Asian Pearl Seafood Restaurant — Restaurant in Richmond

I was looking forward to trying food from this restaurant. I placed my delivery order at 6:41pm, well before closing time. I initially received a notice that my food would be delivered between 7:37pm and 7:47pm. Then, I get a notice that my delivery would be delayed to between 8:24pm and 8:34pm, so I was resigned to waiting longer. At 8:33pm, I contacted GrubHub to check if my order was on its way, since a driver was assigned to the order and the tracking had said earlier that the driver was heading to the restaurant to pick up the food. I got another delay notice saying my food was going to be delivered between 8:39pm and 8:49pm. I thought the person would be en route to me and was just delayed by traffic. Instead, I get notified that the restaurant canceled my order because they were closed. They canceled the order at 8pm, stating they were closed or no longer accepting orders. What the heck? I ordered at 6:41pm. They’re open until 8. If I hadn’t contacted GrubHub, who knows if the app would even tell me that my delivery got canceled. That was 30+ minutes wasted, waiting for an order. I was willing to wait for my dinner, instead I got poor customer service. Unfortunately, Asian Pearl won’t be on my list of restaurants for delivery options. Think twice before you place a dinner order for delivery from them. You may end up going hungry.

Update (02/28/22): My original review was from 4 months ago, when an order I placed online was cancelled (I don’t know if it was the restaurant or GrubHub). For some reason, I just received a rude response from the owner, saying the reason was “Probably because you didnt tip”. First of all, it was a delivery order, the tips go to the drivers not the restaurant. And, second, I do include tips. Third, how am I supposed to tip on an order that’s cancelled??? I’ve actually ordered from this restaurant at least twice after the incident 4 months ago, but after receiving such a rude response, I feel disrespected as a customer. I regret giving my business to this restaurant. Tips are not mandatory. Do you bully customers into tipping your staff, or do you take pride in your food and provide service worth tipping? You may want to reconsider how you treat your customers. I love supporting restaurants. With so many restaurants trying to survive during this pandemic, I have other restaurants I can support and I don’t appreciate being treated in such a...

BLUF: Great, distinctive Chinese dishes with excellent service. Went here for dinner with friends and ate from the regular menu (not dim sum). There's a ridiculous variety of Chinese dishes you won't find at most places, including a lot of unusual combinations and proteins like organ meats that aren't popular on more westernized Chinese menus. We started with the salt and pepper squid appetizer - think calamari meets tempura and salt and pepper crab. We shared three entrees - braised noodles with crabmeat, fried black tiger prawns and pumpkin, and braised short ribs with papaya. The noodles were very good, with lots of crabmeat. The ribs (flanken style) were also very good, braised nicely to make them about as tender as I've found that particular cut, and the pairing with sweet papaya was unexpected - I'd love to know if you could do something similar with green papaya. The star, though, was the prawn dish -- huge prawns and chunks of pumpkin, lightly battered and fried. I forget what seasoning was listed on the menu, but the flavor was unique and delicious...might have included turmeric based on the color, but I'm not sure. There was a surprise bean dessert as well. Everything was delicious, service was attentive, and the courses were spaced out perfectly. All that and, because we stuck with tea and water, it all ended up under $30 per person including the tip. The setting is formal enough to reserve space for a big occasion or banquet, but comfortable for casual dining as well, including a jumbotron-sized screen (seriously, it has to be about 200 inches) that had the Warriors game on when we visited. We'll definitely be back...

Chinese banquet tables are always fun. We had 10 people, so it was the typical lazy susan round table with a ton of yummy food.

Hot and sour soup to start. I think it was prepared well, though I'm not a huge fan of this kind of soup.

Do you like Hainan chicken? It's the lightly colored blanched kind that you dip in soy sauce with garlic, ginger, and scallions. One of the "cleaner" tasting Chinese dishes you will have. You can't go wrong with stir fried steak and veggies in black bean sauce. And of course Peking duck with the buns is a Chinese dining staple. For something a little more hearty we had the salt and pepper spare ribs which is pork dipped and deep fried in batter. Walnut shrimp was creamy with perfectly honey-glazed walnuts. Long life noodles are usually kind of plain but there's was quite tasty. And of course we needed veggies, so we had baby pea greens sauteed in garlic and oil.

Chinese style family banquet dinners rock. And Asia Pearl Kitchen was pretty...