Pearl Bay Tea House

It was Dim Sum lunch for four today. My wife, our friend, his mom and of course, me. We almost always have a great experience here with both the food and the service. We didn't see our friend, Yilang today but we still managed to get our fill of good food.

My tea of choice is always Gook Bo which is a blend of Gook Fah (Chrysanthemum) and Bo Li (also known as Pu'er). Tea charge is $1.75 per person.

We ordered way more food than we could possibly eat but variety is always welcome as are leftovers. I'm not going to list everything that we ordered, just the items that we rarely or have never ordered from here.

Chaozhou Style Stew Bitter Melon with Pork Spareribs. - 4 - This was a good dish with what appeared to be pickled greens bringing a sour note to the soup. Flavor wise, it was pretty good but the one thing that I didn't care for was the amount of celery. It took away space for more Bitter Melon which is a major component. One unusual feather is that while Bitter Melon is typically sliced into rings or half-rings, this was cut the long way into sticks. No, it doesn't change the flavor, just the appearance. On a cold winter day, this dish would be perfect with a bowl of rice to fill and warm you.

Beef Stew & Rice Roll in Clay Pot - 5 - If you're familiar with Beef Stew, you'll know that it usually served with Daikon Radish and maybe chunks of Carrot. This version has just the beef stew along with rolled up Rice Noodles cooked in a clay pot. The Rice Noodles absorb so much flavor from the Stew Gravy plus because it's cooked in a clay pot, some of the noodles are enhanced by the Maillard Reaction. This would be similar to socarrat in Paella and adds so much texture and flavor to the dish.

Minced Pork & Egg Rice Noodle Rolls - 5 - Most people are familiar with Steamed Rice Rolls. Most often, you can order them with Shrimp, Beef, Pork and Chicken. Some might include Bitter Melon and other ingredients. A sweetened Soy Sauce is poured over and makes for a delicious dish. You can often request an egg be added and that will change the flavor as well.

Dim sum is a meal to be relaxed with. Don't go when you're in a hurry, the experience simply won't be as enjoyable. Many seniors will meet their friends, order tea plus one or two dishes per person, read a newspaper and chat for hours.

It was Dim Sum lunch for four today. My wife, our friend, his mom and of course, me. We almost always have a great experience here with both the food and the service. We didn't see our friend, Yilang today but we still managed to get our fill of good food.

My tea of choice is always Gook Bo which is a blend of Gook Fah (Chrysanthemum) and Bo Li (also known as Pu'er). Tea charge is $1.75 per person.

We ordered way more food than we could possibly eat but variety is always welcome as are leftovers. I'm not going to list everything that we ordered, just the items that we rarely or have never ordered from here.

Chaozhou Style Stew Bitter Melon with Pork Spareribs. - 4 - This was a good dish with what appeared to be pickled greens bringing a sour note to the soup. Flavor wise, it was pretty good but the one thing that I didn't care for was the amount of celery. It took away space for more Bitter Melon which is a major component. One unusual feather is that while Bitter Melon is typically sliced into rings or half-rings, this was cut the long way into sticks. No, it doesn't change the flavor, just the appearance. On a cold winter day, this dish would be perfect with a bowl of rice to fill and warm you.

Beef Stew & Rice Roll in Clay Pot - 5 - If you're familiar with Beef Stew, you'll know that it usually served with Daikon Radish and maybe chunks of Carrot. This version has just the beef stew along with rolled up Rice Noodles cooked in a clay pot. The Rice Noodles absorb so much flavor from the Stew Gravy plus because it's cooked in a clay pot, some of the noodles are enhanced by the Maillard Reaction. This would be similar to socarrat in Paella and adds so much texture and flavor to the dish.

Minced Pork & Egg Rice Noodle Rolls - 5 - Most people are familiar with Steamed Rice Rolls. Most often, you can order them with Shrimp, Beef, Pork and Chicken. Some might include Bitter Melon and other ingredients. A sweetened Soy Sauce is poured over and makes for a delicious dish. You can often request an egg be added and that will change the flavor as well.

