Hong Kong Pearl Seafood Restaurant — Restaurant in Falls Church

I like the food here. It's authentic Cantonese food. I enjoy celebrating special events here. But I wary of having dim sum here.

I've been to Hong Kong pearl seafood restaurant several times for dim sum. Generally the food is decent, and I leave full. However, there are little things that make me think twice about coming back in the future.

Here are a few examples:

The dim sum carts do not keep the food warm at all. As you can imagine, food gets cold as you roll it around a restaurant unless you do something to keep it warm. The cold dim sum has really impacted how good the food can be.

Lack of presence by employees. Staff do not pay attention to babies and their locations. My 1.75 year old son was really scared of a waiter, so he would cry when a waiter came by to take care of my table. Since this waiter came to a specific location to interact with us, I moved my son to another spot at the table. Sure enough, the waiter decided that he needed to interact with us at the new spot where my son was. Another example is of the dim sum ladies would carry food over my son and another baby instead of moving over to an adult. Safety is obviously not on their minds.

Egg tart is horrible. Crust is not flakey. Egg custard not very soft.

Waiter advertised that BBQ pork bun is the best here. It is not. The bun is cold. The bun barely has any meat. And the filling is not very flavorful.

The wait system needs to improve. If my wait is going to an hour long, please set up a system where everyone does not feel the need to stand around the entrance waiting for their name to be called. Not very comfortable for the customer.

On busy days, please do not pack your tables so closely together that customers cannot sit comfortably. I was so uncomfortable the last few times I went.

Those are some of the problems I've encountered here. They're not huge by themselves, but added together I'm not looking forward to the...

Shocking Experience - Beware of Foreign Objects in Food

On Sunday, 2/11, to celebrate Lunar New Year, I brought my family and a friend to Hong Kong Pearl, anticipating a joyous celebration. However, our experience turned to a nightmare when my mother discovered a metal piece, resembling a scrubber, in her Lo Mai Gai. To our horror, she had swallowed a portion, causing pain and panic.

Distressed, we notified our server, Hong Kim, who promptly took the metal piece away, claiming she would show it to the manager. As we anxiously awaited resolution, our concerns were met with indifference and dismissal. The manager, Megan, was nowhere to be found, and attempts to speak with her were impossible.

In the midst of our frustration, Hong Kim returned, offering to remove the dish from our order. Dissatisfied, we insisted on speaking with the manager. When we questioned Hong Kim about Megan's whereabouts, her response was dismissive, directing us to "the manager behind the counter."

After persistent requests, a seemingly uninterested staff member, identified as a 'just cashier,' approached our table, callously suggesting, "Call an ambulance and do whatever." When pressed about Megan's location, he claimed she had just left, making her unavailable for communication.

Feeling helpless, we left the restaurant to seek medical assistance for my mother. The lack of care, absence of apologies, and overall rudeness during this bizarre incident were unparalleled in my dining experiences.

I caution future guests to exercise caution at Hong Kong Pearl. The handling of our situation showcased a blatant disregard for customer safety and satisfaction. In the event of discovering foreign objects in your food, be prepared for a lack of empathy and resolution from an establishment that appears indifferent to its...

We go there from time to time for the past few years. We like the quality of food in general even though it has gone down over the years, not as good as it was in 2013. The food quality is still satisfactory as of 2021 - it is the service that we cannot accept.

We had a wedding reception dinner here last month. To be fair and credits to the chef, our guests did like the portion and quality of food, but unfortunately they didn't get to enjoy them because the waiters took the dishes out before they could even finish. Some guests even found expired bottles of coke. When the waitress was told of this, no apologies was given.

What annoyed us the most was the wedding cake - there were more guests coming than we had expected, so we ordered a second piece of sheet cake to cater for all guests. After the guests left, the waitress came out and told us there was an extra piece of sheet cake that they didn't cut because "they thought everyone had their slices already".

We thought we overestimated. However, many of our guests told us they didn't get to eat the cake later. It turned out that they forgot about the second sheet cake, even though two of our friends told us that they reminded the waitress two times about it (who in turn told them, there was not an extra cake).

We spent $400 on that sheet cake to cater our guests - all wasted - not to mention that we had to take care of the sheet cake that we obviously could not finish on our own. I'm not alone in bad experience, a number of friends had told stories about their own bad experience. Coming from Hong Kong, I'm not unfamiliar with rude servers, but servers both rude and incompetent should not be tolerated. I will never set foot in...