Eastern Pearl Seafood Restaurant — Restaurant in Port Coquitlam

Went yesterday as my partner and I wanted some dim sum, and took our child with us.

We arrived, produced our vaccine passports, and were directed to our seats by staff pointing in a general direction. The staff were very difficult to understand and communicated in one to three word sentences. We were given two paper menus and a specialty menu that was mostly written in kanji, aside from what the item was and price. The aesthetics were quaint, and there were a number of other families eating, which gave us hope. A 3.9 review on Google was enough that we felt confident. Two teapots were placed on our table, one with green tea and one with hot water. We were satisfied, initially.

The problems came from watching advertisements on their televisions. They would have the rotating adverts showcasing some menu items, no problem at all. The numbers did not match the menus at all, however, we navigated through this and located what we wanted to try.

As new customers to this (or any) restaurant, we like to try various items to get a feel of the food quality and taste. We attempted to order shrimp Shui mai (regular menu) and minced garlic crab (specialty menu) only to be met with "no no no, you can't order, we don't have" and through an awkward time of trying to figure out why not, we gave up and ordered something else. Now, I must say that the ONLY reason we went there was for dim sum, namely Shui mai. It was a bit frustrating that even though we were ordering off of both the regular and special menu, our orders were refused. Our kid only wanted won ton, so we ordered a war won ton soup for him, shrimp spring rolls X2 as an appetizer, scallop yellow chive thick soup, pork Shui mai, and assorted seafood with egg noodle in soup.

We were seated at around 7pm, and they close at 8:30, it's Sunday. Our food takes about 10 minutes to arrive, first one bowl of soup (scallop yellow chive) with a white pepper shaker, then the wor won ton. A few minutes later they brought out one order of the shrimp spring rolls. They were kind in that they brought our kid a spoon, but there was no extra flavorings/seasonings.

We begin to eat and the food is quite bland. Like, cornstarch thickened 'low sodium' vegetable broth soup without spices or herbs. I ask for soy sauce, for a bit of salt and to spruce it up to my tastes. The waitress brought out a small saucer of soy sauce, enough for about a small bowl of the soup. It added some zest, but there was little to the soup outside of the bland thickened broth and rubbery scallop curls. The war won ton was passable at best, and again lacked salt and flavor. The shrimp spring rolls were decent, but again, no sauces or dressings to increase the flavor. Furthermore, it was literally shrimp in spring roll, nothing else was present.

We eat, because at this point we are all hungry and have gone the day with little intake. We do not see our waitress as she is helping other tables, and other staff are beginning to close up/set up for the next day. We finish the scallop soup, anticipating the rest of our order. We all start on the won ton, which had two slices of BBQ pork in it. Unfortunately, the pork was similarly flavorless and the won ton had approximately 10 won tons in it, and half that of brocolli. Nothing else was incorporated in that soup. We eat and finish, and are relatively unsatisfied with our depressing meal. We wait for 15 minutes for our plates to be cleared from our table, watching the staff service other tables until we are the only ones left. One staff comes and clears our table and offers me a mango fish, which I can only suspect was a dessert. I am allergic, so I refused. We again waited as the lone table for another 15 minutes before I become tired with wasting my time and head up to pay. We did not receive half of our order.

At the till, another staff member jokes that the next time we should try the dim sum, seemingly unaware that that was our goal. The three items we consumed came to $45; I left no tip which is very unusual for me as I worked in various kitchens for...

---edit July 2025--- Came here again because I am craving stir fried crystal noodles called chencun noodle 陳村粉. I just had it at lee garden and it was amazing and was looking for more places that have it

Stir fried chencun noodle with pork riblets - good wok hei. Has lots of different ingredients. A little bit on the saltier side. Definitely a solid dish.

Phoenix claws - the naming says it's their house special sauce which tasted different than normal spicy black bean sauce. Was not a fan.

Salt and pepper deep fried squid tentacles - still delicious and portions still the same - smaller side.

They don't have any discounts for early morning dimsum. They don't charge for tea here though.

---edit June 2024--- I tried different dim sum dishes. Deep fried squid tentacles - really good. Portion is a bit small

Beef Rice rolls - good texture.

Shrimp paste on eggplant - came out piping hot

Shrimp patty with chives - this one came out cold... it was good but it probably sat there for a while

Deep fried glutinous rice balls with meat filling - the outside mochi was good but the filling was lacking in flavor and in portion

Beef brisket on chan chuen fan - love the noodles. Can't get this type of noodle in many places. Beef brisket was tough and not much flavor. Would try the pork riblets next time.

In terms of flavor, this has got to be one of the wosrt ones I have been to.

Century egg and pork congee - flavorless. No salt. No base whatsoever.

Hand shredded chicken salad - extremely small. Most places that give smaller portions have expensive jellyfish in the salad. This place is only chicken and preserved vegetables so there is no need for it to be half the size of the plate, smaller than other specialty chef items.

Deep fried chicken knees - giant pieces only to find out it is 80% batter. The garlic salt and spice just sat at the bottom and the chicken was never stirred with it.

Minced pork fried glutinous rice dumpling - the glutinous rice wasnt very sweetened. The insides were ok. The only good thing is that it came with 4 pieces instead of 3.

Overall, the dimsum dishes were not very good. The prices are high with poor quality dishes. Maybe their dinner menu...

EASTERN PEARL SEAFOOD RESTAURANT is a Chinese Restaurant located on one of the busiest streets, Shaughnessy st, in Port Coquitlam. There are many restaurants and shops in this area. So, people could easy to find this restaurant and park cars. We always passed this restaurant on our way grocery shopping at Safeway.

20200819 My family decided to have a try at this place. Due to COVID 19, we decided to order take out dinner from the Eastern Pearl Seafood Restaurant. We have called in at 4:30 pm. The guy answered the call very fast and very friendly. I have ordered Beijing Duck two courses, Sweet sour pork, and Eggplant in spicy sauce hot pot, plus the duck flame (We always asked for duck bones when we ordered Beijing Duck. It should be free always). After 20 mins, my husband and I drove to the restaurant to pick up our meal.

All the dishes have very nice representation even though they are in the to-go box. They all freshly cooked. Beijing Duck – Taste authentic, but only free pieces. I’m glad to ask duck bones, so we can cut off more meat from the bone. It was my mother in law first time having Beijing Duck. She was very enjoying the sweet black sauce too much. Sweet sour pork – One of my husband's favorite Chinese dishes. A Chinese stir-fry dish made with juicy pieces of pork tenderloin, bell peppers, onion, and pineapple. Battered pork gets fried until crispy then tossed in a sweet and tangy sauce. I am not the big sweet fan. But this dish is very tasty and delicious. We have served with our homemade rice that the whole family enjoys. Lastly, my eggplant in spicy sauce hotpot. It’s Cantonese style eggplant casserole. Mom doesn’t really like the tester of the eggplants. My husband and I love this dish so much. The eggplant is grilled until crispy and smoky, and then cooked in a rich savory garlic sauce. This dish is very satisfying, both as a side or a main dish served over rice.

The price of the food is not too cheap and reasonable with a large portion. Highly recommended this restaurant to everyone. Hopefully, everything goes back to normal soon. Then, we can definitely dine in at this restaurant. Also, I would like to try its dim...