Pearl at Queens Quay **Major Ripoff**

[shutterbug]

I have never been to this place til last night. I've known about it and have walked by several times and never bothered assuming it primarily catered to caucasians. My friend was craving dim sum last night and insisted we go there.
The decor of the place is definitely nice and so is the view of the harbour.
We were given the standard dim sum sheet to tick off. No prices were stated but I assumed it'd be close to normal but a bit more expensive. I was guessing it couldn't be any worse than Lai Wah Heen. WRONG!!! I ticked off about 8 dishes and my friend picked 2 of her favourites. She had 2 diet cokes and I had tea. Service admittedly was good. They would come and serve you the pieces of dimsum from the dish onto your plate. Definitely caters to white people since there weren't any bowls and every table had forks with plates. No chinese symbol for wedding parties on the wall. I have to admit the quality of the dim sum was the best I can recall having in Toronto. I'm from Vancouver and I'm used to very high quality chinese food and I have yet to find any chinese restaurant close to Vancouver's upper end. I am also familiar with high end chinese food and I never expected to see the total on the bill when it came!

$94 after tax!!!!!! There was one item that stood out and I had to ask what it was....it said "S. Rice" for $7.25.....I thought we didn't order steamed rice. The waiter explained it was for the sticky rice!!!! $7.25 for your standard lotus leaf wrap sticky rice!!! I added another $15 for gratuity making the total $110. No alcohol!!! I could have spent $110 and had a really nice meal anywhere downtown but for dim sum???????

I should have noticed when I saw the menu items on the regular dinner menu. They had prices in the $15-$20 range per dish BUT beside each dish was also a "large" price which was double. I had no idea how big a portion "large" was but I've never seen any chinese restaurant with different portion sizes beyond the soup. I now suspect large would have been the normal size for any other chinese restaurant. $40 for seafood birds nest!!!

[Raggie]

Woah! You should've just went to China town.

[thelefteyeguy]

but you'd expect to pay $50 per person at Lee's?

suck it up...there's only 2 chinese dim sum places in Downtown Toronto...you went to one.

I'm pretty sure there were prices...but you didnt see it cause of the fine print. Even at Lay Wah Heen, there is prices attached.

My wife and I had only 7 dishes there and it came out to be $75.

but she had "goon tong gow" and we both had some Shark Fin sui mai.

[keanefan]

their rent must be high

guess that you are paying for the nice decor and the view

Definitely caters to white people since there weren't any bowls and every table had forks with plates.

wow- sounds like my kind of restaurant

tiny bowls at Chinese restaurants = no good
chopsticks = hate

[somemale]

of course its expensive there.

[mdc]

I always laugh at the douchebags that claim a place is catered to "caucasians" just because it is nice inside, clean, well presented and good service ... do Asians not expect these things in a restaurant?

I guess you get what you pay for ...

The funny thing is, I see just as many complaints about crappy food at crappy restaurants that are cheap ... then you post a review where you state that everything about the place was great (including the food), but it was a "major ripoff"

YOU CAN'T HAVE IT BOTH WAYS

You can either pay a small price for garbage (which is what 90% of Chinatown passes off as food) or you can pay a premium and be in a great environment which excellent food ... I guess the choice is yours

[shutterbug]

I always laugh at the douchebags that claim a place is catered to "caucasians" just because it is nice inside, clean, well presented and good service ... do Asians not expect these things in a restaurant?

I guess you get what you pay for ...

The funny thing is, I see just as many complaints about crappy food at crappy restaurants that are cheap ... then you post a review where you state that everything about the place was great (including the food), but it was a "major ripoff"

YOU CAN'T HAVE IT BOTH WAYS

You can either pay a small price for garbage (which is what 90% of Chinatown passes off as food) or you can pay a premium and be in a great environment which excellent food ... I guess the choice is yours

Try reading it again. I never said it was because it was clean and had good service that it catered to caucasians. I said there were only plates with forks and if they catered to asians there would also be the big symbol on the wall for wedding parties (you know where the head table is??).

It's a ripoff because it's WAY OUT OF LINE. I've been to plenty of "expensive" chinese restaurants (notice I said worse than Lai Wah Heen) and this place went way above and beyond being reasonable. So I guess it must be crap if all the other chinese restaurants in the city charge less than half what Pearl does. Pearl is nothing but a pretentious ripoff that takes advantage of it's "white" clientele who probably don't know better.