Pearl Oakville Chinese Cuisine

It's ok. Stopped for a late lunch snack for a few favorites. For the Pearl name, I expected better food as they were charging top dollar. Service was typical for a Chinese place. It wasn't super busy as it was mid- afternoon after lunch rush on Saturday. I think they could've been more attentive. I would return if in the area and craving dim sum, but the recommendation is to go to Markham.

I’ve been to the Pearl restaurant in Toronto years ago and it was a good experience, decided to try this location on the way home….. unfortunately this location didn’t live up to my memory’s.

This location is located on the bottom floor of Oakville Place Mall, honestly I thought it would be nicer inside than it was, and my daughter commented it felt it had a Mandarin vibe.
We were greeted and seated quickly, but service was lacking after that, our order was taken and it took about an hour to get all of our food!
Our food was served out of order, our rice came after we had almost completed our main dishes, food was good, but nothing special after an hour wait during which no one checked on us!

Pricing was ridiculous for this kind of food, I certainly didn’t feel it was worth the cost.
I did talk to the manager, she did apologize, and she did try to make things right, but saying the chef was busy when the place was not full on a Sunday does not excuse it!

I love dim sums and dumplings. And Pearl deliveres 100%. They have a variety of them. I tried the hockey puck(the best), crab claws, Siu Mai, soup dumplings, and duck yolk buns were among my favorites. Pan-fried dumplings, spinach, and shrimp wrapped in rice wrapping were also pretty good.

Pearl is the best Chinese I have experienced in Ontario. Undoubtedly, there are other great places but this is mine. Everything on the menu is always spot on! Quality, flavor, originality and service is amazing.

We have visited several times over the years. The food is consistent for quality and taste. The service is very good. While I would like to recommend and suggest anything to avoid, so far everything has been excellent. No disappointments. Small drink menu but that's to be expected. The desserts are overall pleasant and satisfying.

I came here once before for lunch (dim sum) and enjoyed the food and friendly service. It was on the expensive side, but I didn't realize because the menu didn't have prices. However, this time when I went for dinner, I realized how overpriced things actually were. $12 for 3 buns, $35 for a very small amount of shrimp (the plating was also kinda ugly), $27 for a crab meat and broccoli stir fry which barely had any crab in it (it was basically broccoli with vague goo that had crab bits in it). Everything tasted fine, especially the buns and lamb, but the pricing is really unreasonable compared to the amount of food on the actual dish.

2023.05
Overall, very friendly staff, quick services and authentic Chinese dim sum (but nothing extraordinary) which I would have given 4 stars; however the price was so much more expensive (compared to other Chinese dim sum places offering similar or better food quality) which I would have given 2 stars; as a result I am giving 3 stars.

Dishes not recommended: fried beef short ribs (too sweet), black sesame balls (filling not tasting fresh), egg tart (shell not crispy)
Dishes recommended: calamari, egg yolk bun, curry cuttle fish, scallop dumplings (not so different from har gau)

Overall, a good place to try dim sum if you are in the mall or if you are NOT price-conscious; not recommended for those who are looking for value for money