Dim sum is a meal to be relaxed with. Don't go when you're in a hurry, the experience simply won't be as enjoyable. Many seniors will meet their friends, order tea plus one or two dishes per person, read a newspaper and chat for hours.

It was Louises' b'day and time to have a surprise dinner. For once, I skipped immediate family and invited cousins, former co-workers, and a few friends to celebrate with.

We've experienced a couple of dinners here with our friend Yen and I asked her to help me place the order. She and Amy met me at the restaurant, and we went over the menu with Manager, Yilang. Some adjustments were made to the menu because they couldn't produce one dish and two other dishes needed to be adjusted in order to not offend traditional Chinese customs.

West Lake Beef Soup - 5 - Just like West Lake Beef should be. Served nice and hot. Plenty of beef, egg, cilantro, white pepper.

Peking Duck - 4 - There's been a trend in Chinese Restaurants that they are using a Roast Duck with Crispy Skin and selling it as Peking Duck. It's not quite the same but it's not really bad either. Our duck was served to us with Skin in Steamed Buns and then the rest of the meat on a separate plate. In past dinners here, they have sliced the duck and assembled the buns in front of us. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the buns.

Beef Cubes with Mushrooms and Sugar Peas - 4 - The flavors were good however I was looking for larger Beef Cubes. In my mind, I was probably thinking about the Bo Luc Lac from some Vietnamese restaurants.

Steamed Pork Patty with Salted Eggs, Chopped Water Chestnut and Shiitake Mushrooms - 5 - We usually order this with Salted Fish, but I was told this would not be appropriate for a birthday dinner, so I switched to Salted Eggs. When I was a child, my grandmother used to make this dish with Chopped Water Chestnuts and Shiitake Mushrooms. The flavor was wonderful. A bit more juice to pour over our rice would have spectacular.

Pea Sprouts in Garlic Sauce - 5 - Nothing needs to be said. It was perfect.

Honey Walnut Prawns - 5 - If there any complaints, it would have been that there weren't double the number of Prawns in each order.

Steamed Sea Bass - 5 - So many Chinese Restaurants no longer offer live fish tanks since COVID. The standard now appears to be fish filets. Nothing beats a recently dispatched fish that just came out of a tank.

White Chicken - 5 - A dish so simple, we even make this at home. What really adds a substantial amount of flavor is the Green Onion, Ginger, Salt, Vegetable Oil Dipping Sauce that's served with it.

Steamed Whole Crab with Sticky Rice - 5 - This was a new dish for us. Highly recommended by Yen and Amy. Most everyone loves Crab, and most everyone loves Sticky Rice (at least in our group of friends and family). Why not put them together?

Steamed Eggs with Fresh Clams - 5 - The Clams were out of this world. Fat morsels that filled out the Clam Shell bathed in Steamed Egg with Green Onions and some Sweet Soy Sauce. And they were great cold the next day too!

Assorted Seafood E-Fu Noodles - 5 - Another flavorful dish. Noodle dishes are said to bring Long Life at birthday dinners. Always be sure to order some kind of noodle dish.

There were plenty of leftovers at one table, not so much at another and our table had enough for us to eat over two days. Our arrangement put nine diners at each table, and I felt Yilang worked out a reasonable price for the food that we ordered. They also gave us Sweet Bean Soup, a Malay style roll cake, and Good Luck Birthday Buns. I had dropped off a birthday cake earlier in the day and they held it in refrigeration until we wanted to serve it. They generously provided paper plates and plastic forks and did not charge a cake charge.

I considered this meal a complete success!

We have these friends that we've been dining with more frequently now that we're all retired. We like dining with them because they introduce us to new flavors that we might not order on our own, either because they're not offered in English or we're simply not familiar with them. All of the meals have been good, but we've run into a problem. They order too much, and we have no discipline. I have a very bad tendency to eat, what I jokingly call, Hawaiian style. What's that, you ask? You don't eat until you're full. You eat until you're tired! My apologies to all Hawaiians.

