New China Pearl

Reviews 4

JE

Jen Hendrey

My friend proposed our families go here for Dim Sum on a Sunday morning. When I Googled for directions, I came upon all these horrific reviews. Seriously, these are the worst restaurant reviews I have ever seen on Google, and they arent just 1-sentence bombs like "it sucks," or some such. They are long, descriptive, epic-ly terrible assessments of how abominable this place is. Even if there is plenty odd about a reviewer claiming to have gone for "dim sum at 7pm," or going for dim sum and "asking for a menu," I still texted my friend and asked him if he was sure we ought to go there. "Yes," he texted back, "the dim sum is as good as any place in Chinatown and better than most, actually!" My friend is Chinese-American, doesnt eat "just anything," and certainly knows better than I do. So off we went. The place was packed, and with mostly Asian diners--of what extraction and whether American or not, I cannot say. Nonetheless, a good sign if a Chinese restaurant isnt packed with non-Asian customers. My friend and his family had arrived first and our table was already covered with many dishes. We dug in and let him handle the selection whenever the lady came by with the cart. There were more shrimp dishes (my favorite) than I could count! There were all kinds of things wrapped in wide, sticky rice noodles--beef, pork, shrimp, crab. There were big fried balls of shrimp with crab claws sticking out. There were sweet egg custards in pastry. There were chicken dumplings and chicken feet (true, I passed on the feet). There were assorted sticky buns. There was a nice chrysanthemum tea. There were too many things to try them all. And true, there were hot dogs...but they were poking out of a kid-friendly steamed bun. Getting bent out of shape about that (as another reviewer did) is about as reasonable as freaking out over kids menu mac-n-cheese at a nice French place like Brasserie Jo. Whatever. Also, the water was served in normal glasses--not Sam Adams beer glasses as another reviewer described. We ate for 3 hours! To my surprise, the waitstaff brought us to-go containers and we left with many pounds of still-warm leftovers. Ive been eating dumplings all day since. One star off? Yes, the ceiling was a little dingy. No, the place is not brand-spanking-new and the service is not "personalized" the way table service normally is. Also, for a non-Chinese speaker the food selection is a bit of a challenge. I cannot attest to the state of the restrooms as I didnt use them. But my other friend went in and emerged without commentary so they cant have been too bad. The difference between reality and these previous, awful reviews is so dramatic that I must wonder whether a competitor created the negative ones. Go for dim sum. Go in the morning (as is normal for dim sum). Bring your appetite and block out a nice long time to stay there so you can sample as many dishes as possible.

A

A Private User

Tonight this Restaurants staffs made me look like a FOOL in front of my family. We left the Burlington Mall hungry and I convinced everyone to try this new place I had found in Woburn. Recently I drove by and saw the outside of the building and thought what a great place to have fine dining with family and friends. As soon as I arrived something looked "Fishy" when I spotted a waiter smoking right at the patron’s entrance! Then once we sat down, I began looking at the odd setting of the restaurant and its only 8 filled tables!! Can you imagine a restaurant this magnitude almost empty on a Saturday at 9:30?? After sitting down and getting some bad feeling of my surrounding I headed for the bathroom and found the most disgusting, filthy and dirty bathroom. Their bathroom cleanliness made the bathroom of rock concerts and carnivals look great!!! By the time I got back we were served water on Samuel Adams beer glass, including my 3 and 7 years old daughters. Where were the regular water glasses? We were all stunned to see only one waiter serving all 8 tables and after 10 minutes, please read me well, 10 minutes we NEVER got the menu to begin ordering. No one ever approached our table to ask if we were been served, or if we were ready to order or anything, for which we all just stand up and left the restaurant. We all felt very silly walking out in front of the other patrons, since we felt it was disrespectful to them but we didnt have any other options!!!! Since we are from Boston we ended up visiting another Chinese restaurant in town. I will never recommend the New China Pearl Dim Sum to anyone!!! I hope the Health Department and City Inspector visit their facility more often for the well being of consumers!!!

A

A Private User

O.K. well we went out of our way to eat here figuring that it would be good. We were looking forward to the DimSum. I have had Dim Sum before in various places and I knew or thought I knew pretty much what to expect. But this was beyond my wildest expectations! First things first. This place looks like at one time it was really nice but those days are clearly over. If you really want to know how bad just look up at the ceiling. The service was o.k. some minor problems there. Now on to the food. I made some carefully thought out suggestions and when the food began to arrive I was really looking forward to it but I never expected there to be HOT DOGS IN MY FOOD! I was sort of surprised as I did not anticipate HOT DOGS IN THE DUMPLINGS! WTFIT! It went downhill from there. Everything I ate (since I was starving) was one disapointment after another. It became clear that they do not change the oil in the fryer very often and each item tasted like it was oiled put in the fryer and oiled again. We got a vegetable and noodle dish and that was suppossed to be steamed and it was clear that the vegetables were fried before being put on the plate. Also following the meal EVERYONE was sick! I consider myself a real trooper and I never complain about anything but this was too much! Also this is the first review I have ever written in my life. Dont let your kids use the bathroom! Lots of nasty graphitti! We paid 70.00 for the food-Hot Dogs! Are Hot Dogs Chinese?

A

A Private User

I have been to The New China Pearl for dim sum before but this time was the worst food ever. The baked cha-siu-bao had a nice gloss over them and my 6 yr old was playing with it because the bun stuck to his finger. I thought they usually brush honey over the bun to give it the sweet taste while provided the gloss but when I tasted the bun (by just licking the cover), it had no taste to it what-so-ever. And then we had the sui-mai, every time someone pick one, the wrapping would fall apart. The chicken-feet were blend, it had no traces of fermented black bean in it. The sticky rice was totally off balance, the dried shrimp, sausage were still very hard but the rice itself were too mushy. The worst dish was the Hai-gaw, although the cart lady was kind enough to get it fresh from the kitchen, but once we tasted it, we all spitted it out, couldnt finish. It was rancid!!! The fillings tasted sour. I did mentioned the sour taste of the Hai-gaw to the head waitress, she wanted to replace it for us but we declined, she was fair and deleted the item from our check. The senior gentleman from our neighboring table shared the same sentiment over their dishes of Chives with shrimp dumpling also, he said the ingredients did not taste fresh and they wont be back. We share the same conclusion. We are all for commuting another 20 min. and paid for parking in China town next time.