dim sum if you’re hangin out in Boston’s Chinatown. We went after 2pm this time and all the delicious snacks came out of the kitchen freshly prepared. I always love a good steamed BBQ pork bun (char siu bao) and these didn’t disappoint. We also ordered some steamed shrimp dumplings (har gow) and shrimp rice noodle roll (har cheong fun) with sweet soy sauce. And don’t forget the steamed pork dumplings (siu mai). Lastly it wouldn’t be dim sum without some egg custard tarts (dan tat) washed down with hot tea!

Came here with a girlfriend at around 12pm on a Sunday and we waited for about 30 minutes. Their waiting system is a bit unorganized because the hostess puts you in these segregated lines scattered against the wall while the person at the bar sends you to the wrong scattered line. But even with this the wait wasn’t too bad… and the hostess is literally the nicest and calmest woman in the world! The 2 of us were seated at a larger table meant for 6. but hey I didn’t mind the extra space.
The carts came around quite often with dim sum but there is also a self serve section with most of the fried and baked option to the side so no waiting is necessary! The dishes were all super fresh when gotten from the carts and the self serve section too.
Black bean clams: Get this at the self serve section, delish, a good serving of clams with good flavor
Ha Gow (shrimp dumplings): Standard and fresh and hot!
Chong fun (Shrimp roll): Standard, fresh and hot as well. The skin was perfectly soft and the hot sauce that comes w/​this is delish!
Lotus leaf sticky rice: Always my fav dim sum dish, They gave a good amount of meat in these also!
Egg tarts: At the self serve section also, nice and flakey.
All in all, standard and decent priced dim sum that is hot and fresh with not too long of a wait if you come in at busy hours. Give this place a shot, esp because the service is nice and calm as well, unlike other dim sum places.