Today was a day for dim sum. Pearl Bay is the kind of restaurant where you mark what you want on a menu-sheet, and they bring out the dishes as they're ready. Typically, for this type of restaurant, we pass the sheet around and everyone chooses one or two favorites and then we fill in. Additionally, the staff occasionally comes by with something that the kitchen made and tries to sell it to you.

We ordered a total of twelve items including one Pan Fried Noodle with Spareribs and Bitter Melon. Then we accepted two more small plates that were brought around. One, I forgot to take a picture of was Deep Fried Whole Smelt with Bell Peppers and Onions. Absolutely delicious! Another dish that I missed with the camera was Pan-fried Turnip Cake with XO Sauce. Also a yummy dish.

I didn't care much for the Baked Yam Bun. I found it to be texturally odd. The intent was to order a Sugar Topped BBQ Pork Bun, but we goofed.

Once again, I felt that the bulk of the hot food came out in a rush and that allowed the dishes to get cold before we could eat our fill. Of course, that just means more leftovers.

The restaurant was about 80% full the entire time we were there. That's pretty good for a Wednesday afternoon.

We had a craving for Dim Sum and decided to give Pearl Bay Tea House another try. Our first visit here was for Dim Sum and we were not at all impressed, to the point that we didn't plan on returning. Then over the past year, we've been here twice with friends for dinner and the food was much better. They claimed that the Dim Sum was decent and that we should give it another try.
The shopping center is undergoing some major remodeling. While some businesses are still open, many appear to be closed. To enter Pearl Bay, you have to walk through a plywood canopy to the front door. We were surprised to see that the restaurant was full and the two parties that had walked in ahead of us were the beginning of the line.
It was about 20 minutes before we were seated. Our tea order was taken immediately, and a menu presented. The menu is colorful and pretty extensive. It took us 15 minutes to figure out how much we thought we could eat (truth is, we always plan on taking some home so we can have more flavors).
Once our order sheet was completed, we tried laying it down on our table- top and it was ignored. We finally had to resort to holding it up in the air so they could see it more readily. Someone came from behind me and took the order sheet. Before our printed order was placed on our table, the first two dishes arrived. We had to wave down a server to get some hot sauce.
Later we waved down the Host to order a Diet Coke. Unfortunately, they had sold-out, so I asked for two glasses of ice water.
We received a dish that we didn't order. Because we had both ticked what we wanted, we each thought the other had ordered it and started digging in.
Everything that we ordered was served piping hot. Not every Dim Sum restaurant can say that. Not even the ones that you mark an order sheet at. The flavors were on point. We were surprised that the Peppers Stuffed with MInced Shrimp were Jalapenos rather than bell peppers. Naturally, I got the one that hadn't had all of its pith and seed removed. That took a 1/2 glass of water to cool the fire.
The food was worth a 5* review. Unfortunately, the service was not up to snuff. You shouldn't have to flag someone down in order to have your order taken, to get your check, to make your payment. They were using food runners to bring out trays of offerings to tables in an effort to drive sales. When they're busy and short-handed, in my opinion, it would be better to have them help clear tables when not bringing out orders so the servers can focus on customer service.
We'll give it three months and try again.

Another big dinner with an even bigger price tag. The food was pretty good but simply too pricey for us for another return engagement. This meal was a retirement dinner for a former co-worker.
Our hostess with the mostess placed the order, adjusted a few items from our last meal. The kitchen did a great job of assembling our meal. The servers kept the food coming. We ordered more than the lazy susan could handle at one time.
I didn't get pictures of everything we had. Too busy eating.

Another Birthday Dinner with ordering by our Alameda Hostess with the Mostest! I'll try to put the right names to the dishes but suffice it to say, this was our best meal here yet!
Our host and her friend eat here practically weekly and have explored the menu extensively. For celebratory dinners, she has a few go to items and then fills in from the rest of the menu based on what's fresh and recommendations from staff.
We've been here for dinner twice and for dim sum twice. The dinners are making us want to try the dim sum again. When we had dim sum before, it was okay except that some items were not available early in the day because the specialty chefs had not yet arrived. The two dinners were definitely something special because our host conspired with the server to pick the menu. All in Cantonese of course so I may not be able to name everything correctly.
I've also separated out the pictures by each meal #. You'll see that we have some duplicate items but that's simply because they're so good!
I have to be honest. I have no idea what each dish costs because some items like the crab and lobster dishes are Market Priced and subject to change daily. I can say that Meal 4 was shared by 12 diners. 11 paid so the b'day guest was treated and our cost per person was $90 including tip and tax.
The extravagant dish for this meal was a live Alaskan King Crab that was brought to the table to be oohed and aahed over before a final trip to the kitchen. It returned to our table in four renditions. Steamed Crab Legs. Body sections along with pumpkin pieces dusted with salted egg and deep fried. Some meat with E-fu Noodles served in the head shell. Finally, Crab bits with Tobiko in Fried Rice. The cost of frozen Red King Crab Legs at Costco today was $40.99 a pound so the value of this crab was probably over $400. It was 8lbs.
The Peking duck was brought to the table, expertly cut-up table-side and served with Hoisin Sauce and Scallions in steamed buns. Then the remaining meat is stripped from the carcass and served with some veg.
Salt & Pepper Pork Chops were satisfactorily tender flavorful. Probably the best that I've ever had anywhere.
I could go on and on. Suffice it to say that I was impressed.

I apologize for having failed to complete the last review. I always have every intention to but sometimes I run out of time and lose track.

Review to follow.

Review to follow.

Review to follow.

Review to follow.

Review to follow.

Review to follow.

I've been here twice in the past two weeks. Once on a weekday, once on a Saturday. Both times, we came early. It got somewhat busy on the weekday but it got packed on the weekend. As many others reported, so did the parking lot on the weekend.

Ordering is done using a pen and a color menu sheet, however specials are presented at each table by a server carrying a tray.

We've tried a variety of dim sum and most have been very good. Everything except one dish always came out hot. We had a Pan Fried Turnip Cake on the weekday that was lukewarm at best and possible leftover from the day before. Or perhaps it wasn't properly wrapped and stored in the walk-in. I'll write that off as a fluke and am willing to order it again.

The orders of E-Fu Mein that we tried were both very good. The skins on the various dumplings that we've tried were either thin or just a tad thicker. The shrimp were large and not chopped up. We had some seafood balls that were served as a special that were very good.

One quirky thing is that both times we were not able to get everything that we ordered because the cooks that produce those items start a little later.

We'll try dim sum again in a few weeks and if the food is consistent, I will raise the rating to 4 stars. Separately, we'll also be coming back to try out their diner service.

I see that the reviews on more on the negative side but my family and I had a pleasant dining experience for dinner. My relatives got there 30 minutes earlier than our meeting time and secured a table. Come early as the place starts getting busy after 6 pm for dinner.

The menu has pictures so you can see what you can order. We ordered the Westlake Beef Soup, Peking duck, soft tofu with mushrooms, pea sprouts, and steamed flounder. Service was attentive and friendly and the food came out quickly! I was impressed that the Westlake Beef Soup that small slices of beef rather than ground beef. The Peking duck arrived by cart and the buns were kept warm. The server sliced pieces of the duck on hot buns on individual plates with hoisin sauce and slices of green onion. The rest of the duck came out on a platter. The meat was moist and delicious. Pea sprouts dish was plentiful and tasty. Steamed flounder and soft tofu with mushrooms were also good. The servers changed our plates mid meal.

The only con was that they didn't have any cilantro in the Westlake beef soup. Other than that, we had an enjoyable meal